On every season of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, someone gets portrayed as the supposed "villain." On JoJo Fletcher’s season The Bachelorette , that villain was Chad Johnson. Known for downing lunchmeat and saying what was actually on his mind, Chad went from fellow contestant to hated competitor pretty quickly. After getting eliminated from JoJo's season, Chad stopped by Bachelor in Paradise and, most recently, he made an appearance on Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After. And, although he keeps being asked back, Chad is always portrayed in a negative light on The Bachelor franchise. All of that would certainly wear on even the strongest of people, and Chad tells Bustle that he's tired of being the bad guy. The contested contestant chatted with Bustle Senior Entertainment Editor Kelsea Stahler and Romper Senior News and Entertainment Editor Allison Piwowarski on Bustle’s Will You Accept This Podcast, and, let me just say, he is not the guy you see on TV — at least not for the seven minutes he stopped by the podcast.
Chad did have some dark moments on his various shows. From threatening Jordan Rodgers to calling Sarah Herron "that one-armed b*tch" (the latter for which he's since apologized), Chad hasn't always come off the best on TV. But, he's tired of having only his worst moments shown. "At first it was kind of funny, and fun, whatever. But I'm getting really tired of it. I come in, I'm very friendly to everybody, and I've made that very clear that I've never had any problems with anybody in real life at all," he says. "I'm very good with people who are good to me, but it's like all these people constantly, they put so much emphasis on trying to make me the bad guy. And they are constantly talking about how bad I am."
Chad claims that his detractors make him look bad to prop themselves up. "Like they think by making me bad and talking about how bad I am, that makes them good," he says. "They can't come up with another alternative way to make themselves seem like good people other than putting me in a bad light.”
In the podcast, Chad says, “No one is really taking the time to be friendly to me.” I think that because people haven’t seen the nice side of Chad, they just assume that it’s not there. I mean, why would you want to be friendly to a man that you think is going to insult you the minute he meets you because that's how he's always been portrayed?
Chad’s had some moments on the various Bachelor shows, but, deep down, I really think there’s a good person under all of those muscles. We’ve seen him get vulnerable before, especially when talking about his mother’s recent death, and perhaps he’s turning over a new leaf. Chad is clearly tired of being the bad guy on The Bachelor, so maybe he’ll start thinking more before he speaks and gives the shows more material that fit the villain persona. I think that he needs a good, long break from Bachelor Nation and all of the television cameras to figure himself out and fix his public persona — then maybe everyone will get to see the real Chad.
For everything Bachelor Nation, check out previous episodes of Bustle's Bachelor podcast.
Images: Rick Rowell/ABC
