'The Bachelorette's Brandon Andreen: Desiree Hartsock and I would've 100% had a different connection in a different atmosphere

The Bachelorette bachelor Brandon Andreen was ousted by its star Desiree Hartsock during Monday night's broadcast of the ABC reality dating series' ninth season.


Brandon, a 26-year-old painting contractor from Costa Mesa, CA, was eliminated during the third episode's Rose Ceremony after he told Des he was falling in love with her and had opened up about his emotional past and family history.

During a conference call with reporters on Thursday, Brandon talked to Reality TV World about his The Bachelorette experience. Below is what he had to say. Check back with us on Friday for some additional highlights from his call.

Reality TV World: You told Des you were "falling in love" with her, but then your final words were edited in which you said you were "in love" with Des. Could you clarify exactly what you were feeling at that point in the season for Des, and looking back, do you think it was true love on your end or maybe just infatuation or lust?

Brandon Andreen: You know, Des is the kind of girl that you just cannot help but be around in a room -- guy or girl -- and just fall in love with her. She's just a happy, wonderful, full-of-life woman that brings out the best in anybody that she's around. So when I said I was falling in love with her -- obviously I never said, "I love you," you know, those words didn't come out of my mouth -- but I was falling for her.


I'm in a situation where you have very limited time to really speak about who you are and see who she is, and the feelings that I had from the situation that I was in were becoming more of a reality. And obviously I wasn't going to waste any time.

So, you know, the quickness that I did start to have these feelings and some of the words that I said were just [a result of] the timing and the situation. So yeah, she's a wonderful woman and I couldn't help but to have feelings for her.

Reality TV World: Chris Harrison mentioned in his Entertainment Weekly blog that it was just too much too soon when it came to your relationship with Des. Do you kind of regret getting so emotional and diving into your family history with Des as early as you did? Do you think maybe had you not come on so strong things might've turned out differently?

Brandon Andreen: No, I'm a guy that doesn't like to live with any regrets. And so the things that I did say were just the things that I said and I didn't want to leave the show because of the fact that I didn't get to pour my heart out and tell her who I am.

If I were to just sit there and talk about the Vikings or something like that, and then she just didn't have the feelings for me, then that would've been unfortunate. And so, I don't regret diving in. And yes, maybe it was a little bit too soon, a little bit too much. But for the situation that I was in, it just seemed right.


Reality TV World: When you gave Des a kiss, from a viewer's perspective, it looked like she wasn't really reciprocating any passion -- like she wasn't into the moment. Did you feel that way as it was happening or did you come out of that kiss thinking she definitely had feelings invested in you?

Brandon Andreen: No, I think that that was the point that I realized, well -- A) I (laughs) apparently -- when I was in that situation, I just wanted to kiss her. And you know, I look back and I definitely don't think that that was the right time to kiss her. (Laughs) I don't know. I just did it and I don't know how she felt about the kiss.

I felt like it was a little, you know, it wasn't passionate. It was a, "Hey, how are you?" kind of a kiss more on her end than I think on my end. So you know, I did it. It is what it is.

Reality TV World: You seemed so confident that you were safe going into this week's Rose Ceremony, so I'm wondering where the miscommunication came from. Do you almost feel like Des led you on a little bit or would you say, as Chris Harrison had suggested in his blog, that maybe you failed to read her signs?

Brandon Andreen: Yeah, I think that with the overwhelming [stuff that] was going on, with everything -- just the house -- it was something that I've never done. I've never done anything like this, so the fact that in real life, I'm usually pretty good at reading signs and actually being able to tell that someone's not feeling you.


And typically, I don't just rush into meet a girl at a restaurant and say, "Hi this is" -- just throw up all this information all over you and then I'm gone. No, I just, I don't know. I feel like it was just the way it was supposed to go.  

Reality TV World: What was it about Des exactly that you were falling in love with? What qualities did she have or personality traits that made you feel like you'd be a perfect match together? I know at one point during Monday night's episode, you said you thought you two were meant for each other.

Brandon Andreen: I don't know, it was a build-up! It was the whole journey -- not just on the show, but the journey of getting to the show and moving out here to California a couple weeks before the show.

It just seemed like it was so perfect, and then to meet her and find out that she is so happy. That's one of the biggest qualities that I could find in a woman -- is for her on a daily basis to wake up and say, "This is going to be a great day," no matter what the weather is or what's going on, to have that positivity.

And that's what I found with her, is that she was just a beautiful person inside and out, and I loved that about her. So it's the vibe that you get from a woman and her vibe is just amazing. She's just Des. She's just her and I love that. She's not like anybody else. She's not like past Bachelorettes. She's Des and she's just been the same girl from the first episode on [Sean Lowe]'s season until now.


And so, I love that she stayed true to herself and hadn't changed, and I do believe that the emotions that I was feeling and the connection that I was feeling were just on the aspect of, "I know who I am and I have a pretty good idea who she is, and on the flip-side, she knows who she is but she didn't really know much about me besides the stuff that I talked about, growing up and things like that." So I think that's kind of why we were off.

Reality TV World: Throughout the seasons, it's become known that The Bachelor and The Bachelorette environment really speeds up feelings for the contestants just because you have nothing else to do or think about all day long and things like that. Had you met Des and gotten to know her in a different setting, do you think maybe you wouldn't have felt so strongly for her?

Brandon Andreen: Oh, you know, if I would've met Des in a different environment and walked up to her at a restaurant or something like that, I think that it would've been obviously a little bit of a different situation. Because just like you said, feelings and emotions and timing is everything when it came to The Bachelorette.

I needed to -- I prayed about it. I really talked to my friends and family about it, and then when I got there, obviously I didn't plan on just talking about all of these things that happened in my life. It wasn't the plan, but it was honestly what was just meant to be, and so I don't have any regrets about what I said.

I think that in a different atmosphere, absolutely, we would've 100% had a different connection. It's just difficult when you have 25 men vying for her love, and you know, at least half of those men are absolutely worthy and deserving of a love that's Des' to give.


Above is what Brandon had to say to Reality TV World during a Thursday conference call with reporters. Check back with us on Friday for some additional highlights from his call.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski