Television August 14, 2023
‘The Bachelorette’: Brayden Bowers & Xavier Bonner Talk Drama and Regrets (Exclusive)
“Extra’s” Melvin Robert caught up with “The Bachelorette” contestants Brayden Bowers and Xavier Bonner to talk Charity Lawson and more at the “Men Tell All” taping.
Brayden admitted, “It is always tough to see someone that you were with and have to talk about what happened… especially when tons of people watching.”
Does Bowers still have feelings for her? “I’ve kind of gotten past that, it has been a few months,” he said, but admitted, “It was hard watching it back.”
He also clarified his uncertainty about getting engaged on the show, saying, “I'm at a point in my life where I want to get engaged. I want to get married and I want to find someone I want to spend the rest of my life with.”
Instead, Bowers’ hesitation was around not feeling comfortable having certain conversations about his family and his past relationships on camera.
“Some of the conversations I wanted to have, I didn't want to like put it out there for the whole world to hear… I didn't want to put them all on blast… they didn't sign up for the show.”
Unpacking the drama on the series, he said, “I don’t feel like I was bringing the drama up, a lot of the drama was people bringing me up.”
He said of the other guys. “The first impression rose puts an X on your back, so I think the guys, once they saw me get that they were like, ‘Oh, shoot, we’re coming for you’… I didn’t know I was going to war.”
As for Xavier, he was feeling the nerves about seeing Lawson again.
“Oh, yeah, definitely was nervous but definitely glad we ended on a positive note there. We both got closure,” he shared.
Bonner said he didn’t have “many regrets,” but admitted, “I could have said things a little better… you stick your foot in your mouth, you say the wrong thing to the right person… you just have to grow from it and move on.”
“The Bachelorette” airs Mondays on ABC.