Note: the following contains spoilers for “The Bachelorette” Season 20 “Men Tell All.”
Anybody watching Charity’s season of “The Bachelorette” recognizes Brayden as this season’s main troublemaker — even though Brayden, himself, didn’t realize how he’d be portrayed until he left the show.
“I definitely didn’t expect to get that hard of the villain cut,” Brayden told TheWrap. “That was definitely interesting to me, because I didn’t think that I was being a villain.”
Kicking off the first night with a rocky start after bragging about his time with Charity, Brayden found himself in the center of countless arguments among the men before eventually choosing to leave the ABC reality show. Through it all, Brayden claims he was “trying to be [himself]” during his time with Charity and his fellow suitors.
“Maybe the way I came about the show is different maybe than people have come about it previously, and I think part of that comes from me just not having a whole bunch of knowledge about the show,” Brayden said.
After leaving the show, it was only in recounting what happened to his family that they were certain he would get the “villain cut.”
“The entire time I was on the show, I had no idea I was getting a villain cut,” Brayden said. “It wasn’t until I came home, and I was telling my family about everything that happened … [and] they were like, ‘you’re gonna be the villain.’”
Brayden also recalled the tense time watching the first episode of the season with his family, saying, “It might have looked stressful on TV, [but] it was even more stressful when I experienced it in person.”
After ruffling many, many feathers throughout his time on “The Bachelorette,” Brayden admitted he might have interacted with the men differently if he’d had some foresight on the complicated dynamics at hand when you’re all dating the same person.
“I just kind of came into it thinking that we were all friends,” Brayden said, adding that they all experienced the same thing. “I just thought we were going to be leaning on each other in the experience kind of deal, I didn’t realize that like it was going to be used as firepower against me. That was definitely something maybe I might have gone about differently.”
While Brayden admitted pursuing the same woman “made all [the contestants’] friendships all kind of rough,” it’s all water under the bridge as Brayden and the other men are “good” now.
“Overall, I wouldn’t take anything back,” Brayden continued. “I learned a lot. I grew as a person and I’m really grateful for the experience.”
Brayden’s time in Bachelor Nation isn’t over yet, however, as Brayden will be heading to the beach for “Bachelor in Paradise,” as announced during the “Men Tell All” reunion special. A clip shown during the “Tell All” teases sparks flying between Brayden and Kat from Zach’s season of “The Bachelor.”
“To be honest, I didn’t watch a whole bunch of Zach’s season besides hometowns, and so there wasn’t really any one specific I was kind of looking for,” Brayden said. “You guys saw me with Kat, so that was a fun one.”
“The Bachelorette” airs Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. CT on ABC and is available to stream on Hulu the day after its premiere.
