Arie Luyendyk Jr, The Bachelor star, claims a more ‘genuine’ side of himself was shown during his stint on The Traitors US.
Arie finished second on Emily Maynard’s Bachelorette season in 2012 and second on The Bachelor’s 22nd season before joining Kate Chastain and Brandi Glanville on The Traitors US.
Arie began the game show as a Faithful and remained in the race for the $250,000 prize until almost the end, when he became a Traitor, joining winner Cirie Fields and Christian De La Torre.
In the final, with the big pot within grasp, Cirie betrayed Arie and revealed him as a Traitor to Faithfuls Andie Vanacore and Quentin Jiles, prompting Arie to step aside and exit the game.
In an exclusive interview with Metro.co.uk, Arie discussed his time on The Traitors US and how it contrasted to his time on The Bachelor, when he drew criticism for proposing to one lady (Becca), then ditching her for runner-up (Lauren) weeks later.
‘I mean, it was definitely an experience,’ Arie began. ‘I think that coming from other different reality shows like The Bachelor, where we’re the centre of attention, it felt good to be one of the cast mates so that I could submerse myself into the game, but yeah, it was a really cool experience.’

Comparing the two reality programmes, he continued: ‘Oh, it’s so different. The Bachelor is such a personal journey, and at the end of it, there’s such a huge decision to make and it impacts the rest of your life. So there’s this massive amount of pressure.
‘On The Traitors, I left my family for quite a while and the whole thing was just more about like, having fun and if you can win the money, that’d be great. You know, that kind of thing. So there wasn’t much pressure going into it.’
When Arie entered the Scottish castle, though, several of his co-stars recognised him and assumed they knew what to anticipate.


However, as Arie stated, their preconceived opinions were totally based on who he was shown to be on The Bachelor, which proved to be less ‘genuine’ than on The Traitors.
He said: ‘I think for me, though, the person you saw on The Traitors, although I feel like in the first half of the show, I really was kind of in the background because so many outspoken cast mates were getting murdered or banished, so I just kind of tried to keep to myself and play cool, but no, I feel like that’s me.
‘I think that The Bachelor is just like this whole different beast and I feel like they do an amazing job of editing for drama. I feel like this was true, more true to my nature and true to my personality.’


‘I do feel like the mix sort of influenced the game a little bit because there were so many preconceived thoughts you know, like myself and Brandi and Kate, and I think it took over the show a little bit or took over the discourse,’ Arie said of the show’s celebrity-celebrity ensemble.
‘Whereas if it were just all regular people that haven’t been on television before, it’d be really fun because you’d have to really learn about these people and draw conclusions or you go the complete opposite and have it be all celebrities, you know, just have all these preconceived notions out there.
‘So I think one or the other would be great, but I think the mix definitely affected how the game was played.’
He added that finalist Andie had a strong opinion about Arie, based on what they had seen on The Bachelor, and Arie was forced to defend himself against ‘the magic of editing’.

The duo quickly got close, but Arie wasn’t the only one who had their reality TV past brought up.
‘I think there was a lot of preconceived notions for a lot of cast members like especially like Cody Calafiore and Rachel Reilly because of the Big Brother play and Kate and Brandi because of all the drama,’ he explained, continuing: ‘I think it made for good TV honestly, and as far as the game goes, I think kind of hurt the game but for TV I think it was great.’
‘I believe the producers did an excellent job of keeping it fair,’ he remarked, referring to how ‘genuine’ The Traitors US was. That was the one thing that surprised me the most.
‘You see the Traitors and the Faithful do these sit down interviews. Never at any point were those questions ever led on by production. There’s always kind of like, a really like just informal conversation where they’d be like, What do you want to talk about? Or like, what are you feeling? Or like, who are you closest to in the house?
‘It was never it was never pushed in any direction, so the gameplay was super fair, and it was not overly produced.’
He added that if the show had been produced, then Reza Farahan would not have been the first contestant murdered.
‘If you were a producer and thinking about what makes the best TV it’d be great for Reza to be on longer. But the game was the game, and that was The Traitors choice, and ultimately, that’s who got murdered that night.
‘So I think it’s really cool that it’s such an authentic game being played.’
The Traitors US is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.