"Bachelorette" gets swapped: Was it almost Caila?
On March 14, 2016, fans collectively known as "Bachelor Nation" sat on the edge of their seats as Ben Higgins gave a Neil Lane ring to his longtime frontrunner, Lauren Bushnell, and runner-up JoJo Fletcher was named the next "Bachelorette."
But it wasn't just fans who were surprised. Higgins' second runner-up, Caila Quinn, had reportedly already been courted by producers by the time they decided to cast Fletcher as the star of the next "Bachelorette." According to E! News, ABC had even begun filming in Caila's hometown of Hudson, Ohio earlier this month.
If chosen, Quinn -- who is half-Filipino -- would have been the first minority Bachelorette, and she was very popular in the Bachelor Nation community. The 24-year-old software sales rep had scored the first one-on-one date with Higgins and fallen in love with him. But then, she was given the boot shortly after spending the night with him in the fantasy suite.
To add insult to injury, Higgins -- the Bachelor now famous for breaking the rules and telling two women that he loved them -- made those watershed admissions when there were still three women left. In other words, he confessed his love to Bushnell and Fletcher the same episode he had overnight dates with all three women. He then broke up with Quinn by telling her that he was in love with the two other women.
That brutal turn of events provided what ABC likely thought would be the show's best possible "Bachelorette" storyline. In the end, though, just as JoJo's relationship with Ben "caught up" to his relationship with Lauren, JoJo's storyline (and heartbreaking exit) caught up to Caila's.
The 25-year-old real estate developer from Dallas had joined "The Bachelor" to meet Higgins after having her heart broken by a cheating longtime boyfriend at home, only to have her heart broken again -- creating the perfect setup for a successful season of "The Bachelorette."
Luckily, there appears to be no bad blood between Quinn and the new Bachelorette, with the former posting a photo with a very classy caption on Instagram the morning after the live finale of Ben's season.
Perhaps the only thing missing was a rose emoji.
