Former Bachelor Ben Higgins has some questions about the show’s current leading man, Grant Ellis.
“[Ashley Iaconetti and I] feel like we haven’t gotten to know Grant at all watching this season,” Ben, 35, said on the Thursday, March 20, episode of his and Iaconetti’s “Almost Famous” podcast. Looking to “fill some gaps,” he asked guest Parisa Shifteh, “What do you know about Grant that maybe the audience isn’t seeing? Good and bad.”
The Bachelor contestant’s long pause before answering the question sparked “concern” for Ben. “You should know this. You just got off of a show with him where he was the lead of your season,” he stated. “You should be able to be like, ‘Hey, this is what I know about Grant.’ Instead, you had a little hesitancy.”
Ben questioned whether Parisa, 29, didn’t answer immediately because “that’s coming from you having a hard time answering it where you’re like, ‘I don’t really know how to answer that,’ or you just wanting to phrase it perfectly.” Parisa, for her part, said it was the latter.
“It seems like he genuinely was looking for, you know, yes, he kept saying a wife, but that was more defined as like a best friend,” she explained to Ben. “And he would ask all the girls about, all about themselves. Like, ‘What do you like to do? Where do you want to travel?’ Just to find those common similarities, as well as learning more about them and their background and where they come from.”
Parisa said she thinks Grant’s goal was to “find someone that he really connected with, had both that emotional connection, physical connection, just his best friend that he can do life with.” She added, “I feel like a lot of the conversations were always around that, of like, ‘Where can we be in the future together? How do you see the future with me? How do I see the future with you?’ So, that kind of, I feel like that’s what he was looking for.”
Despite knowing Grant’s love life goals, Parisa said the two didn’t manage to form a deep connection. “Do you feel like you got to know him through this process?” Ben asked her, to which she replied, “Oh, no. And he didn’t really get to know me.”
On the current 29th season of the ABC dating show, Parisa made an impression on fans and Grant, 31, with her hilarious Night 1 PowerPoint presentation about her and Grant’s potential future, as well as her love of rocks and gemstones. The Michigan native made it through the first several rose ceremonies and even scored a group date rose in episode 3. Her Bachelor journey, however, came to an end one week later as Grant’s connections with other women grew stronger.
Post-show, Parisa said she’s looking for someone “who’s down for new experiences and down for adventure.” She shared, “I just love to be spontaneous, and I love new experiences. Sometimes it’s fun to not plan your full day when you’re on vacation because you just kind of want to see where life takes you in a new environment. So, just someone who’s just down for new experiences and who can easily adapt.”
Having an adventurous spirit is something Parisa told Ben that she and Grant shared. “We would have conversations about traveling — we talked about going on a safari,” she said on the podcast. “That’s high on his list right now with travel. And I was like, ‘Oh, wow, like that’s incredible,’ because, I mean, that’s not the most fabulous vacation, going [on] a safari with all these bugs and dangerous animals that could attack you at any second.”
Grant will face the tough decision of choosing between his final two women — Juliana Pasquarosa and Litia Garr — on the show’s Monday, March 24, episode. In his February cover story with Us Weekly, Grant revealed there were “external factors” that played into his proposal hesitancy.
“You don’t wanna hurt people. You have a lot of weight in terms of being a lead of a different ethnic group. There’s a different level of pressure that comes with being a man of color in this role — and a different expectation,” he exclusively shared. “It leads to some added thinking that deserves a little extra time. There were some things that really weighed and were hard for me. But ultimately, you go with what makes you happy and you go with what you feel is gonna be the best decision for your future.”
The Bachelor airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
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