This week on The Bachelorette, we got a blast from the past when contestant Colton Underwood revealed to star Becca Kufrin that he had a previous relationship with a young woman named Tia. The reason this is so dramatic? Tia starred on The Bachelor . . . with Becca.
Which Season of The Bachelor Was Tia On?
Tia Booth was a fan favorite on Arie Luyendyk Jr.'s season. The girl next door from Weiner, AR, Tia greeted Bachelor Nation with a charming Southern accent. Her relationship with Arie was overall very positive, and she was well liked among the women (including previous contestant Raven, who recommended that she go on the show), so it's no surprise that she and Becca are still friends. Tia made it all the way to hometown dates on the season but was sent home heartbroken.
How Did She Meet Colton?
Right now, we're not actually sure how Colton met Tia. It could have been through mutual friends. After all, Colton was at one point dating Olympian Aly Raisman. But Becca brought up a good point: could Colton have gone on the show hoping that Tia would be the Bachelorette? According to Colton, who wanted to be "honest" with Becca, he spent a weekend with Tia, but he was on the show for Becca alone.
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Is Tia Still Friends With Becca?
From what we can tell, last season's group of women was very close-knit, especially when it got down to the final few. Tia was there the night that Becca was announced as the new Bachelorette, and she could have very well been in Becca's shoes. Becca was very emotional when talking to Colton about the relationship; at one point, she said she didn't even want to invest in the relationship.
It will definitely be brought up again because Tia is set to appear next week!
Tia Booth was a fan-favorite on Arie's season of The Bachelor, but despite giving a teary-eyed interview during the Women Tell All special, she wasn't able to take Becca's spot as Bachelorette. Tia may have stepped away from the cameras — for now — but that doesn't mean that her life is any less interesting post-Bachelor. What's Tia been doing since The Bachelor ended in March? The Arkansas native has seriously upped her Instagram game, and when she's not working as a physical therapist, she can be seen jet-setting all over the world.
While Tia was likely a little upset that her friend Becca was chosen to be the next Bachelorette (I mean, how could Becca not be chosen after that finale?), she seems to have recovered. In recent months, Tia has been traveling all over the country to attend weddings, concerts, and TV interviews. In April, the 26-year-old hit up Coachella, where she served up some serious ~festival lewks~ and met up with fellow Bachelor alum (and Arkansas resident) Raven Gates. Raven is now dating her Bachelor in Paradise co-star Adam Gottschalk, but I'm sure that didn't stop the two friends from having the best possible time at Coachella (aka Beychella).
Tia may not have won The Bachelor, but she's managed to leverage her fan-favorite status into a successful influencer career. Based on her Instagram, the Bachelor contestant is making money advertising for more than a few brands, including Velveeta (I can't blame her — their mac and cheese is unreal) and Sand & Sky, an Australian skin care company. It's unclear how much Tia is making off these sponsorships, but it seems like she's still working as a physical therapist, the job she originally had before she hit Bachelor fame. I'm sure that traveling and looking glamorous is a full-time job, but it may not pay all of Tia's bills.
There's no doubt that Tia's life has gotten just a little bit more exciting since she joined Arie's season of The Bachelor. But buckle up, girl, because things are about to get way better (probably). I'm just guessing here, but I'd say there's about a 93 percent chance that Tia makes an appearance on the next season of Bachelor in Paradise. The former Bachelor contestant has everything Bachelor in Paradise producers want: Tia is dramatic (remember when she called out 22-year-old Bekah on a group date for "not being ready" for marriage?), she's obviously gorgeous, and she's been clear that she's still "open to love."
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After Tia so clearly made a case for herself to become the next Bachelorette during the Women Tell All special, Bachelor Nation took to Twitter to explain why Paradise might be a better fit.
More than a few fans on Twitter picked up on the Tia-Raven connection. Raven found love on Bachelor in Paradise, so it would make sense if Tia follows in her footsteps and heads to Mexico for Season 5. Plenty of guys from Becca's season of The Bachelorette will make an appearance, possibly including Grocery Store Joe, and I can think of at least a few who would be a perfect match for Tia's sassy personality. Plus, getting Bekah and Tia back together in Mexico — where there's even more alcohol and drama than in the Bachelor mansion — would be ah-mazing TV. How can Bachelor in Paradise producers pass up that opportunity?
In a recent interview with E! News, host Chris Harrison all but confirmed that Tia (and Bekah) would be joining the Paradise Season 5 cast:
It's a who's who... of Bachelor favorites and a lot of obviously recent names that will be coming from this season of The Bachelorette, people that you haven't even met yet. Obviously, last season with Arie, you have a lot of great Bachelorettes from that. And then we want to sprinkle in some big hitters from other seasons as well.
When I think of "great Bachelorettes" from Arie's season, it's impossible not to think of Tia. Her post-Bachelor life in Arkansas sounds great, but I bet that she'll gladly give up her jet-setting ways for a few weeks in Paradise. Wouldn't we all?
It wouldn't be The Bachelorette if at least one contestant didn't come into the show with a little baggage, and this time, it involves another member of Bachelor Nation. As fans discovered Monday night, Colton Underwood and Tia Booth have history together — but where did it all start? How did Tia and Colton meet before The Bachelorette? The internet (and the last season of The Bachelor) may have had a hand in introducing them.
If you follow Colton on Twitter, you might notice that he tweeted about The Bachelor a lot while it aired earlier this year, with a couple of tweets mentioning Tia specifically. He was definitely crushing on her before Becca was announced the next Bachelorette, and like he told Becca, they dated in January, so they were definitely together before the season finished airing and Colton had the chance to see how things played out.
When Colton had the chance to talk to Becca one-on-one during a group date, he told her something he needed to get off his chest: that he had dated Tia in January. And although he didn't explain exactly how he and Tia met, it seems pretty easy to deduce that it at least had something to do with love at first Bachelor sight.
Exhibit A: these tweets, straight from Colton while watching The Bachelor:
It seems like these heart eye emojis may have led to something real, because as Colton told Becca, they ended up spending a weekend together, but he didn't think the timing between them was right. However, as former contestant Ashley Spivey pointed out, is there a chance Colton went into this thinking that Tia might be the Bachelorette?
It definitely sounds plausible, and even Becca admitted that after that conversation, she did think that maybe he was there for Tia and not her. So far, it's hard to tell if that's actually what's happening here, but it makes sense that she'd be a little sketched out by it.
As the season kicked off last week, there were already rumors floating around about Colton and Tia, and reportedly, he did find his way to her DMs in order to get her attention. The bad news: Colton didn't confirm or deny this in his conversation with Becca. The good news: it still seems like there's a chance for more details to come out this season, and since their chat was pretty limited, it doesn't even seem like Colton's gotten to the truly juicy stuff we're all waiting for just yet.
It also seems like there's more to the story than Colton's sharing, according to Raven Gates, Tia's BFF and fellow ex-Bachelor contestant. While Monday's episode was airing, she tweeted:
If Raven is having the ability to "drag" Colton, that means she definitely knows things that the rest of us aren't privy to — and that Colton didn't bother sharing on The Bachelorette. Becca might be right to be a little skeptical of everything that Colton said to her, and it makes sense that she would be a little hesitant to trust him going forward.
Oh, Raven, spill the tea! For now, the rest of us will just be here, trying to figure out what you meant by that tweet. Details, please.
Although Becca considered eliminating Colton, he's sticking around for at least another week — and as we saw in the preview for next Monday's episode, Tia will be on the show (along with other contestants from Arie's Bachelor season) and Becca is going to confront her about the situation. Maybe we'll get more answers then.
Screw the relationships that the Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants have with the main player of the show — the most important bonds are those between the contestants. You spend any amount of time with a person for like eight weeks without television, Internet, or books, and you’re going to come home best friends forever. It happens every time. The women on Arie’s season of The Bachelor seemed hella tight, so are Bachelor stars Becca and Tia friends?
As I said, Tia and Becca met on Arie’s season of The Bachelor, and, yes, they seemed like they got really close, really fast. They were always together on Arie’s season, and even though they both got really far in the competition (Becca won the whole damn thing, as she would say), there never seemed to be any animosity. And before Becca started her thing as the Bachelorette, Tia posted a picture on her Instagram of the gals from Arie’s season congratulating Becca when her Bachelorette announcement was made.
People like to think that women tear each other down and like to be catty, but in reality, women like Tia and Becca build each other up. Their social media is so supportive of each other. BFFs for life, thanks to Bachelor Nation.
I mean, Tia and Becca are friends. They're in every social media pic together from their time on The Bachelor. This is an easy call.
Unfortunately, things may get a little complicated, because, according to Becca, she and Tia dated the same guy. No, not Arie — a different guy. A guy that Becca didn't know about until he showed up on her season. Colton! Yep, former football player and new Bachelorette contestant Colton dated Tia when she was fresh off of The Bachelor. According to Life & Style, the world doesn't know exactly what happened between Tia and Colton, but Colton allegedly slid into Tia's DMs when The Bachelor wrapped. In another Life & Style article, it was reported that Raven Gates, who is Tia's best friend and was also on Nick's season of The Bachelor, said that Tia was chatting up one of the future cast members of The Bachelorette, so if we want to put two and two together, Colton and Tia were hanging out a little bit before he was on The Bachelorette.
Luckily, this whole thing won't be a big secret for very long — Becca has addressed the issue, telling Entertainment Tonight, "yeah, [Tia and Colton] did have a past, so that's something Tia and I had conversations about. They dated. I don't know how serious it was, but you'll see all of that unfold throughout the season as well." OK, great. So this is clearly not a deal breaker for Becca's relationship with Tia, because she and Tia are talking. It's not either of their fault, really — would I have started talking to someone who might be on my friend's season of The Bachelorette? Probably not. Would I have chatted up the future Bachelorette's friend before appearing on her season? Also probably no, but maybe Colton didn't know at the time.
Not that it seems to be hurting Colton's chances with Becca. Becca told Entertainment Tonight:
"Colton, night one, I remember thinking how big of a heart he had. What really drew me to him that first night was the fact that he had started a nonprofit [for cystic fibrosis], and that's something near and dear to my heart because two of my cousins have it. So night one, I felt like we really connected over that. And he's easy on the eyes."
In any case, it's comforting to know that no matter who Becca and Tia end up with, they'll still be pals.
