Chris Soules talks about 'The Bachelor' and his dating experience (Part 1)

The Bachelor star Chris Soules will begin his search for love when the show's nineteenth season premieres Monday, January 5 at 8PM ET/PT.
 
After The Bachelor's first-ever live event hosted by Chris Harrison and guest host Jimmy Kimmel airs, the nineteenth season's premiere will start with "Prince Farming," a 33-year-old farmer and wealthy businessman from Arlington, IA, arriving at the Malibu mansion and being introduced to only 15 bachelorettes.


Chris will discover soon afterwards that 15 more ladies are on their way, and he'll ultimately need to narrow them down to 22 women at the season's first Rose Ceremony.

Chris has a lot to say about the season ahead, and during a Thursday conference call with reporters, he shared his thoughts and some teasers. Below is the first portion of his interview. Check back with Reality TV World soon for more.

Reality TV World: On Andi Dorfman's season of The Bachelorette, you mentioned how it wasn't a done deal that a girl needed to move to Arlington and you'd be willing to compromise on that. However, this season it sounds like you absolutely want to find a woman who will be willing to move and live on your farm with you. So is that accurate? Would there be any exceptions?

Chris Soules: I think going into this, my No. 1 priority was to find a soul mate, find true love, find somebody that I could see myself spending the rest of my life with. And that's goal No. 1, and then once I find that, then we figure out where our life together will make the most sense. And my life in Iowa is something I will never give up, it will always be a big part of my life. 


The family business will always be something I'm going to be involved in and manage and keep in line of, you know, push forward. But that being said, I am willing to compromise once I find the right person, that's No. 1. That's my No. 1 priority, which I feel is, I'm 33 obviously. It's been hard for me to find up to this point.

Reality TV World: So how does that affect what type of girl you're looking to end up with? Was an independent, career-focused girl someone you were looking for or do you think that might actually present a little bit of an issue for the lifestyle you'd like to lead when thinking about settling down and having kids and what not?

Chris Soules: I think I do [want that]. I am attracted to someone who's independent and career-oriented and I think is successful in their own right, because I think that trades over into how they would raise a family and the people that they are just an individuals.

So, but I think my No. 1 goal is just finding love, and finding that great love that you can't live without. And I'm trying to figure out how you make it work and that's where I was with Andi to a certain extent, and obviously she probably couldn't see Arlington in her future to any extent. That's maybe a big part of the reason why it didn't work out.

But I think there is still room for compromise with me, whether it's Arlington or somewhere in between and I'm willing to do what it takes once I do find that perfect person, if they're out there.


Now I know you can't say much about whom you pick, but can you talk about if you're ready for kids right now? 

Chris Soules: You know, I think once the relationship is there and I marry, that definitely I'm ready for kids. I mean, I've been looking for love for a long time [and have] known what I wanted for a long time. And, you know, I definitely am ready for a family. I think as much as anybody right now, I do want to -- I know my parents are ready for me to have kids and I'm pretty sure I am as well.

Can you respond to the rumors circulating that you're a millionaire? 

Chris Soules: Can I respond to the rumors of whether or not I'm a millionaire? (Laughs) You know, that is kind of a personal question.  I'm successful, I feel, like in my own right, and you know, I don't know that my net worth is that important. But I do feel I have been successful and I worked really hard to get to where I'm at.

Back to when you had to make the decision on whether to actually be The Bachelor star, did you say "yes" right away or did you have any kind of reservations about being the main guy this time around? If so, was there anyone in particular who kind of pushed you to do it? 


Chris Soules: I think when I first sort of floated the idea of potentially being the Bachelor, there were a lot of concerns, a lot of questions that I had. And yes, it wasn't an easy decision, you know?

First of all, the filming of the show is during a really important time of year for my family's farming operation, which is harvest. So I've never missed harvest in my entire, you know, since I can remember. I've been involved in harvest and now I play a bigger role in the farming operation as I ever have, and for me to be gone for that was a big deal. 

And leaving my dad there to kind of handle things alone, you know, in his upper 60's, that was a stressful thing for both of us. That was a No. 1 concern when I looked at doing it. There's also, you know, concerns as to -- obviously I watched the [Juan Pablo Galavis] season because I was clearly invested given the fact that one of the girls from that show would probably be one of the women I'd be potentially dating. 

So, you know, I kind of watched how things were handled and maybe kind of a concern is how, you know, it's a tough process and I saw that and then he handles it and it didn't go really well for him. And so, there were questions as to whether or not -- how things would go for me and whether or not it was really worth my time, you know, am I going to meet somebody doing this?

Or is it going to take away from my family farming operation and leave the farm for two months in the most critical time of the year? And so there's a lot of concerns, a lot of questions that I weighed the pros and cons for prior to agreeing to do the show.


And there's no one person that really pushed me to do it. I mean, at the end of the day, it was my decision and something that I felt was worth my time and the right decision for me. 

But I was supported at the end of the day by everyone, and I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't felt like I was supported and had in agreement about the pros outweighing the cons with my family and people I work.

So it was a touch decision honestly. It took a lot of thought and a lot of time with my friends and family and people I work with before I made the decision and felt like it was the right thing for me to go forward with.

Can you just talk a little bit about your fitness and diet routine? I mean, I know you were kind of worried about keeping up with it during filming and that you were training with Cody Sattler. So were you able to maintain it? Did you still have time to kind of work out and take care of yourself? 

Chris Soules: You know, it wasn't like, I didn't get to work out quite as much as when I was with Cody. The time restraints wouldn't allow me to do that -- too much dating. But I had found time almost every day, I think almost every day, to work out to a certain extent. 


And it's almost frankly a requirement -- just the stress level that I was experiencing, they just you know, I have to do something to kind of release some stress. And that was working. It was something that helped a lot throughout the process. And yes, my diet wasn't quite in line as well, but I did alright throughout the process.

For the second portion of Chris Soules' interview, check back with Reality TV World soon.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski