From day one, Lace has been our pick—not for the woman who would eventually steal Ben’s heart, but for the craziest lady attempting to marry our Bachelor. Of course, you have your token cuckoos every season, but Lace stood out as one we wouldn’t soon forget.
Her insistence that Ben refused to make eye contact with her during the first rose ceremony ensured she made her mark early on. It was quite the solid start for the MTB couple. We kid because clearly these two were not going to happen. We figured it was only a matter of time before Ben sent Lace packing.
But instead, Lace beat him to it and opted to leave on her own this week. Her reasoning? She needed to work on loving herself more. Much to our surprise, we felt a newfound respect for Lace.
We know that many of the women who choose to come on The Bachelor are there for love, fun, the experience, the fame or whatever reason they used to convince their boss (that is, if they have one) to let them take an extended reality TV-related leave of absence. But for every girl who’s there for “the right reasons,” there’s also those who arrive feeling dejected and lonely. This is their last ditch effort to see if they’re worthy of being loved.
As sad as that may be to accept, the emotional roller coaster the environment of The Bachelor—not to mention the show’s producers—puts these women through makes their immense fear of rejection and self-loathing all the more apparent. So for a woman like Lace, who has been all over the place from the moment she stepped out of the limo, to address this matter and take a stand on her own behalf is so refreshing.
Season after season, we cringe as women like Ashley I., Kelsey and Ashley S. (and that’s just the ones from Bachelor Chris Soules’s season) deal with the show’s reality in dramatic waves of crying, pure rage or nonsensical ramblings. And more often than not, we find these women are completely normal, functioning members of society once their time on The Bachelor is complete.
Imagine if every woman—and we’re not just talking about those on The Bachelor—took a step back to focus on herself rather than the extremes around her. Even though we tend to forget, it’s important for us to take care of and love ourselves, above all else.
Kudos to Lace for recognizing that this show was majorly messing with her emotions. In our opinion, it takes a strong, dynamic woman to say she needs to work on loving herself more. Because, honestly, don’t we all?
We hate to see her go, but we’re pretty sure we’ll be seeing Lace on Bachelor in Paradise when the time is right.