“The Bachelor” contestant Beverly Ortega is setting the record straight about her abrupt departure from Season 29 of the ABC dating franchise.
The 30-year-old insurance salesperson — who was among the 25 women vying for “Bachelor” Grant Ellis’ final rose — confirmed Tuesday that she left the series due to appendicitis. Her departure was revealed in testimonials and discussions among the other contestants in Monday’s episode, confirming that she wouldn’t be returning to the show.
Ortega had been selected early for a solo date with Ellis but couldn’t make it to the outing after waking up from a nap with “excruciating pain,” she said Tuesday on the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast.
“I wake up, my stomach’s hurting. I’m like, ‘OK, maybe I just need to go to the bathroom or the food didn’t sit well.’ And I started throwing up,” she told the hosts, “Bachelor in Paradise” alumni Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt.
The pain continued and she threw up for 12 hours, she said. She thought she might have food poisoning or maybe was experiencing an anxiety-induced panic attack that would “cause me to puke.”
“But I didn’t feel anxious. If anything, I’m living life. ‘I’m getting a one-on-one [date]. I’m in the house alone, like I have all this time,’ so I knew something was not right,” she said. “I know my body. I’m listening to my body. Something is not OK.”
The New Yorker was taken to a hospital where she received IV fluids and morphine and “the pain finally went away,” she said. Three hours later, a doctor told her she had appendicitis and would require emergency surgery.
She said she didn’t cry. “I was like, ‘OK, like my family isn’t here, my friends aren’t here, I’m about to have major surgery on an organ.’ I already in 2018 got my gallbladder removed. Now my appendix is being removed. I’m like losing organs left and right.”
Ortega got sick on a Tuesday, had surgery Wednesday and was on a flight back home from California by Friday that week. Her mom flew in to help her travel, and she said it took her a month and a half “to recover emotionally” from the ordeal, upset that she had left the show as she was “building a connection” with Ellis and with the specter of “What if?” looming over her.
She and Ellis had “a lot of cute little moments” together on the show and shared a kiss, she said.
“I was really sad, really, really bummed out. And I didn’t get to say goodbye to him. I didn’t get to tell him what happened. So I was like, I hope he didn’t think that like I left just because.”
Ortega wanted to remain on the show but knew it was best for her to call it quits.
“Everything happens for a reason,” she said.
She also hasn’t ruled out a future appearance on the franchise’s “Bachelor in Paradise.”
“I feel like if I would have made it further. [I] probably wouldn’t have considered ‘Paradise,’ but because I didn’t make it that far, yes, because I do want to get married. I’m 30 years old. I’m ready for kids and family. I’ve always been a relationship type of girl,” she said.
Meanwhile, ABC has hit the brakes on a summer airing of its “The Bachelorette” franchise, according to Deadline.
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