The Bachelor's Matt was not a contestant on any prior season of The Bachelorette, but
he's since made his mark. Here are some things you may not know about the latest Bachelor.
Diversity in the cast of The Bachelor has been a hot button issue. There have only been
two leading ladies of color for The Bachelorette — Rachel Lindsay and Tayshia Adams — and
until Matt, there had never been a Black bachelor.
"I just felt this responsibility that I've gotta make everybody proud."
Bringing diversity to the screen with Matt's season was a much-needed change, but there
are some aspects of being the first Black bachelor and having such a diverse group of
ladies that Matt has specific opinions about.
While appearing on the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast with Rachel, Matt said that he's not
solely interested in white contestants and that the issue of race among who he pursues
is, quote, "low-key frustrating." He explained,
"First off, people should, regardless of what they look like, want you to be happy with
whoever you're with. When you're dating somebody, if you're excluding a race, then I don't even
know where to begin on that. What I'm looking for in a woman isn't race specific."
Before he was the star of The Bachelor, Matt was one of the members of the "Quarantine
Crew." For those who aren't in the know, the crew was made up of Matt, former Bachelorette
contestant and fan favorite Tyler Cameron, former Bachelorette Hannah Brown, Tyler's
brother Ryan, and a few of their close friends. The TikTok videos that came from the "Quarantine
Crew" almost became a part of The Bachelor franchise themselves, as the group was seen
playing games, pulling pranks on each other, and, of course, working out a lot.
Fans of Matt, and people who wanted to spy on the ever-engaging relationship between
Hannah and Tyler, watched them day after day in the earlier months of the coronavirus pandemic
— so we got to know Matt before he made his way onto our screens. Here's hoping that
the crew will reconvene after Matt's season — and who knows, they might be adding Matt's
fiancée to the group.
Before he was chosen as the Bachelor, Matt was originally supposed to be a contestant
on Clare Crawley's season of The Bachelorette, but things got a little weird after the original
cast of her season was announced. According to People magazine, the production of Clare's
season hit a snag due to the coronavirus pandemic, so although the names and photos of men who
would be vying for Clare's had been announced, filming couldn't get started.
Here's where things took a turn — Matt and the "Quarantine Crew" were blowing up on social
media, and Matt started a Cameo. And perhaps as a result, Clare took to her own social
media to seemingly call it out — a number of fans assumed the message was aimed at James.
She wrote on Twitter,
"If you are doing interviews and creating Cameo accounts before you are even on my season...
you are in it for the wrong reasons... [don't waste your time]."
She then posted again, writing,
"Respect the opportunity you've been given. Respect the rules. Respect me."
Clare didn't name any names, but it seems like she may have thought the spotlight wasn't
staying where she wanted it to. Matt did not go on to appear on Clare's season.
Matt is a super athletic guy — just think of how many ab shots we've gotten on The Bachelor.
So it may not come as too big of a surprise that Matt had a brief professional football
career. In an interview with his alma mater's blog, Matt talked about his time as an athlete
and what path he took towards career success. He said,
"I didn't think I was going to make a career out of football, but I thought my stint in
the NFL would be longer than a few months. Fortunately, I had a support system back home
in Raleigh (Mom) who allowed me to stay at her house and train while I figured out my
next steps."
Matt said that, by the end of his first football season back in 2016, he had officially moved
on from the sport. He found himself in Pittsburg, taking the role of a corporate and institutional
banker with the company PNC.
From the looks of his life and career as depicted on The Bachelor, Matt seems to have always
been the suave, impressive, successful, and sweet guy that viewers see on screen. But
like a lot of us, Matt found himself at a personal crossroads earlier in his professional
life, and he even couch-surfed in New York City until he found his footing. In his interview
for his alma mater's blog, he explained,
"My first six months were spent couch surfing, navigating the new NYC landscape and deciding
if this new role in advertising as a media planner was for me. Ultimately, I left that
job (just in time as the company went belly up 12 months later) and took a position as
a research analyst at a commercial real estate company."
So take note, everyone: If you couch-surf in New York City, you never know who you're
going to meet.
One of Matt's most attractive qualities, both within his role as the Bachelor and outside
of it, is his dedication to giving back to his community. According to PopSugar, Matt
has operated a nonprofit called ABC Food Tours with his best friend, Tyler Cameron, for years,
and works to introduce good food and healthy lifestyles to kids from low-income areas — as
if we didn't love him enough already. Matt told Wake Forest University in an interview,
"I met a group of 'kids' who were students from a local neighborhood elementary school
[...] — where 50% of the students are homeless — hanging outside my favorite restaurant
in the Alphabet City. [...] Way later than they should have been out. We joked on each
other for a few minutes then parted ways; they didn't realize that wouldn't be the last
they saw of me."
Matt said that he contacted the school's principal the next day and arranged to take the kids
to Bobwhite, one of his favorite restaurants. He added,
"This occasion marked the first food tour. [...] The rest is history!"
The leading men and ladies of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette have all gone about sharing
their personal lives and stories differently, and Matt made a mark on his night one by leading
his contestants in a prayer before the first cocktail party got started. It may not have
seemed to be anything more than a nice gesture and an insight to Matt's faith, but the choice
did get a bit of backlash, according to E! Online.
Apparently, some members of Bachelor Nation expressed their thoughts about the prayer,
with one saying that Matt should've worded the prayer in a, quote, "more inclusive way."
Another said that if she had been in the room — due, in part, to her own personal faith
— she would've found the move uncomfortable. The prayer got far more of a response than
ABC executive Robert Mills expected, and he spoke about it with former bachelor Nick Viall
on his podcast, saying,
"I didn't expect [the prayer] to be such a hot-button of interest. And I actually understand
some of it."
It seems like moms are sometimes even more excited about becoming a grandparent than
becoming a parent, and Matt's mom is looking forward to her son getting married and having
babies. In an interview with Chris Harrison, Matt divulged that his mom had begun planning
the, quote, "grandkids counter" even before his season of The Bachelor began, adding that
his mom is expecting him and his future wife to have enough kids to make "a basketball
team."
But Matt's mom seems to have had a tremendous amount of positive influence over him, and
it doesn't just all relate to her want for grandkids. Matt said that the values that
his mom raised him to have certainly would influence what kind of Bachelor he would be.
He added,
"I'm just going to lean into myself and how my mom raised me, and hopefully when people
invite me into their homes on Monday night, they're going to see that I'm not much different
from them and they see that diverse love stories are beautiful."
We can imagine that fame does some weird things to your head, your world, and the people who
are around you. Matt's world definitely seemed to turn upside down when he was chosen as
the leading man of The Bachelor, and there was one particularly special person who reached
out to him. Speaking with Tyler Cameron and Chris Harrison, Matt said that his phone had
been consistently ringing "off the hook" since the announcement had been made, and some people
really came out of the woodwork to congratulate him. He explained,
"The most interesting text I got was probably from my third-grade teacher. I hadn't heard
from her since I missed [my] book report, so there's people coming from all over the
place to share their excitement."
Matt said that the announcement also brought a lot of congratulations from friends that
were not avid fans of the franchise. He added,
"I've heard from a lot of my Black friends that aren't Bachelor Nation faithful that
are excited about me and honored that I'm in the position I'm in."
Matt's a very attractive man — he's handsome and his on-screen persona is confident, collected,
and determined. He brings his charm and sense of humor to The Bachelor, and he comes across
as someone who knows what he wants. So knowing that Matt didn't have a father figure in his
life makes his determination to find love that even more enduring. In an interview with
Wake Forest Magazine, Matt shared,
"My father was absent, and money was tight. [...] The community really rallied around
us and made sure I had what I needed."
Getting a taste of families with both parents involved was definitely something that Matt
gravitated towards earlier in his life, and his mom spoke about it with ABC's New York
affiliate station in 2019. She said,
"He was always drawn to families where the mom and dad were together. I am so proud of
him. He overcame everything and he wants to be a role model for these kids [with the ABC
Food Tours]."
As far as professional athletes are concerned, it seems like many operate under the mentality
of "It's not a matter of if you get injured, but when." And it seems like injuries plagued
a lot of Matt's athletic career, which can be quite a difficult thing to go through.
According to Wake Forest Magazine, Matt played football and basketball in high school — but
eventually chose to play football in college at Wake Forest University. According to Matt,
basketball actually left him with more injuries overall than football.
Matt was "redshirted" during his freshman year and missed a total of 16 games throughout
his college career due to a separated shoulder, a broken hand, and a broken collarbone. His
best game was played during the final game of the 2014 season against Duke University.
Matt and Tyler Cameron are always up to something crazy. The number of pranks that they played
on each other while quarantined together was truly out of control, and it doesn't appear
as though the antics are going to stop any time soon.
Tyler posted a video on his official YouTube page shortly before Matt's season of The Bachelor
premiered. What were they doing? Getting waxed, of course. Tyler said,
"Today was a day of showing Matt what these girls go through when it comes to getting
ready for being on The Bachelor so Matt can have a real appreciation for when these girls
come out of the limo."
And what did they have in mind as to what the experience was going to be like? Tyler
said,
"I saw 40-Year-Old Virgin and that looked painful, and that's what I was going for."
"Nooooo Kelly Clarkson!"
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