‘The Bachelorette’ Charity Lawson on Her Surprising First Impression Rose and Final Contestants: ‘It Gets Really Rough’
SPOILER ALERT: This contains spoilers for the Season 20 premiere of “The Bachelorette,” which aired on June 26 on ABC.
On “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” the very first red rose of the season — dubbed the “first impression rose” — is handed out by the lead on the first night in the mansion to a contestant they have their eye on. As Bachelor Nation knows, this rose often indicates a frontrunner who regularly ends up as a finalist by the end of the season.
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On Charity Lawson’s season premiere of “The Bachelorette” on Monday night, she handed out her first impression rose to a suitor who seemingly might also be the season’s villain.
Brayden Bowers, one of the 25 men fighting for Lawson’s heart, emerged as the most contentious contestant on the season premiere. But at the end of the episode, he was handed Lawson’s first impression rose.
Lawson’s brother appeared on the premiere as an undercover bartender, fully dressed in a fake mustache and wig, to watch out for his sister. After eavesdropping on the men’s conversations at the bar, he told his sister that he would be wary of Bowers, who he perceived to be arrogant. After a heart-to-heart with her brother where he expressed his concerns over Bowers, Lawson still decided to hand him her first rose.
“Giving Brayden my first impression rose, I obviously gave it to him for a reason,” Lawson tells Variety. “Whether or not that is going be fully shown and everyone is going to understand it, probably not.”
She continues, “He got it for a reason because I felt genuinely comfortable around him — we have good banter, good chemistry — so it definitely was a shock for me to see him vocalize certain things around the men and even to my brother. And then, obviously, my brother giving me his insight, ultimately, for me and my brother, we just kind of came to terms after that conversation [that] this is just information that’s going to be used to hopefully reach a decision later down the road. With Brayden, in that moment, I took my brother’s insight, put in my back pocket, and we’ll see whether or not we’ll have to really use it later in the season.”
Lawson’s brother also shared some positive opinions with his sister, giving an early stamp of approval to the contestant, Aaron B. Does that mean he’ll be a frontrunner?
“With Aaron B., we can say my brother’s approval early on did help,” Lawson teases. “But we’ll see how things truly unfold.”
In the season promo, Lawson is seen crying. She says she is “heartbroken” and says she is in love with two men when it’s time for a proposal at the end of the season.
Lawson confirms that she has difficultly deciding who exactly she is going to pick, telling Variety that this is not a cut-and-dry season where she knows who she’s in love with the entire time. She says that towards the end of the season, the drama hits an all time high.
“Around fantasy suite time, it gets really rough,” Lawson teases.
“It’s a crazy unconventional journey and process of trying to find love,” she adds. “I think you can go in with like these expectations like, ‘I’m going to know right away that it’s going to be this person,’ and as much as you can say that, I definitely feel like the more I explored these relationships, things were fluctuating and changing day by day, which is insane… It’s not going to be traditional in any sense where you’re going to maybe know right off the bat that it’s going to be a certain person.”
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