Whichever guy you're rooting for JoJo to pick eventually on The Bachelorette, the audience has been unified to jeer a common enemy. Of course I'm talking about Chad Johnson, the cold-cut eating realtor and "truth teller" of the current season of the dating competition series. Chad was eliminated from The Bachelorette for stirring up trouble in the mansion and making JoJo uncomfortable, but should he really be called a loser? The contestant worked that Bachelorette platform like a pro. (Quinn and Rachel of Lifetime's perfect dating show satire drama UnREAL would be so proud.) Love him or hate him (probably the latter), he's made himself into the show's breakout star. And the drama has continued off-screen. Recently, Chad dropped the news on social media that he'd met and hooked up with the ex of a fellow contestant. So how did Chad meet Robby's ex-girlfriend?
Like I said before, I think Chad knows how to play the fame game. I think he's about as sincere as a one of those pairs of costume glasses with the mustache and rubber nose attached. Bachelorette guru site Reality Steve caught Chad in one scheme designed to make himself some money while also humiliating his fellow contestants. Chad bought a few web domains carrying the names of some of the other guys in the competition. To stop those URLs from going straight to Chad's Instagram page, their namesakes would have to buy them back from Chad. Why did he do it? "That's business, and it's hilarious," Chad told People. All that's missing is a villainous, twisty mustache.
So Chad had to have heard opportunity knocking when he learned about Robby's ex Hope Higginbotham. The couple, last spotted together in November 2015, seems to have split while Bachelorette contestants were being selected. The timing (and Chad's allegations) seem to suggest that Robby broke up with Hope to go on the show, something he denied when it comes up later in the previews for the show. Enter The Chad.
Chad posted an Instagram collage last week of himself sidling up to Hope. The sickeningly sweet caption is loaded with hashtags for prime search optimization — I told you Chad knows what he's doing — and claims that their "paths crossed" while Chad was traveling. There are no specifics about where or how the "chance" meeting occurred, so odds are it wasn't chance at all. I'm thinking that Chad reached out to Hope to arrange a stunt that would keep Bachelorette fans talking about them both. He took a few shots at Robby in the post too.
When Chad was on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he pretty much confirmed that the romance apparent in the post is mostly staged. "It started off we were kind of friends making jokes about it," he said, though he was sure to note that he and Hope are leaving the door open for a real relationship to develop. But, The Chad is still single at the moment, if you like your men devious.
Image: Rick Rowell/ABC
