'The Bachelor' host Chris Harrison on Kelsey Poe: She uses her husband's death on Chris Soules and she uses it on the girls

The Bachelor host Chris Harrison has weighed-in and shared his on Kelsey Poe, the increasingly controversial bachelorette at the center of Monday night's cliffhanger ending.


The Bachelor's fifth nineteenth-season episode ended with the fates of his eleven remaining bachelorettes unknown as Kelsey, a 28-year-old guidance counselor from Austin, TX, appeared to suffer a panic attack and collapse before the Rose Ceremony was set to begin in New Mexico.

Kelsey appeared to suffer the attack after The Bachelor star Chris Soules decided to cancel the usual pre-Rose Ceremony cocktail party, resulting in the bachelorette -- who had previously been extremely confident she would be receiving a rose at the ceremony after sharing the sad story of her husband's death with Chris only hours earlier -- suddenly worried Chris would be sending her home.

In an interview with TV Guide, Harrison suggested Kelsey may have orchestrated the attack -- or at least had the awareness to make sure the show's production crew were able to capture the audio

"First of all, when we heard she was in the bathroom, her microphone was off. She came stumbling out... and then her microphone was back on. I'm interested to see what people think after you see the full spectrum of the whole panic attack and recovery next week," he said.


"One thing I judge is how people are around the girls and then around Chris. When she was talking to the girls and explaining her husband, she was very cavalier and almost glib about it. Then, she went into Chris' room and it was somber and it was sad and she was in tears," he added.

"Those were two very different women speaking. She was so overconfident and when Chris let the cat out of the bag about their time together, it deflated her balloon. And when I said no cocktail party, she kind of freaked out and had the 'panic attack.'"

According to Harrison, he has conflicting thoughts about the bachelorette.

"I'm very curious to find out what the world thinks of Kelsey. I go both ways. She thinks very highly of her intelligence and is very impressed with how she articulates her feelings and tries to use her big SAT words. But I think what she meant was that she had a great love story and is ready to move on. I don't know if she meant that [as] arrogance," he told TV Guide.

However added that he believes there's "no doubt" Kelsey has exploited her tragedy.


"But there's no doubt she's smart enough to use her [husband's death], and she uses it on Chris and she uses it on the girls. You can clearly see that she is a huge lightning rod for controversy. She is a hard person to attack because of her story," he said.






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