July 04, 2022 • bachelor insider
This Week in Bachelor Nation History: Jillian Harris Dumps Wes When He Admits He Has a Girlfriend
The most dramatic exit!
Every Bachelor and Bachelorette worries that they could fall for one of the people vying for their heart and that person ends up being there “for the wrong reasons.”
And longtime Bachelor Nation fans will never be able to forget Wes Hayden from Jillian Harris’ season of “The Bachelorette.”
He infamously set the stage for what it means to be on the show for exactly the wrong reasons.
Wes impressed Jillian from the very beginning of her season, but her intuition told her there was “something about him that I feel like I need to protect myself from.”
Wes ended up making it to the final four on Season 8 before he was caught in his lies.
Earlier in the season, there was speculation by some of his fellow suitors that Wes could have a girlfriend outside of the show, and the musician repeatedly made it clear that he came on the show to make a name for himself and advance his career.
At one point, future Bachelor Jake Pavelka even told Jillian, “Wes has a girlfriend. He’s going to tell you Laurel was just a girl from the past that he’s still really good friends with.”
Eventually when Jillian was in Spain with her final four, it was revealed that the rumors were true about Wes.
And this week in Bachelor Nation history, Jillian sent Wes packing and kept Ed, Kiptyn, and Reid on their journey to find love, and they headed to Hawaii next.
During their conversation in Spain, Wes slipped up and admitted the truth about his relationship status to Jillian.
He said, “My girlfriend — I mean, ex-girlfriend” as he stumbled trying to recover his lie mid-sentence.
And as Wes rode out in his limo, he gave one of the most infamous speeches in Bachelor Nation history.
He said with little remorse, “She shot me down. I’m going down in flames. I’m the first guy ever on ‘The Bachelorette’ to make it to the top four with a girlfriend.”
Wes continued on and joked that his “acting days were over,” adding, “I’ve definitely gone as far as I can possibly go with Jillian. I’ve already done everything I needed to do, so this is just kind of another bump in the road.”
He said he was ready to go home because he had “a new single” ready and “a radio tour that I gotta do ASAP.”
Check out Wes’ full, dramatic exit in the clip below.