45 Wild Rules You Didn’t Know ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ Contestants Have to Follow
Bachelor in Paradise is iconic—by which I mean ABC trapping a bunch of rejected contestants from The Bachelor and The Bachelorette in a resort together and basically just...seeing what happens. While the vibe on the beaches of Paradise is definitely more chill than Bachelor Mansion, there are still a ton of rules the cast has to follow—especially when it comes to drinking, privacy (what’s that? This show has never heard of it), and sex in the “boom-boom room.” And truly don’t even get me started on the contract everyone has to sign before they step foot on the sandy beaches in Mexico.
We’ve rounded up a buncha rules these poor souls are contractually obligated to deal with (although that doesn’t stop them from speaking out once their NDAs are up...hi, @ Blake Horstmann and Dylan Barbour!), not to mention some TRULY juicy BTS dirt straight from the set. Please sit back, relax, pretend you’re on a beach somewhere even though you’re definitely hiding under a blanket in bed, and feel free to enjoy with a large cup of happy juice aka white wine and Red Bull—a favorite in Paradise. Bye!
How long does it take to film Bachelor in Paradise, you ask? That would be three weeks, meaning that contestants have to block out at least that much time. Although considering most of them are full-time influencers by the time they go on the show, this isn’t a huge deal.
According to Reality Steve, Bachelor in Paradise aired for six weeks in 2019, but the show “filmed for about 21 days in June.”
Just so we’re all on the same page, this means that ABC expects BiP contestants to fall in love in...*checks notes* just three weeks.
There are no rules against getting your flirt on early. It’s common for contestants to slide into those DMs way before filming starts. Wells Adams revealed to Entertainment Tonight that Kendall Long and Leo Dottavio hit it off before coming onto the show, saying, “In Kendall’s defense, everyone talks before the show. And as you should, because the odds of really finding someone to get engaged are pretty small if you don’t know anybody, so if you have the opportunity to kind of feel people out beforehand, it’s a good idea.”
Remember how Kendall talked to Leo before filming? Clearly, she didn’t immediately pick up on his, shall we say, *intense* vibes. The Jason Momoa lookalike was kicked off the show for throwing a drink on her now-ex boyfriend, Joe Amabile—even calling him “Grocery Store Bitch” before being tackled by a producer.
Dean Unglert confirmed that there *is* a drink limit on Bachelor in Paradise—specifically two per hour.
Chris Bukowski said, “In Paradise, it’s always 5:00. I woke up in the morning and I had a glass of vodka soda—actually two—before I went down to the house. I didn’t eat anything. There’s not much to do.”
Less a rule, more a way of life. This one comes straight from Wells, who said, “No one drinks beer because everyone is terrified of carbs. The only people that drank beer were [Chris] Bukowski and...me, probably.”
In the words of Wells, “So Hannah G. started the trend of this horrible drink called Happy Juice, which is white wine and Red Bull and it was so gross. It’s an allegory for Paradise: weird and gross but also, like, makes a lot of sense because you’ve got to stay up late. At the beginning, everyone made fun of it and by the end of it, everyone was drinking it!”
Say it louder for the people in the back. Those just looking for Insta brand deals should skip the trip to Paradise. Brendan Morais and Pieper James infamously found themselves in hot water after the news that their relationship allegedly began back home came to light.
At least according to Dylan, who revealed this nugget of info during his rant against The Bachelor. When asked if people simply sign onto the show for a free vacation, he said in a now-deleted tweet: “I think it’s a mix. Absolute wild experience, but there’s a chance you meet someone for real. You all take psych exams, so you could be scientifically matched.”
“They have psychologists on board, and it’s their job to mentally assess you to see how you’re going to react to situations,” Kalon McMahon said back in 2014. “I have to admit they are very good at their jobs.”
Since swim trunks aren’t exactly conducive to microphone packs, ABC makes the men wear matching necklaces with a mic built in. Truly the cutting edge of fashion and technology over here.
Obviously, signing your life away to Bachelor in Paradise means you gotta kiss on camera—but fear not, producers will turn around! This also comes from my new favorite person Dylan Barbour, who said in a now-deleted tweet, “Looooool, yeah the producers just turn around” when a fan asked, “Is it awkward making out with all the cameras/crew staring at you?”
If contestants get a fantasy suite date, they have to wait all night long for actual one-on-one time. According to Evan Bass, “Couples really only get a few hours of alone time,” and the fantasy suite portion “doesn’t start until the wee morning hours. Ours was 2:30 a.m.”
“You’re around enough people who have everything that no matter what, you’re fine,” Bibiana Julian told Refinery29. “You end up using everybody’s stuff. It’s like one big dressing room.”
So this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule by any means—but lots of contestants get waxed before heading to Paradise.
“I got a Brazilian wax and lasered my mustache and armpits,” Alexis Waters told Refinery29, while Dominique Alexis said, “I actually waxed for the first time for Paradise! It was quite the experience.”
Wells Adams was a bartender on BiP season 6, and yep: He actually worked full-time. “I’m there every day and would usually work like an eight- or nine-hour shift,” he told TV Insider. “So yeah, I’d get up there, go set the bar up, and then they’d start sending people down to my bar. And it depends—if it’s a rose ceremony, then that’s a night shoot. So generally, if I’m there really, really late and then they’d give me the morning off.”
Ultimately, producers have the final say in what goes down on this show. Example? Katie Morton said that her post-show reunion with Chris Bukowski was brutal thanks to production taking her ring.
“I asked for it, and they said no,” she told Olivia Caridi. “They brought it out during a time when they felt it was necessary. Whenever I get really stressed, I’ll also randomly cry. So Chris Harrison said, ‘I see you’re not wearing your ring,’ and that was a breath of like, ‘If I could only f*cking say it...’ I didn’t know how to say that this wasn’t my choice.”
Producers urge contestants to avoid certain types of clothing. You could be asked to change out of anything with “busy prints,” or looks that match your partner’s a little too well. “There was one time Caelynn and I were on camera together and I wanted to wear white and she was already wearing white and they were like, ‘You shouldn’t wear whatever, you look like you belong to a cult or something,’” Dean Unglert told Us Weekly. “There’s definitely some cases where I wanted to wear something and they, like, advised me not to.…They’re not super strict with the dress code.”
“There are cameras everywhere and there’s nowhere to hide,” a former producer told People. “So when cast members behave outrageously, they allow themselves to forget there are cameras and just get caught up in the moment.”
This horrifying BTS fact comes courtesy of Wells, who told TV Insider, “This is something that people don’t realize: All of those day beds that everyone goes and like sits on and stuff? Those get wet and then inevitably get moldy smelling. By the end of the season, those daybeds are nasty. If you’ve gotten to the end there and you’re about to get engaged, uh, you’re avoiding those.”
While cameras are never not lurking, it sounds like what happens in the ocean stays in the ocean. Just ask Raven Gates, who said, “When I was on, [Adam Gottschalk] would take me into the ocean and say some dirty sh*t to me.”
Bachelor in Paradise is filmed at an actual resort in Sayulita, Mexico, called the Playa Escondida—and everyone is basically trapped there. Except when they go on dates, which typically take place at...
It’s called Vidanta Resort Nuevo Vallarta, and Glamour reports that a ton of the special one-on-one dates on BiP go down here.
Per Glamour, the Vidanta Resort Nuevo Vallarta is where the Bachelor in Paradise production offices are based and where former host Chris Harrison holed up. Weirdly, it’s a full hour away from Playa Escondida.
According to ABC’s Robert Mills, franchise leads are occasionally chosen after making a splash in Mexico. “You saw the villains get redemption and those are sometimes the best stories that we tell,” he told E! News. “I think that’s when we started to say nobody can ever be discounted.” Isn’t that right, Nick Viall????
They’re basically just on vacation. Former host Chris told Glamour that he was essentially straight chilling—like, to the point where his family and friends visited him.
“Honestly, I get a lot of downtime. I’m here at the resort. My kids come into town. My friends come into town. It was hard for me to leave planet Earth and come down to Mexico the first time we did this three years ago, but about halfway through our time in Tulum, it was like, ‘Wait a minute. This is the greatest gig in the world! Let’s unplug and just enjoy.’ It’s my summer camp.”
So if you’re wondering why everyone looks so sweaty on camera...there’s literally no AC. Why would they do this to people, you ask? To make sure contestants ditch the comfort of their rooms and head outside to the beach or pool. As Mikey Tenerelli told Flare, “You got out of the shower and you were basically sweating again.”
While the BiP cast has already been vetted by producers, the eligibility form to be part of Bachelor Nation makes this pretty clear: “Applicants may not presently be a candidate for any type of elected political office (‘Candidate’) and may not become a Candidate from the time the application is submitted until at least one (1) year after initial broadcast of the last episode of the Program in which the applicant appears, if selected.”
Oh, so you think the weddings in Paradise are real? Nah, turns out, everyone is faking it. Marcus Grodd dropped this bombshell after he and Lacy Faddoul got married at the end of BiP season 2, saying the ceremony wasn’t legal: “When we came back, we were supposed to start the paperwork. But she stalled. I feel duped.”
CNN obtained the contract and had it looked at by NYC-based attorney Nicole Page, who said that it gives the producers permission to “basically take your image and do whatever [they] want with it and [they] own it and you have no recourse.”
It’s right there in the contract, which gives ABC “the right to change, add to, take from, edit, translate, reformat or reprocess...in any manner Producer may determine in its sole discretion.”
Even contestants on other franchises, like Bachelor in Paradise Australia star Cassandra Mamone, don’t always love what they see. Cassandra called out the show, saying, “I own whatever comes out of my mouth directly but I will not own pieces of different interviews at different times pieced together to steer a narrative. Thank you to those who realized the editing on this ripper!”
Blake Horstmann once went on a rant about producers manipulating him, saying, “Okay, so this is gonna be a long one...but f*ck it, I’m off contract...When I received the date card, I 100% planned to take Hannah. I even left my interview saying I was gonna take Hannah. When I walked out of the interview, three producers sat me down for close to an hour and convinced me to take Tayshia. It was 100% my decision; they didn’t force me or anything, but at that point I really truly did trust the producers and that they had my best interest. Obviously, I was very wrong and they didn’t want me to be happy with Hannah bc that would have very much ruined their plans for the season...”
This comes courtesy of another fun part of the contract, which states “actions and the actions of others displayed in the Series may be disparaging, defamatory, embarrassing or of an otherwise unfavorable nature and may expose me to public ridicule, humiliation, or condemnation.”
Delightful!
Amy Kaufman confirmed that contestants are pressured into proposing in her tell-all book Bachelor Nation, saying that producer Elan Gale tried to make Chris Bukowski propose to Elise Mosca—even though he fully didn’t want to and “couldn’t stand her.”
Okay, yes, BiP producers might take, uh, liberties in the edit room, but as far as drama goes, what you see is what you get. “Producers aren’t forcing people to do questionable things,” the anonymous producer told People. “There are no storylines written. The worst thing they’ll do is let people know that the people who succeed here tend to make a lot of friends or find someone to be in a relationship with.”
Unlike The Bachelor and The Bachelorette (where you have to pay your own way...including outfits), ABC pays contestants to be on Bachelor in Paradise. Specifically, you can make between $7,000 and $15,000 per season.
An anonymous producer told People that intimate relationships are inevitable on BiP, because it’s basically adult summer camp. “It’s like real life is suspended. Time is just different there. You’re filming around the clock; production is around the clock and it’s around-the-clock partying....The whole point of the show is that to succeed you need to make friends, and people feel it’s advantageous to drink and hook up and find a boyfriend or girlfriend.”
Oh, and speaking of hookups....
When it comes to hooking up, anything goes on Bachelor in Paradise—meaning they don’t have to wait for fantasy suites. Sure, the suites are a great way to have swanky privacy, but Evan Bass said there’s a sex room on-set. To quote: “There was even a room back at the Paradise ranch we called the boom-boom room.”
That aforementioned anonymous producer dropped this salacious nugget of info, saying, “There’s a lot of sex on the various shows that happens that never airs.” Like...okay!
And by that I mean there’s always an ambulance on hand. Like...just lurking there in case an erectile dysfunction specialist has a medical emergency (hi, Evan).
While the resort is lovely, the Bachelor in Paradise cast doesn’t exactly get the all-star treatment. Kalon McMahon told ABC, “It’s literally like summer camp for adults. We’re sleeping on bunk beds on top of each other, all sharing two showers, eating terrible food. It is not a glamorous life at all.”
During filming, Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants have to fend for themselves in the Bachelor Mansion kitchen—but it looks like food is provided courtesy of the resort on BiP.
Annaliese Puccini told Women’s Health, “While in Paradise, I would have egg whites with cheese, pico de gallo, and avocado or guacamole with a side of fruit. The resort makes epic guac, so I’d eat it with almost every meal. I’d also have an iced coffee with coconut milk to give me some energy for the long days.”
Like, actual crabs. Mikey Tenerelli told Flare, “The first night after we all met each other, I walked into my room and I saw two crabs fighting. They were literally dueling. I was like, ‘This is going to be a long trip.’”
(Don’t have a crab photo, so just using this pic of Bachelor Nation’s Queen Tayshia, thanks for understanding.)
45 Wild Rules You Didn’t Know ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ Contestants Have to Follow
Bachelor in Paradise is iconic—by which I mean ABC trapping a bunch of rejected contestants from The Bachelor and The Bachelorette in a resort together and basically just...seeing what happens. While the vibe on the beaches of Paradise is definitely more chill than Bachelor Mansion, there are still a ton of rules the cast has to follow—especially when it comes to drinking, privacy (what’s that? This show has never heard of it), and sex in the “boom-boom room.” And truly don’t even get me started on the contract everyone has to sign before they step foot on the sandy beaches in Mexico.
We’ve rounded up a buncha rules these poor souls are contractually obligated to deal with (although that doesn’t stop them from speaking out once their NDAs are up...hi, @ Blake Horstmann and Dylan Barbour!), not to mention some TRULY juicy BTS dirt straight from the set. Please sit back, relax, pretend you’re on a beach somewhere even though you’re definitely hiding under a blanket in bed, and feel free to enjoy with a large cup of happy juice aka white wine and Red Bull—a favorite in Paradise. Bye!
Check out all the absolutely bizarre rules the 'Bachelor in Paradise' cast has to follow, plus some scandalous dirt from behind the scenes on set.
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