On Monday’s episode of The Bachelor, we took a step away from Peter’s pursuit of love for the Women Tell All special, in which the previously eliminated contestants (everyone except Madison Prewett and Hannah Ann Sluss) rehash old arguments, get closure from Peter, and reminisce on the season. On last night’s episode, two popular women, Natasha Parker and Kelley Flanagan, were absent. Because both women made it far into the season and were favorites of Bachelor Nation, their absence was felt, and brought up lots of questions.
As two of the older contestants on Peter’s season, and the few with established careers, Kelley and Natasha stood out from the rest of the unusually young pack this year. Natasha was praised for her bluntness and honesty toward Peter, when most other women did whatever they could to please him, while Kelley became a favorite for her sense of humor, lack of drama, and intelligence. Both women seemed to be above the pettiness and unhealthy dating habits The Bachelor breeds, so why wouldn’t they be at Women Tell All?
After fans began speculating as to why Natasha wasn’t at Women Tell All, she confirmed that she was invited, but just couldn’t make it. On her Instagram, she wrote “Yes, I was invited but I couldn’t make it because of life stuff.” It looks like Natasha has other priorities besides re-living old drama, which is honestly what most of us expected from her. Kelley, on the other hand, made no such acknowledgments, although she did post some moments from WTA on her story.
Reality Steve has confirmed that Kelley wasn’t busy– she actually was not invited to attend Women Tell All. For someone who made it as far as she did, and who was as popular with Bachelor Nation as she was, there is no arguing that she was not relevant enough in the season to be invited (especially when some women who received almost zero screen time were there). This must mean that the producers just didn’t like working with her enough, or that she would have made the network look bad during the special.
Word broke yesterday that Kelley told people she wasn't invited to the WTA. This is true. Why? I have no idea. But if you finished 5th & you were popular on the season, & you don't get invited to WTA, it means they didn't like her. No other reason. Not sure why Natasha wasn't.
— RealitySteve (@RealitySteve) February 22, 2020
The “official” reason behind Kelley’s non-invitation, via Chris Harrison on Ashley Iaconnetti’s Almost Famous podcast, was that they did not feel she “played an integral part to the storyline”. This is obviously untrue. What’s more likely is that producers did not like working with her (it was pretty obvious that Kelley looked down on The Bachelor as a whole), or that she would have complained that her edit made her seem snobby: When Kelley’s voiceover during her three-on-one date implied that she thought being a lawyer made her better than the other women, fans agreed that that was all editing.
