Bachelor: Lacey Mark Says Producers Asked Her To Cry In Exit Interview

Lacey Mark, a former contestant on The Bachelor, weighed in on the recent allegations of producer manipulation on the show. She had some interesting things to add to the growing list of things the producers fabricate.

Lacey first appeared on Nick Viall’s season of The Bachelor. Viewers saw her eliminated during one of the early weeks of the show, but she says she was the one who realized she wasn’t interested in Nick. Later that year, she returned for season four of Bachelor In Paradise. Lacey dated Diggy Moreland and Daniel Maguire on that series, but the romances didn’t go much further. While opening up about what producers asked her to do on The Bachelor, she didn’t mention her time in Paradise. Recently, several Bachelor stars have been speaking about which parts of the show are faked and manipulated by producers. Dylan Barbour kicked this off on Twitter last weekend when he went on a tirade against producers while answering fan questions. Other Bachelor alums have supported his claims, including Jed Wyatt and Arie Luyendyk Jr, while others, like Rachel Lindsay and Catherine Lowe, have stood up for the show.

On the Behind The Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast, Lacey spoke about her experience with producer manipulation on The Bachelor. When she realized she wasn’t interested in Nick Viall, Lacey asked producers if she could go home. “Can you just stay so we can see you when get eliminated instead of having to create a whole new storyline of you quitting?” Lacey remembered one of the producers saying to her. She agreed to stay for the elimination, but refused to cry in her exit interview. “I was like, it’s not going to happen,” she said about crying. “I don’t really care that I’m leaving right now.” Lacey also said that the show is heavily edited, calling it “Frankensteined together.”

Lacey backed up one of Dylan’s main allegations that the producers have control over who stays and who goes. She said she believes the rumors that the top ten women are decided before casting is even finished. Lacey gave the example that on her season, “Alexis Waters slept through an entire day, an entire cocktail party, and just like woke up for the rose ceremony and got a rose…like it’s predetermined.” Alexis came to the first night of the show dressed as a dolphin, and it was speculated at the time that the producers thought she would make good TV. Similar suspicions have been raised about producers encouraging Matt James to keep “Queen” Victoria Larson around.

While many fans always knew there was some manipulation involved in the making of the show, these allegations raise more questions about whether this manipulation is damaging to the contestants. Are they really being manipulated or should they know better? It definitely takes a lot of the romance out of the show.

The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 pm ET on ABC.

Source: Behind The Velvet Rope With David Yontef

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