December 14, 2020 • bachelor insider
Bennett & Noah Hash Out Their Beef During Tense 'Men Tell All' Confrontation
No love lost between these two, Bachelor Nation!
“Bachelorette” contestants Bennett Jordan and Noah Erb reunited on tonight’s dramatic “Men Tell All” special — and, to absolutely no one’s surprise, they were unable to make amends.
“I couldn’t give you a reason why Bennett disliked me from the second I showed up. That’s not my problem,” Noah told host Chris Harrison when questioned about his feud with the polarizing Harvard grad. “His insecurities, I don’t have any control over. OK? Personally, I think he was intimidated.”
Noah went on to say that Bennett’s behavior didn’t bother him until he got to know Season 16 lead Tayshia Adams a little bit better. “He has this prestige where Tayshia would not like anybody except for somebody like Bennett,” the 25-year-old registered travel nurse said. “And I brushed it to the side until I started having feelings for Tayshia, so I didn’t want her to end up with somebody that would treat her like that.”
Bennett then responded, claiming he “never had beef” with Noah. “Noah, I already told you this. So, I’m going to repeat it so hopefully you’ll hear it this time. I never thought there was tension with you… when you walked in the house,” said the wealth management consultant, 36, who is 11 years Noah’s senior.
“You created this drama every step of the way,” he added.
But Noah disagreed, telling Chris that Bennett was condescending from the get-go. “I could tell there was tension by the little sly remarks. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt until I realized that he’s not clueless,” said Noah. “He’s meticulous in how he does stuff. He’s very intentional with his words and he’s conniving in how he does it.”
Of course, this prompted Chris to ask Noah about the “gentlemanly gift” that Bennett gave him during their tense two-on-one date with Tayshia (after which Bennett was eliminated — and then eliminated once more in an ensuing Rose Ceremony).
As viewers are well aware, Bennett presented Noah with a book titled “On Emotional Intelligence” — and then proceeded to tell him that he was deficient in three of the four components of emotional intelligence.
“Bennett did that in a pretentious, conniving way,” said Noah, later telling Bennett that he did read the book. “It’s a shame that you read it four times, you said, and you clearly haven’t applied a lot of it. But it’s a good book.”
When Chris suggested to Bennett that telling Noah he was “deficient” in three of the four components of emotional intelligence was unkind, Bennett shot back in Noah's direction: “I was being a nice guy because you know what? In fact, you were deficient in four of the four.”
This caused the entire group of guys to erupt in discussion, with some defending Noah and others defending Bennett. When Chris was able to quiet the men down, he put a pin in the conversation by letting Noah and Bennett each have their final say about the episodes-long quarrel.
Bennett offered an apology. “Noah, I’m sorry that my words came across as condescending,” he said. “I know that I have this look and this feel and I’m sorry that it affected you the way that it did.”
But Noah didn’t seem to buy it. “I’ll accept any genuine apology. I can’t tell if that was genuine or not, but I personally think you’re an ostentatious Harvard d-bag,” he retorted. “And you’re condescending as f--k… I don’t see us being friends after this.”
With a sigh, Bennett replied, “That’s fine, man.”
The next installment of this week’s “Bachelorette” — including the anticipated Hometown Dates — airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. on ABC.