JoJo Fletcher: 'The Bachelorette' was one of the hardest experiences of my life filled with "low lows"

JoJo Fletcher's journey to find love begins on The Bachelorette in a matter of hours, and now that filming has wrapped, the star herself is able to open up about it all.


When The Bachelorette premieres Monday, May 23 at 9PM ET/PT, fans will follow JoJo as she meets and dates 26 eligible suitors in the hope of finding her future husband. There will even be a "mystery man" making waves.

Preview clips of The Bachelorette's upcoming twelfth edition have already been released by ABC, and it appears JoJo, a 25-year-old real estate developer from Dallas, TX, will endure quite an emotional rollercoaster.

During a Friday conference call with reporters, JoJo talked about her experience on The Bachelorette following her brutal split from The Bachelor's Season 20 star Ben Higgins. Below is a portion of her interview.

Was there anything that really surprised you about starring as the Bachelorette this season? Was it everything you had expected?


JoJo Fletcher: I would say it was probably one of the greatest experiences of my life, but it was also one of the hardest. There were so many highs but definitely a lot of low lows. So, it was a lot more than I think I expected in every sense you could think of.

Will you be going to your hometown of Dallas, TX, at all this season?

JoJo Fletcher: No, no Dallas this season! (Laughs) It sucks.

Your brother Ben Patton previously starred on the NBC dating reality show Ready for Love. Did he give you any advice based on his own experience?

JoJo Fletcher: My brother, Ben, I think he gave me a little bit of advice before I went on to Ben's season. This time around, I think my family is just trusting in how I deal with things and they're just excited for me. They're supportive of whatever happens. So, honestly, the only advice my family gave me was, "Trust your heart and believe in yourself and take it one step at a time, and things will work out."


Have you and your family been surprised about how much you've grown in the past year? And how would you compare who you are not to whom you were a year ago?

JoJo Fletcher: Oh absolutely. I think that was one of the greatest things that I've been able to take away from this whole thing, is I think I have grown so much. If you think about last season, I grew a lot. And then going through this, you know, I've lived so much life in the last six to eight months of my life.

I think I've just learned to become more confident in who I am as a woman, and I handle situations differently. And I think a lot differently about some things. I think my family has seen that, and honestly, it's been amazing to see how much things have changed since starting this entire thing.

Do you have any dating advice?

JoJo Fletcher: Well, let me just say, dating 25-plus guys at once is never normal. You definitely learn how to deal with different types of people.


And I think my greatest advice would just to be, "Give everyone a chance and really open your eyes to people. Whatever ideas you had in your head before about what exactly you wanted, sometimes that changes. Just be yourself, have fun and keep your walls down." I'll say that.

Because of how everything played out with Ben after he told you that he loved you on The Bachelor, were you terrified to say "I love you" again, or were you at least more hesitant to say those three words to a suitor on The Bachelorette?

JoJo Fletcher: Well, last season, it was terrifying for me to say, "I love you," because you just don't know what he's thinking. It's scary to say, "I love you," and to expect not to hear it back. And when I think I heard it back, everyone saw the look on my face. It was shocking but it was an amazing moment.

But one thing that I did really take into consideration coming into this season was, I think the hardest part for me was knowing how much Ben loved me and how he was in love with me.

And also, having him let me go, I really did come into this telling myself that I wouldn't say too much too soon -- that if I was feeling those feelings in the moment, I would really think about them. Because I didn't want to end up blindsiding anybody in the end, so that was something I really paid attention to when I came into this.


Check Reality TV World's The Bachelorette 12 page for more from JoJo's pre-season interview.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski