The Bachelor paid tribute to former cast member Gia Allemand, who committed suicide in August at age 29, during Sunday night's The Bachelor: Countdown to Juan Pablo special on ABC.
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"Gia was much loved by The Bachelor fans, fellow cast members and the producers of this show with whom she had remained in close contact. We miss her. Please allow us to take a moment to remember our friend Gia Allemand."
Allemand competed on The Bachelor's fourteenth season, which aired in 2010 and starred Jake Pavelka. After being denied Pavelka's rose when determining his Final 2 bachelorettes, Allemand returned to compete on the first and second seasons of the reality dating show's Bachelor Pad spinoff, which aired in 2010 and 2011 respectively.
"I met Gia on my season of The Bachelor. She was the most stunning, sort of fun-sized little girl that just seemed to have it all. She was kind of a real girl. She had insecurity; She was worried about love. Gia's laugh was infectious. Silly stuff made her laugh, like little-girl humor, and she was really good at even poking fun at herself," former The Bachelor bachelorette Ashleigh Hunt said.
Additional former bachelors and bachelorettes also had kind words to say about Allemand.
"She was so easy to talk to and so sweet. Everyone loved her," Jaclyn Swartz of The Bachelor's sixteenth season noted.
Sixth-season The Bachelorette suitor Craig Robinson explained that Allemand was "funny, outgoing -- a great, perfect friend."
"Gia really knew what was important," seventh-season The Bachelorette bachelor Ames Brown said. "She knew that people were important and happiness was important -- love was important. That was really almost educational for a lot of us."
Allemand's mother Donna Micheletti shed some tears during the video when opening up about her daughter's memory.
"We all know Gia, my daughter, took her own life, and it is heart wrenching," explained Micheletti.
"I wouldn't want to see any other parent go through this and there is plenty of help for children, women, boyfriends -- there's help there for everyone. I just miss her. Gia was always full of such life, and she'd walk into a room and you could feel her presence as soon as she walked in. She would light up that whole room like sunshine."
Allemand was found hanging this past summer and taken to University Hospital in New Orleans when discovered. After remaining in critical condition and on life support, Allemand passed away nearly two days later when her life support was withdrawn due to the fact she had "a critical loss of brain and organ function," according to the reality TV star's representative.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
