When I first started watching Finding Prince Charming, I assumed that it would be very, very similar to The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. I mean, the premise is the same — one person dates 25 people at once in order to find someone to bring home and spend the rest of his or her life with him or her. It’s a fail-proof formula on reality television. The variable I didn’t expect, though, was just how different the contestants (and I suppose the edit) from Finding Prince Charming would be from contestants on The Bachelor. On the finale of Finding Prince Charming , Robert opened up about his escort days, and the contestants' reaction was very, very different than that of a similar situation on The Bachelor.
The men on Finding Prince Charming were a little surprised when Robert admitted his past in sex work, but then they kind of shrugged it off and let it move past them. Honestly, I think they were more surprised that Robert admitted anything, because he’s been very closed-off throughout the course of the show. It was honestly a five-minute conversation and then they moved onto the big show of Robert actually choosing a companion (he picked Eric btw).
Although it's not quite the same thing, let’s compare the Finding Prince Charming reactions to the reaction of Chris Soules on The Bachelor finding out that contestant Jade Roper had appeared in Playboy pictorials and videos — we’re talking just about posing nude here. Just nakedness. When Jade was one of the few remaining women left on The Bachelor, she decided to sit Chris down and show him one of the videos and let everything out in the open — better he hear it from her than from someone else. After watching some of her work, Soules told Roper, “You know what? This isn’t a big deal." But, as he sent her home that week — shortly before he would begin introducing women to his family — the timing of her elimination seemed fishy. (Bustle reached out to Soules for comment on his reaction at the time, but has not yet received a reply.)
Later, during Women Tell All, Jade confronted Chris about his behavior, and he avoided taking any responsibility. "I was revealing something that has ruined relationships for me before," she said, "and if you thought it was awkward, you just had to be honest back and say 'maybe later.' That would have meant so much more to me." For comparison, none of the remaining men on Finding Prince Charming opted out of continuing their journey with Robert when they found out about his past.
The men on Finding Prince Charming have been so supportive and understanding as a whole that I wasn’t surprised when they handled Robert’s past as an escort with grace. There’s so much less jealousy in the house there than there is on The Bachelor — everyone is pals, even though they’re fighting for the same man. Inclusion and civility have really been the overall themes of the season on Finding Prince Charming, even through the show’s finale with Robert's big reveal.
Images: Logo (2); ABC
