The Bachelorette bachelor Ben Scott, a 28-year-old entrepreneur from Dallas, TX, is still in the running for Desiree Hartsock's heart.

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Ben, who followed his adorable four-year-old son Brody out of the limo on the first night, has made waves in The Bachelorette mansion amongst his fellow suitors. Ben has taken an aggressive approach to dating Desiree, stealing her away from intimate conversations with other bachelors to spend time alone with her and allegedly acting like a frontrunner ever since he got the season's first rose.

During a Thursday conference call with reporters, Ben talked to Reality TV World about the season thus far and the drama that surrounded him in the house. Below is what he had to say.

Check back with Reality TV World soon for more from Ben's call.

Reality TV World: You told Desiree during the premiere episode you had your son Brody with a friend, which is a pretty unusual decision to make in your early 20s. Would you mind talking about that a little bit? Was it something you did intentionally, and if so, how did you come to that decision? 

Ben Scott: I think that's one of the statements that I made on the show to Des that has probably had the most, I guess, controversy about it. How it came off is not exactly how it was meant to be.

My son's mother was actually my college girlfriend and we had Brody and we tried to make things work, and in the end, we really just sat down and talked and said, "What's best for our situation? We don't want to get married just to get married because we have a kid. We want to get married because we're in love."

And in the end, we decided that that's not where we were in our lives. So we thought it was better for Brody to have two parents who are very happy but aren't together than to have two parents that are together and are very unhappy, because we've both seen that in our earlier childhoods, and we didn't want that for our son. We saw it with friends' parents.

But you know, it's really just been the best situation Brody could ask for with what we're going through. Me and Stevie, which is my son's mother, we turned into best friends and we've remained -- we've kept a very good relationship and he's very happy. He knows he's very loved and I've honestly never seen a happier kid.

It's not the ideal situation, but it's definitely working out great. So, she is really one of my best friends now and that's what that comment meant, was that even though we tried not being together, we remained best friends.

Reality TV World: At the cocktail reception during Monday night's episode, there was a group of guys -- which included Brandon Andreen, Mikey Tenerelli and Michael Garofola -- that were talking amongst themselves about how you brought up the bar you own and mentioned something about how previous bachelors would have a bar that turned into five bars after appearing on the show. They also said you talked about your company a lot more than your son. What's your response to that and, I guess, did you realize you were giving off that impression?

Ben Scott: That comment actually surprised me -- that conversation. I mean, we all knew what everybody did. We all knew what everybody's intentions were and they knew what mine were. And sometimes I wonder if the fact that you're a business owner makes you have a target on your back, like, "Are you doing this for the wrong reasons?"

And I talked about my son all the time, but I talked about him with my group of friends, and there were some people I did talk to more than others. Some of those people I didn't talk to that much may have been in that group making that conversation, but I talked about my son all the time.

And I missed him a lot from Day 1. I missed him. He's everything, so that comment did actually catch me a little offguard, but some people decide to make judgements without really truly knowing somebody. But that conversation doesn't really bother me because I knew the reason I was there and I was there for Des, and mostly, they knew that.

Reality TV World: Obviously in next week's episode, it looks like one of the guys in the house has a girlfriend and she comes to the mansion to not only confront him but warn Des of his relationship at home. What were your thoughts when that happened? Did you guys ever hear this bachelor talk about his girlfriend or did it come as a complete surprise to all of you?

Ben Scott: That scene is going to be something to watch and it's definitely going to be interesting to viewers. I'm not going to be able to comment much on that scene, but it's definitely going to be a big part of the next episode for reasons that we all know.

Reality TV World: Did you guys think that bachelor was there for the right reasons at least in the beginning prior to the moment his girlfriend showed up?

Ben Scott: At this point, I can't really comment on that. I think in the next episode you're going to see exactly what the guys thought. The guys were pretty vocal on exactly what they thought about the situation.

Reality TV World: It seemed like although you were getting under the guys' skin, you weren't really trying to do that, like it wasn't intentional on your part. Did you actually hope and/or want to get along with the guys in the house but it just didn't turn out that way, or did you not care about that at all? Was it the type of situation where you tried to be nice to their faces so they wouldn't tell Des anything bad about you or something?

Ben Scott: No, it was never about doing things in front of them and then doing something else behind their back. It was never like that. Of course I did want to be friends with the guys in the house and I did have a lot of friends in the house. Some guys were not okay with the way that stealing Des was handled, but I did have many friends in the house.

And I did spend time, when I wasn't on dates, developing those friendships and learning about the other guys. And you know, I think I've got some really good friends that came off this show, but I never wanted to hurt anybody. My intentions were never in the wrong place.

Just in the moment, you're still pretty nervous. Your situation is not necessarily what you're used to. So, you know, I made the decisions I made and that's pretty much all I can say on that, that I did have friends in the house and I did try to build those friendships while I was getting to know Des. But in the end, we were there for Des, so that was my main concentration. 

Reality TV World: So you mentioned you had some close friends in the house, could you tell me who they were?

Ben Scott: Yeah, I mean, I was on good terms with most of the guys, at least from what I thought... But [Brad McKinzie] was one of my really good friends and [Zak Kalter] was one of my good friends. [Robert "Bobby" Graham] was a good friend of mine, and unfortunately for Robert, he had to go.

I had some other good friends in the house but those are the people that I connected with really well. I connected with [Brooks Forester] because he's a really great guy. So you know, we really had a great group of guys and a lot of us really thought, "This is probably some of the best candidates."

It was just a fun group of guys and we had a lot of fun together, but you throw a girl in the mix, and sometimes things change -- especially a girl like Des, who is so much fun. I think people are definitely going to start, um -- well I'll just stop there.

Reality TV World: If not you, at this point in the season, who else did you envision being a great match for Des?

Ben Scott: It's really early on to know everybody and the thing that I always believed was, I only know what's going on between me and Des. I only know how our relationship is progressing. I have no idea what's going on with her and the other guys, so I'm not there for their conversations. I'm not there for their moments.

So I 100% percent was just concentrating on how my relationship with Des was growing. It's going great. It's going at a rapid rate and it's really looking good, so that's the thing that I was concentrating on. I got asked a lot by other guys, "Hey what do you think Des is really after?" And honestly, I never had a really good answer for that, because I just really knew what was going on between me and Des.

Above is what Ben had to say to Reality TV World. Check back with us soon for more.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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