While Juliana Pasquarosa has kept her cool on season 29 of The Bachelor, she said that wasn’t necessarily the case behind the scenes.
“A lot of conversations do tend to happen off camera, and I don’t know if that’s intentional for these reasons or not,” Juliana, 28, said on the Thursday, February 27, episode of the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast. “I don’t want to necessarily play telephone, but there were, from my eyes, some doubts about who [Grant Ellis] was as a person, and the process, which is fine and fair, but you kind of have to accept that going into it. And you can have doubts, but to constantly tear down what we’re all also here to do is hard to hear.”
Juliana went into details with “thinking of you”-gate. (During Week 3, Carolina Quixano revealed that Rose Sombke told her that Grant said he was “thinking” of Rose, 27, while dancing with Carolina on a group date. Upon learning of Rose’s comments, Grant, 31, pulled her aside during a cocktail party to deny her claims.)
Despite the drama, both women made it through to the next week. Rose ultimately self-eliminated during Week 4, while Carolina was sent home ahead of hometown dates during Week 5.
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“To hear negativity about [Grant] when we haven’t had a chance to really get to know him is hard because then you’re maybe more reserved than you already were or you’re not ready to open up or you don’t trust him because of somebody else’s emotions,” Juliana recalled. “It’s hard. And it was just really negative all the time.”
Juliana said it felt like the cast was playing a “game of telephone” trying to piece together what really happened. “I was just like, ‘Oh, s—.’ My initial reaction was the same as, like, ‘Rose, why would you say that? What possibly did you think that could have a positive impact on yourself, him, Carolina or the group by speaking that into existence?’” she shared. “And I said that to her right after the rose ceremony. I lost my composure for a second, and I was like, ‘What are you doing, girl?’”
After getting to know Rose more as a person, Juliana said she doesn’t believe Rose shared her information with Carolina out of “malicious intent.” She explained: “I think that she thought she was being provided with a safe space to have a girl-to-girl conversation in a way that compartmentalized her friendship over the relationship. And ultimately, I think she got burned because of it … she trusted the wrong person or people.”
Grant, for his part, called Rose and Carolina’s drama his “worst nightmare” in his exclusive Us Weekly cover story. “That was my biggest fear. I tried to be really concise. When you’re in the role as a Bachelor, you have to find a line between giving reassurance and not saying things to lead people on,” he stated. “In the bubble that we’re in, things are definitely heightened.”
Though Rose and Carolina’s Bachelor journeys both came to an end, Juliana’s romance with Grant continues to grow. After getting a magical one-on-one date in Scotland, Juliana earned one of Grant’s four hometown roses during the show’s Monday, February 24, episode.
In a teaser for next week’s hometown dates, Juliana’s dad appeared upset after Grant kissed her in front of him. “I’ve never brought a guy home. It’s only happened once in my life. And so, they’ve never really seen me interact with, like ,men that I’m romantically involved with,” Juliana shared on Thursday’s podcast. “I’m the baby of my family. My parents are like, ‘What the hell is happening?’ Even though I’m 28, they’re like, ‘She’s still a baby to [me].’ And so, watching me kiss other people, like, it’s cringy for me. I can’t imagine how god-awful it is for them.”
Juliana went on to joke that she has “begged” her family to close their eyes if a kiss between her and Grant is shown on screen.
The Bachelor airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
