It can't be easy to be pegged the villain on The Bachelor like Olivia has been. While she may not have known her status as resident baddie while on the show, she certainly knows how people feel about her now. Both the ladies on the show and viewers at home have been relentless towards Olivia, bullying her for her looks, her attitude, and just about everything in between. But, how is Olivia handling her depiction on The Bachelor now that the show has finished filming? Bustle reached out to Olivia for comment but has not yet received a reply.
But, from the looks of her social media, unsurprisingly, Olivia is not digging the hate she's been receiving from Bachelor Nation — whether it's from viewers of the show or from the Chris Harrison-sanctioned mockery of Bachelor Live. With Lace removing herself from the running early on, The Bachelor required a new villain and, likely with some editing help, Olivia has stepped into those shoes. Though I personally find Olivia's attitude on the show a bit obnoxious, I also do have some empathy towards her, and, thanks to social media, I've gotten a little bit of chance to see what she's like off the show. She has active Instagram and Twitter accounts and the news anchor also has a blog that helps show some sides of her that we didn’t see on The Bachelor. With recent posts titled "Life is Tough, But So Are You" from Jan. 14 about her body image issues and "To Thine Own Self Be True" from Jan. 19 where she wrote, "Put your soul on display, people. Nobody else is you. Be proud of that," it seems that she's using her blog partially to respond to how she is being portrayed on The Bachelor.
Olivia's blog isn't the only outlet for her thoughts, though. She also shared a previous Bachelor contestant's views of her role on the show. Sharleen Joynt from Bachelor Season 18 writes recaps after each episode, and Olivia shared Sharleen's post about Episode 3 from Jan. 25.
Unfortunately, the behind-the-scenes look of Olivia that Sharleen gave in her post was removed for confidentiality reasons. Sharleen updated the post on Jan. 27 by writing, "When I originally posted this entry I included a few things Olivia told me personally because I felt they gave her side of the story and thus a fairer view of what happened that night. However, I've since been asked by a producer to remove it due to confidentiality. I've taken it down as of today. To The Powers That Be: I apologize. I assure you I only meant well."
Yet, Sharleen, who knows firsthand the edits that Bachelor makes for the final episodes, made her views clear again in her recap of episode four, writing:
Olivia will continue to get the awful edit she's been getting, in small part because she deserves it for being impressionable, in small part because she's not a social creature, and in large part because it's the role she's been assigned. ... At Women Tell All, she'll sit in the hot seat and defend herself. Hopefully, what she says there will redeem her. The producers may manage to convince her to do Bachelor in Paradise (a credit unto itself to their powers of persuasion), another shot at redemption (as successfully proven by JJ Lane), but there are no guarantees. Above all, nothing can undo the damage this show has done to her image, at least not for the near future.
While those are Sharleen's words and not Olivia's, I think it's fair to say that since Olivia spoke with Sharleen and shared a previous post of Sharleen's, she is possibly feeling like a victim of Bachelor editing. Bustle reached out to ABC who declined to comment on Olivia's portrayal on the show. However, the fact that Olivia’s had moments of unkindness towards the other women may be her undoing, since Emily reported to Ben how uncomfortable Olivia has been making the other contestants. Ultimately, Ben may still be defending Olivia to the press, but that doesn't mean he'll be keeping her around on the show. But, that illustrates one really important thing: You can dislike someone (or think they're not right for you), but no one deserves to be bullied.
For everything Bachelor Nation, check out Bustle's latest podcast:
Image: Eniac Martinez/ABC
