Who is Victoria Paul, nurse, "Bachelor" contestant and pageant winner?
"The Bachelor" spoilers ahead. Peter Weber has made some interesting choices on his path to love/flight this season of "The Bachelor". One contestant we know relatively well is Victoria Paul, who (like many of his women this season) is a pageant winner and has a really interesting back story. She also has a good run on the show, judging by the spoilers. What do we know?
Paul is Miss Louisiana USA and is from Alexandria. She competed in Miss USA and placed in the top 15. She has spoken many times about her pageant experience and it is obviously an important part of her life. According to her pageant bio (opens in new tab), she works part time in dermatology and full time in emergency medicine as a licensed practical nurse.
She also has a really interesting backstory: "Victoria is passionate about fitness and health, but she is also passionate about empowering and motivating others, especially children. This 26-year-old woman draws inspiration from her own difficulties she faced as a child. At one point, Victoria and her family lived in a homeless shelter.
This is Paul:
And here he is with his fellow pageant winners (she is on the far right):
Paul looked like a prime candidate early on after a one-on-one date at the Canyon Club in California where they line danced. During the evening portion of the date, Paul opened up to Weber about his difficult childhood, explaining that his mother was a drug addict and that the family lived in a shelter and sometimes went hungry. Weber was impressed by her bravery, and the two formed a strong bond. On subsequent dates, Weber mentioned several times that Paul was a contestant he trusted deeply.
This made what happened next particularly dramatic: over the course of three episodes, the same pageant queen, Alaya Benavides, became public enemy number one in the house, was eliminated, and was then un-eliminated. Paul first told Weber that he barely knew Benavides and that Benavides had lied about her, but then she admitted that she had lied - they were friends and had been to Las Vegas together. Webber and we were... . were confused.
Paul's Instagram no longer appears to be private. She made it private in mid-September, which is a typical pattern for someone on the show, and making a profile public again is usually a sign that the person has been eliminated or has left the show. Note, though, that this is entirely speculative and could mean nothing here. Paul has not said anything about the show or her time on it (for obvious contractual reasons), but she has posted about her pageant work:
How her journey will end is undetermined. Here's what we know about Weber's entire season (opens in new tab).
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