As Bachelor in Paradise Season 8 gets underway on ABC, returning cast member Aaron Clancy is setting the record straight about his interactions with costar Genevieve Parisi. To hear him tell it, he and Genevieve were “completely platonic” after she got the boot from The Bachelor Season 26, despite another contestant’s accusations to the contrary. But Aaron did set his sights on Genevieve when he got to the beach for Bachelor in Paradise Season 8, he said.
For background info, former Bachelor contestant Shanae Ankney alleged in the Bachelor Season 26 “Women Tell All” special that Genevieve hooked up with Aaron — who vied for Katie Thurston’s heart in The Bachelorette Season 17 — after she got eliminated from the dating competition.
But in a new interview, Aaron told Us Weekly that he was “shocked” by Shanae’s claim, adding that he had met Genevieve twice by that point and had a “completely platonic” relationship with her.
Aaron, an insurance agent from San Diego, California, also said that “nothing changed” between him and Genevieve by the time of Season 26’s “After the Final Rose” special, when fans saw the pair seated next to one another. (According to Aaron, that seating assignment wasn’t his or Genevieve’s choice.)
And though Aaron returned to Bachelor in Paradise with an “open mind” after starring in the show’s seventh season, the gossip about him and Genevieve did put her on his radar for BiP Season 8. “It made me really kind of look and see — is there potentially something [there] or why not give it a shot?” he said. “We’re both on the beach, that’s what it’s for. I definitely figured, ‘Why not?’”
Premiering in the fall for the first time ever, Bachelor in Paradise Season 8 kicked off on Tuesday, September 27, with drama aplenty — and only a portion of the cast members who will ultimately arrive in the idyllic Mexican resort.
“Nearly a year after the last rose was handed out on the beach, Bachelor in Paradise returns with the largest-ever cast of fan favorites from The Bachelor franchise,” ABC said in a press release about the new season. “With Jesse Palmer as host and Wells Adams returning to the bar, the latest group of hopeful hotties and a few sexy surprises are ready to make waves and catch feelings this fall when the eighth season of the hit series returns.”
Bachelor in Paradise, Mondays and Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC