Corinne Olympios and Taylor Nolan had it out on The Bachelor this season, and now Nolan says she still deals with the aftermath of their altercation.
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Earlier this season, Nolan told Olympios that she lacked "emotional intelligence" and wasn't mature enough to get engaged to Nick Viall, a 36-year-old man. On the other side of the coin, Olympios told Viall that Nolan -- a mental health counselor from Seattle -- was a bully who called her stupid.
Whether Viall took Olympios' side in the fight or simply felt a stronger connection with her, the Season 21 The Bachelor star chose to give her a rose and send Nolan, 23, packing during an awkward two-on-one date.
"I definitely did have a connection with him," Nolan told The Baltimore Sun. "I felt very confused. I felt surprised; I felt kind of dropped. I felt like there wasn't a really great explanation."
The Johns Hopkins University graduate told the newspaper she's had difficulty moving on from the show, mainly because of her polarizing portrayal. Bachelor Nation basically either found Olympios ridiculous and annoying or Nolan condescending and arrogant.
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"I assumed there were not-so-positive comments said [about me], but I was kind of taken aback by the labeling and name calling that was aired, and I didn't feel like that was an accurate depiction of me," Nolan said, adding that many people interpreted her "objective, constructive feedback" as bullying.
In the episode that featured the girls' two-on-one date, Olympios called Nolan a "dumb bitch" and "f-cking idiot," while Nolan criticized the 24-year-old Miami, FL, native for being a "manipulative bitch."
"When you strip it down, it became clear that Taylor believed Corinne lacked the emotional maturity to get married or really to be dating me at all," Viall wrote in his People blog earlier this month.
"Listening to Taylor talk, it became obvious to me that Taylor didn't realize that she was guilty of the same thing she saw in Corinne... From my point of view, Taylor either wasn't self-aware enough to understand how she was coming across [to Corinne] or she thought that I wouldn't notice."
Because she works in the mental health field, Nolan told The Baltimore Sun she felt like she was held to a higher standard than her fellow bachelorettes.
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"That has definitely been a challenging area that I've had to reflect on," she said, adding that "it was very chaotic" to live in a house with 29 other women.
"There's a lot of different personalities. Some click, some don't," admitted Nolan, who became friends with Vanessa Grimaldi and several other bachelorettes from the show since filming ended.
However, Nolan and Olympios have not been in contact at all. The girls will probably be forced to discuss their issues on The Bachelor: The Women Tell All special in the near future, but until then, Nolan said she's "just kind of waiting to see how things play out with the rest of the show."
Since getting eliminated on The Bachelor, Nolan confessed, "There's been so many unexpected changes to my life."
For starters, fame made it difficult for Nolan to decipher whether people were reaching out to her for legitimate professional help or because she was on a reality show. Fans have been criticizing her or wanting to meet her since the show, and she receives emails from viewers all the time.
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Taking into account all the backlash online, Nolan reportedly decided to put her private practice -- which she launched in 2015 in Seattle -- on hold.
"It doesn't fully feel safe [to continue my practice] at the moment," Nolan said, although she's reportedly looking forward to moving out of the spotlight in the coming months and taking time to regroup as a counselor.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski