Bachelorette Michelle Young is down to her top two contestants, but it wasn’t an easy decision! Us Weekly is breaking down fantasy suite week on “Here for the Right Reasons.”
During the Tuesday, December 14, episode of the ABC series, the 28-year-old lead had overnight dates with Nayte Olukoya, Brandon Jones and Joe Coleman. Catherine Lowe, for her part, told Us that she is “obsessed” with Michelle’s final three.
“You see these guys that are like, ‘Wow, how do you even eliminate anybody?’ And I think that she, based on what we see, I think she did a good job narrowing it to three,” the Bachelor season 17 alum, 35, exclusively told Us. “But I mean, Brandon, every time I stop watching the episode, I go to Sean Lowe and I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this guy, he loves her so much. He’s in ITM saying, I just want to marry her, like, with conviction.’ And he’s like, ‘Are you sure you don’t have a crush on him?’ I’m like, ‘No, I just love how much he loves her.’ He loves her.”
Catherine, who married Sean, 38, in 2014, went on to praise Michelle.
“It’s just been a really fun thing to watch and to watch Michelle just hold her own, be super confident and very poised, very eloquent, communicate how she feels [and] also be very decisive and discerning on how she chooses to talk about certain things,” she told Us. “And that she’s quick. She’s an inspiration and I’ve just been really enjoying watching her create partnerships and relationships with these guys.”
While Sean infamously abstained from sex during his time as the Bachelor, Catherine noted that the time without the cameras in the fantasy suite is crucial, telling Us that the advice she’d give contestants is to take “advantage” of the privacy.
“Because you can talk about anything during those, you know, 12 hours uninterrupted — I don’t know how long, I can’t remember how long it was — but use the time wisely,” she explained. “I know that I’m sure some of it is very, ‘OK, well I want to do things that we can’t do on camera that I feel comfortable with,’ but for the most part, I feel like you can use that time to really have, like, your guard doesn’t have to be up in any sense of the word and you can be totally yourself.”
Catherine added that Sean low-key broke the rules during their 2013 season.
“I remember in our fantasy suite, I think Sean snuck in his iPad, which was like, totally not good,” she told Us. “And we just listened to music and talked about what a normal day would be like. And yeah, you can do that — besides the music — on camera, but just try to replicate as much as you can of what it’s going to look like outside in the real world so that you can see if you’re actually compatible in the real world. I think that that’s something that we did really well and [we used] the time really wisely.”
For a complete Bachelorette recap, watch “Here for the Right Reasons” above.