The Bachelorette's Doug Mason has spoken out about getting compared to Taylor Frankie Paul's ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen.
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"It doesn't bother me that people compare me to him. Eventually you know, who's to say, maybe we'll meet," Doug teased during a recent appearance on the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast.
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Doug revealed to co-hosts Charity Lawson and Rachel Recchia that his mother had nominated him for The Bachelorette's 22nd season and he ultimately decided to do the show, in part, because Taylor -- whom he called "beautiful" and "fiery" -- looked like his ex-girlfriend.
Charity pointed out how many fans, coincidentally, have been comparing Doug and Dakota, saying that they look very similar.
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"It's interesting because our initials are similar, or the same. Me being Doug Mason and he is who he is," Doug acknowledged.
But Doug said the comparison hasn't gotten under his skin because he hasn't even met Dakota.
"I don't know the guy. I only know what I've heard about him, which I don't really love what I've heard," he confessed.
"So I hate to be compared to somebody who has treated Taylor like that."
However, Doug repeated how he doesn't know Dakota personally.
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"I can't judge him. I just hope that people can see me for who I am. That's really all I want, is for us to be treated differently," Doug noted.
"But other than that, it doesn't really bother me. I've gotten past that. On the show, it got a little silly... It was not just the boys [saying it], it was the show in general."
Doug went on to explain, "People would bring him up, I would be there thinking, 'I'm right here.' And then of course as we went on with the show, I expressed clearly [to Taylor] that there may or may not be some unfinished business."
Doug teased that The Bachelorette fans will "get to watch that" for themselves if the season eventually airs on ABC.
"You'll be able to see what I said," he noted.
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While Doug didn't reveal what exactly he had told Taylor while filming The Bachelorette last year, he confirmed that they had a conversation about Dakota, the father of Taylor's youngest son, Ever True.
"It was just clear, I don't know, maybe it's because I've been in toxic relationships before and I think you start to sense, you know, you start to get a little bit of information," Doug said.
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But the lifeguard and aspiring musician insisted he gave Taylor a fair chance, despite her messy past, which includes cheating on ex-husband Tate Paul, the father of her two other kids Indy and Ocean.
"I never judged her when I went into it. I just took a lot of facts and I gave her the opportunity to kind of show me who she really is before I had these blanket statements," Doug shared.
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"But as we went on, I started to recognize that maybe I was a little bit more willing to open up [and] more willing to express how I felt, especially once we got further."
Taylor allegedly having walls up made Doug question if they could truly have a future together.
"I kind of thought you know, 'Somebody that is really ready for something in this situation may resemble the attributes that I'm expressing,'" Doug told Charity and Rachel.
Doug teased that he had sleepless nights on The Bachelorette because he couldn't quiet his thoughts.
"I [was] going over everything constantly. I'm turning the thing over, flipping that stone over a thousand times," he recalled.
"But neither here nor there, her and I had a wonderful connection. But yeah."
Because Doug and Dakota look alike, Doug revealed "there was a point" on The Bachelorette when he felt like "they were targeting me."
"But not the guys," Doug clarified.
"The guys, at the end of the day, we all were there to see what happens. So even if there were little, I don't want to call it envy or jealousy because at the end of the day, all of those guys had so much to offer."
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Doug shared how those guys are now his "closest friends" in the real world.
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"So we all had something great to offer Taylor. And to be honest with you, I'm pretty good at disarming," he said.
"I know what that feels like, having to move around as much as I did... I moved around my whole life. So I've constantly walked into people who don't know me and they judge me. So I'm very used to that."
Doug said that at a certain point in his journey, it became evident people were judging him before they got to know him.
"You'll have to wait and see," he concluded.
Based on clues Taylor has dropped on social media, many fans believe Doug was the winner of her The Bachelorette season, which was supposed to premiere on March 22 but got canceled after a video leaked of a 2023 domestic dispute Taylor had with Dakota.
(Dakota recently made more domestic violence allegations against Taylor, which has resulted in an ongoing court battle for custody of Ever, 2. Taylor, however, avoided charges at their latest hearing).
In a TikTok video Taylor posted on March 15, she briefly grabbed onto a man's arm, which appeared to be very muscular and have light hair on it.
"[That is] somebody that's in my life, yes," Taylor noted March 18 on Good Morning America.
The 31-year-old MomTok creator, however, refused to elaborate so as not to spoil her The Bachelorette ending.
"[I] can't give away too much," The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star said at the time. "That would ruin the surprise, wouldn't it?"
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Click here to read all the spoilers for Taylor's The Bachelorette season and find out her winner and how her journey ended.
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