The Bachelor's Allison Hollinger has revealed how she reacted to her older sister Lauren Hollinger's unexpected and abrupt self-elimination from Joey Graziadei's season.
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"We did [talk about it] in the outside driveway. Lauren came out and she was kind of explaining it. [She said], 'I think I'm going to go home,'" Allison shared.
"Well first you came in and you said, 'My talk [with Joey] went so well. It was so great.' And I was like, 'Okay.'"
Allison interjected, "I didn't know she was feeling some kind of way! So she gave me a little attitude and then later, we did end up talking about it in the driveway. She was like, 'I just don't think I can be here anymore.'"
Allison elaborated, "Everything Lauren had been through that whole week kind of brought her down and she couldn't get out of that headspace. So after that, I knew she was definitely planning on eliminating herself."
Allison went on to share how she really felt about Lauren dropping out of the Season 28 competition so early.
"I was [feeling two] ways," Allison noted.
"I was definitely super sad, like, 'This is my sister, my support system in here.' It's hard enough going through this experience alone, so having her there was definitely a bonus."
But Allison explained, "At the same time, having her leave made me able to kind of just focus on my relationship with Joey... There are points when I'm like, 'Hey, it's just me and him, this is great!' But then there's also this side where I'm like, 'Dang, I don't have the one person I'm closest to here to talk through things with.'"
But Allison pointed out that sometimes talking through things with Lauren would make "more of a competition between" them.
"Because I would say things that maybe I shouldn't have with her," Allison confessed. "So I think it made it easier in the end. There were definitely points throughout where I was like, 'Can I do this alone? Will I be able to?' But at the end, I was like, 'No, I'm definitely going to stay.'"
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When The Bachelor producers were casting for Joey's season, Lauren applied for both Allison and herself in separate applications.
"After our dad's passing... we both were in a weird spot in our lives," Allison acknowledged.
"We were like, 'We're having no luck in Philly,' and we were like, 'Why not do something a little out of our comfort zone and go on The Bachelor and meet somebody we might not ever meet?'"
Having their applications arrive back-to-back apparently made them stand out to The Bachelor producers, and so the casting department reached out to them about a month later in April 2023.
Allison and Lauren agreed that they didn't think there was anything weird about competing for the same man on reality TV show.
"We knew what we were going into and how it would go down," Allison noted, adding how both of them were excited when ABC announced Joey as The Bachelor star.
Lauren also explained her decision to quit -- and if she regrets it -- on Joey during the podcast interview.
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At the cocktail party preceding the second Rose Ceremony of Joey's season, Lauren was therefore hoping to "redeem" herself and have a positive and uplifting chat with The Bachelor star.
However, Lauren had to wait her turn, and as more and more bachelorettes had sweet moments with Joey and gushed about their connection with him, Lauren grew impatient and annoyed.
"I had already made such a scene about [being pissed off], and when I'm in a bad mood, I'm in a bad mood," Lauren explained on "Bachelor Happy Hour."
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Joey eventually found Lauren at the cocktail party to check on her, but Lauren began to cry and blurted out, "So I am going to go home."
Lauren apparently lost hope that she could turn things around with Joey; she essentially gave up on the stressful The Bachelor process.
For Joey's part, he just seemed surprised and taken aback by Lauren's choice to leave.
"I didn't expect that. I thought I was checking in on her, but she's made her mind up," Joey said in a confessional during the latest episode.
Joey told Lauren that she was clearly "over" the show and that was "okay" with him. He also apologized for anything he might have done to sway Lauren into quitting.
Joey expressed remorse for how hard the process had been for Lauren, and he noted, "Maybe this setting wasn't the best way for us to get to know each other."
"I'm sorry that it had to happen this way," Lauren replied.
A producer then brought over a cake for Lauren to enjoy, but it wasn't her favorite red velvet flavor -- and she let Joey know that she was, once again, furious.
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On her way out, Lauren smashed the cake on the ground.
"I did see potential with Joey, I really did. I think he's a great guy," Lauren said in her final words on The Bachelor.
"He's handsome as f-ck... I'm going to still find love, it's just not going to be right now. If my dad was here, he'd say, 'I told you not to go on that show.'"
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Click here to learn more about Joey's The Bachelor bachelorettes or click here to read spoilers that reveal how Joey's season ends and who he picked as his winner.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
