Jordan Rodgers' estrangement from his brother Aaron Rodgers was a surprise to The Bachelorette host Chris Harrison when he found out about the situation.
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During a recentn interview with Doug Gottlieb on CBS Sports Network, Harrison explained he randomly and bizarrely met Aaron one day while playing golf with friends. At that time, casting for The Bachelorette had not been set and Harrison did not know about Jordan's participation.
"When I met Jordan Rodgers, I was about to bring up, 'Hey I played golf with your brother,' and then one of the producers said, 'Hey, yeah you may not want to mention that. I don't know if he's that friendly with Aaron.' And so, we knew about two weeks into the show," Harrison explained.
Gottlieb questioned whether producers tried to keep Jordan on the show long-term because of that juicy storyline, but Harrison said people often give them "way too much credit for things" and the staff didn't have to try considering JoJo Fletcher was immediately smitten with the suitor.
On last week's episode of The Bachelorette, Jordan was prepping Fletcher for the moment she'd potentially meet his family. In the process, he explained who would be present at the gathering -- and noticeably missing from the lineup was Aaron, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers.
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Jordan gave Fletcher a heads up that she would not be able to meet his "middle brother" without even mentioning Aaron's name. Jordan then came up with a broad and seemingly calculated explanation for their estrangement, suggesting that Aaron's priorities do not include his family and their lack of relationship is due to the way Aaron has "chosen to do life."
"You can tell [Jordan] is incredibly uncomfortable about the situation and he didn't really want to dive into it. And so, yeah, [producers] knew about it, but it was completely up to him when and if he ever wanted to bring that up," Harrison said of Jordan, a former pro quarterback.
"And again, as producers, we absolutely could've dropped that bomb or let it leak to JoJo, but we never did... to watch him kind of squirm and work his way and very carefully word -- [His explanation for the estrangement] was very well crafted. It was almost like a politician explaining something the way he talked about Aaron."
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Harrison continued, "He was very careful not to make anymore waves. You can tell it's probably something he would like to mend or fix. I mean, there's a lot of pain. How terrible to think your brother is doing something extraordinary -- that top one percent in the world can do -- and your family can't enjoy that?... It kind of sucks."
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On Monday night's upcoming episode of The Bachelorette, JoJo will be heading home to Chico, CA, to meet Jordan's family -- minus Aaron obviously. Jordan is, however, extremely close to his older brother Luke. Harrison teased that Jordan's relationship with Aaron will, once again, be a topic of discussion.
"There will be more to it, and I think this was the tip of the iceberg and [Jordan] needed to broach this subject [before his hometown], but I think JoJo also realizes this is a sensitive subject, so she needs to tread carefully," Harrison said.
Harrison also confirmed that Jordan is not the only person whom Aaron has a problem with -- or vice versa.
"Really, [Aaron's estrangement] is from Jordan and Luke, and the entire family! I mean, the mom and dad, they're all estranged from Aaron. He's kind of off on his own. Having met [Aaron] and getting to know the guy, he's really just a lovely human being and a great guy, from what I could tell," Harrison told CBS Sports.
"And then to go to meeting Jordan -- who just seems like a really great guy -- something just doesn't quite fit. Because it seems to me there is no reason those two shouldn't be family and be brothers."
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Harrison said he would "love to dive even deeper" into the complicated situation.
"But it's one of those things where unless [Jordan] wants to talk about it -- which he obviously doesn't for obvious reasons, because no one would want to shine a light on that -- but [JoJo] will get deeper into it and more into, and you'll hear about it on the show. But I would love to sit down with both of them," the host admitted.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski