Grant Ellis‘ contestants on season 29 of The Bachelor were thrown for a loop when a mystery woman arrived during the premiere episode to steal the New Jersey native away for some private time.
As the ladies were sitting on sofas inside the Bachelor mansion getting to know each other, a woman’s high heels were shown emerging from a limo outside. The brunette was next seen walking past the contestants in a sneak preview clip obtained by People from the Monday, January 27, episode.
“I feel like the vibe of the group is like we’re all on the same page. We’re all, like, respecting the time,” one of the women told the group optimistically about how they apparently agreed to let Grant, 31, have his time with each of the ladies. They stopped dead in their tracks to watch the mystery woman in a black dress stride past them.
“Who is that? Is that a new person?” one asked, while another wondered, “Is that a new girl?” One of the contestants even said “Hi” to the woman, who gave no response back, as another guessed that she might be “an ex-girlfriend.”
“Who is this person? Why are you here?” contestant Natalie Phillips asked in a confessional. “She means business. She’s here for a reason.”
The ladies were next shown gathering to watch as the woman headed towards Grant and Dina Lupancu‘s one-on-one time on a patio.
“We were making hard eye contact,” the Chicago, Illinois, attorney gushed to Grant, who agreed they “definitely were,” upon meeting for the first time earlier in the evening.
The day trader then looked up with a nervous smile, uttering “Holy s–t,” as the mystery woman asked if she “could steal Grant for a second.”
“He definitely knows her,” one of the contestants was heard saying, while another added, “Tall, beautiful … are you kidding me?” Contestant Rose Sombke said in a confessional, “I cannot compare to this woman.”
Grant previously revealed he was in a seven-year relationship before he and his ex-girlfriend split. That occurred about a year before he signed up to appear on Jenn Tran‘s season 21 of The Bachelorette.
“The trajectory of what I was trying to do and where I was trying to go with my life and my goals and visions, it just ended up creating a rift in the relationship, and then we agreed to separate,” he explained during an episode of “The Viall Files” podcast on August 15, 2024. Grant told host Nick Viall that while the breakup was “painful … a lot of the times the most painful experiences you grow from.”
Grant ended up getting cast for Jenn’s season, but he didn’t win over the physician’s assistant trainee. The former professional basketball player was eliminated in fifth place the week before hometown dates despite telling Jenn, 27, he was falling in love with her.
“I poured everything out, and it wasn’t good enough,” Grant confessed to producers after he was sent home by Jenn after the rose ceremony. “It just sucks knowing that you feel some way about somebody, and they don’t feel the same about you.”
After the episode finished airing on August 12, 2024, ABC announced Grant had been cast as the lead for season 29 of The Bachelor.
