The Bachelor alum Jade Roper is reflecting back on her big Playboy reveal on Chris Soules' season and admits she wishes she had felt more empowered about her sexy photo shoot at the time.
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During a recent appearance on Us Weekly's "Here for the Right Reasons" podcast, Jade dished on the moment she told Chris she had modeled nude for Playboy magazine.
"I never felt pressure [from producers] to do anything, but I do know [the Playboy photo shoot] was something they wanted me to bring up," Jade, 34, told Us.
"I think I always kind of had that idea, like, that dread in the back of my mind of when that moment was going to happen. But if I would have told [producers], 'I'm not going to do it,' they obviously would have just pivoted, and I never would have felt forced to [talk about it on the show]."
Looking back on her Playboy past, Jade shared, "I just wish that I would have felt more empowered about it."
"I think at the time, I just felt a little slut-shamed about it. I just felt very shamed, which I don't at all anymore," she said.
Chris appeared a little shocked when he looked at a few of Jade's risque modeling photos during her hometown date considering she was from the small town of Gering, NE.
Chris, a farmer from Arlington, IA, assumed Jade was quiet and innocent and that they shared the same small-town values, but the bachelorette's family called her a "free spirit" and "wild mustang."
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Chris never said Jade's Playboy photo shoot was a dealbreaker, but he decided to send her home in fourth place after her hometown date.
Chris wrote in his People blog at the time, "Talking to her family, I realized very quickly that I didn't really know the real Jade... I've said before that I want some edge in my future wife. I love to unleash and let go and have fun."
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"But that was basically the opposite of the Jade I'd seen up until that point. The Jade I knew was quiet, shy, almost meek. I was intrigued by what her family was saying, but almost disturbed by the fact that the Jade I knew was so different from what they were describing."
Chris added that he had "reluctantly obliged" to look at Jade's nude photos and found the moment "extremely uncomfortable."
Chris explained at the time, "Let's be honest, there are things in my past that I'm not proud of. If Jade was my soul mate and 'the one,' I would never let that come between us... Seeing those photos did not change how I felt about her. But how I felt about her after meeting all the girls' families was just not strong enough to move our relationship to the next level."
But times have changed since then, and a woman having posed nude in a photo shoot would probably not be that shocking on The Bachelor franchise now.
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"I think that's one good thing about the show now, is that they're having more real conversations about stereotypes... and letting women step into their own power, I guess," Jade shared on the podcast.
"I feel like [Season 11 The Bachelorette star] Kaitlyn Bristowe was able to do that. She was just herself and when she did get the backlash, there was kind of this change where people were like, 'It's not okay to judge a woman on things that she's allowed to do!'"
As The Bachelor fans probably recall, Kaitlyn made headlines for having sex with Nick Viall during a date in Ireland that took place long before the overnight Fantasy Suite dates.
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"And so I like that the show is showing more real talk and real life and real natural human desires -- or what's kind of our own rights. We're just allowed to live," Jade said.
Although Jade didn't win Chris' heart, she went on to fall in love with Tanner Tolbert on Season 2 of Bachelor in Paradise.
The pair got engaged during the finale of Bachelor in Paradise that aired in 2015 and they're happily married now with three children: Emerson, 3, Brooks, 19 months, and Reed, 4 months.
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"There's a part of me that would love a fourth, but at the same time, I look at Reed and I think maybe his destiny is to be the baby of the family," Jade said.
"I think nobody really knows what to expect [after you have kids] until you're in it. And you're like, 'Oh, my gosh, nobody told me these things.'"
As for Chris, he broke up with his The Bachelor winner Whitney Bischoff shortly after they got engaged on the March 2015 finale of his series.
"I was sad for Whitney when they broke up because I know how much she really loved him. And she was my friend and I know how stressful it was for her post-show with their relationship," Jade told Us.
"So, it was really sad for me because I was sad for her, but now she's happily married [to Ricky Angel] and has a sweet baby. It all worked out."
Chris was most recently linked to Peter Weber's The Bachelor bachelorette Victoria Fuller.
"I was really surprised about the Victoria thing," Jade admitted. "I was like, 'Oh!'"
Now that Matt James The Bachelor season has wrapped, ABC is currently filming The Bachelorette's seventeenth season starring Katie Thurston. The franchise will also air Season 18 of The Bachelorette starring Michelle Young later this year.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
