Bachelor in Paradise bachelor Aaron Clancy has addressed allegations he was dating two women simultaneously before he left to film the show and began a relationship with Genevieve Parisi.
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Aaron conducted his first interview to “share my truth” since Bachelor in Paradise’s Season 8 finale aired on ABC last month on the December 7 episode of “The Ben and Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast,” co-hosted by Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti.
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Early last month, rumors swirled Aaron had been dating two women simultaneously for at least six months before he left San Diego, CA, to film Paradise in June 2022 and got away with it by telling each woman that the other one was just “a friend.”
One woman said she ended her relationship with Aaron once he joined the Bachelor in Paradise cast, while the other — despite feeling betrayed — apparently chose to wait out the season and reunite with Aaron once he returned home.
“This situation itself is just fabricated completely, and it’s quite upsetting,” Aaron said on the podcast.
Aaron claimed there was “no crossover” between the two women and insisted, “I was not dating multiple people. I was not in a committed relationship with either one of them at any point… The truth will set you free, and at the end of the day, it’s completely B-S.”
Last month, Reality Steve spoiler blogger Steve Carbone reported it appeared Aaron had a “new girlfriend,” a San Diego-based woman whom he apparently began spending time with in Summer 2021. After filming Paradise, the pair appeared to reunite in July, based on the woman’s Instagram account.
The second woman then came forward about a week later and told Carbone that she dated Aaron on and off from September 2021 through May 2022. She claimed they had even raised a puppy together earlier this year.
Carbone uploaded screenshots of Instagram direct messages between the two women from June, showing that they compared timelines while he was off in Mexico striking up a third relationship with Genevieve on Bachelor in Paradise. The women came to the conclusion that Aaron had been two-timing them both for months.
“Were you dating somebody coming onto the show?” Ben bluntly asked Aaron on the podcast. “Were you dating multiple people coming onto the show?”
Aaron replied, “No, no. That’s the main reason I went on this podcast, is to address that. That is simply not true at all.”
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Aaron proceeded to walk listeners through “the timeline” of events from his perspective.
Aaron said his relationship with “Girl A” (whom Carbone had given the pseudonym “Beth”) started in September 2021, when she attended Aaron’s birthday party.
“This last year, I was dating two separate people… [Girl A] that’s releasing text messages and saying certain things about me, that relationship ended. It ended almost a year ago or a little bit less… January [2022] is when [that relationship] changed,” Aaron explained.
Aaron said right after things with “Girl A” ended, he “essentially started dating someone else” the “very next month.” Aaron, however, later clarified that he started seeing “Girl B” (whom Carbone had dubbed “Amy”) in January as well.
“[Girl B] was one of my best friends for four years. There’s a lot of history there and she had another boyfriend for the vast majority of our relationship. It became romantic at the end,” Aaron said.
“But we really got along, and so there was a certain element of, ‘We can move quicker,’ because we had so much history as friends… There was potential for feelings throughout our whole friendship.”
Aaron claimed that although his relationship with “Girl A” had ended by the time he began seeing “Girl B,” lines may have been “blurred” for “Girl A” because there was still ongoing “communication and texting” with her.
“[‘Girl A’], I get where the anger comes in,” Aaron said.
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Aaron, however, said his relationship with “Girl B” was not an official, exclusive relationship once they decided to take their dynamic out of the friend zone.
“I didn’t feel bad about texting [Girl A] while I was with someone else,” Aaron admitted.
“Because that, to me, like, I’m not in a committed relationship [with Girl B]; I can do whatever I want. I wasn’t texting [Girl A] in that [romantic] way. We were communicating because there were leftover feelings there, but… I was super transparent with everyone.”
But “Girl A” told Carbone in November that she and Aaron had dated straight through January through May 2022, shortly before Aaron left to film Bachelor in Paradise.
“We were talking everyday and seeing each other almost everyday… so messed up that he put us in the situation,” the woman allegedly texted to “Girl B” in June, based on the screenshots Carbone had received.
“And then he told me he wanted to go on Paradise but stay with me, and I was like absolutely not. Just so f-cked up!!”
Aaron claimed when he and “Girl B” started dating, they took a trip to Tulum in January 2022 and that’s where he realized they “weren’t compatible relationship-wise.”
After “a blowout fight” or two, Aaron admitted, “It was too much, too fast.”
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Aaron said he and “Girl B” then went through March and April without talking.
“And then I was asked back to Paradise… and then I had dinner with her and told her that I was going to Paradise in May, and she was like, ‘I’m fine with that,'” Aaron said.
In her texts with “Girl A,” “Girl B” had told “Girl A” she had told Aaron she was “fine with him going” on Bachelor in Paradise because “I didn’t want to be in a serious relationship.”
Aaron said he understands why the back-to-back romances may be “a little too close for comfort for anyone.”
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“I get it,” he noted. “But there was no crossover there… ‘Girl A’ was just upset that I moved on so quickly with ‘Girl B’ and she lashed out at me over it.”
Aaron said he was not seeing “Girl A,” in early 2022, even though she had told Carbone their relationship had continued until he left for Paradise.
Ashley called Aaron out for seemingly calling girls “friends” that aren’t really just friends, and Aaron admitted he’s “potentially” made that mistake.
“I wasn’t calling one a friend so I could feel less guilty about seeing someone else. Realistically, [‘Girl A’ and I] were romantic but we weren’t girlfriend and boyfriend, and we weren’t committed at all. She’s dated multiple people since,” Aaron said.
Aaron said “Girl A” — whom he was allegedly done with — was just trying to play off the insecurities of “Girl B,” whom Aaron left San Diego on good terms with, while he was filming Paradise.
“When I talked to Girl B [after returning from Paradise], and I gave her my phone and was like, ‘Hey, look at the receipts.’ She sees that ‘Girl A’ is like, ‘I’m not over you. I want to see you,’ and it was all kind of bullsh-t,” Aaron claimed.
“And the situation was resolved [with ‘Girl B’], and it was resolved months ago. And that was good enough for her, and it should be good enough for everyone else.”
Aaron ultimately believes “Girl A” took to Reality Steve and gave the spoiler blogger “some sort of fake story to bully me online.”
“Reality Steve pivoted from me having a girlfriend to me playing two girls at once and I’m just a piece of sh-t,” Aaron complained.
Aaron also slammed the character of “Girl A” in his interview by claiming he totally lost interest in her when she allegedly started a rumor with her girlfriends that Aaron is gay because Aaron left a bar with his best friend and fellow Bachelor in Paradise alum James Bonsall one night.
“They were all screaming homophobic slurs at me in the bar. They were bullying me, essentially. So I moved on,” Aaron said.
“The credibility of this person is ridiculous and it’s so viscous that it actually makes me sick to my stomach. Because the one thing I do is I don’t lie to people and I don’t play people.”
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Aaron claimed he has his “own receipts” to corroborate his story but he doesn’t want to release them publicly in order to avoid lighting a fire.
Aaron also said he’d never go on Bachelor in Paradise with a girlfriend back home because that’s “a rookie mistake” to make.
Aaron told Ben and Ashley that Paradise producers called him before the show began filming and asked if he was dating anyone. Aaron said he actually listed the two women’s names.
“They know exactly who these people are. I am best friends with producers… and they were aware of my dating history. They know exactly who these people are, and the timeline. So that’s why it’s just not even realistic and it’s upsetting,” Aaron explained.
Aaron said he messed up in previous relationships that occurred in his teens and twenties and he hurt people he truly loved, and so he promised himself he “would never do that again.”
As far as where Aaron stands now with both women, he said “Girl A” allegedly dated two men after him and he saw her at a festival a few months ago. Aaron even claimed she has a boyfriend now.
And with “Girl B,” Aaron suggested they’re still together and dating — but he said he never went to Paradise expecting to rekindle things with her once he got back home.
Aaron claimed because they had been friends for so long, he just wanted to keep their line of communication open.
“There was no intention of rekindling. There was the intention of open communication so that she wouldn’t be super upset when she saw me on the beach,” Aaron said.
Carbone reported last month that “Girl B” is currently Aaron’s girlfriend, but Aaron wouldn’t confirm that.
Aaron revealed his relationship with “Girl B” is “really complicated” right now but they’re definitely “beyond speaking terms.”
“It’s something I don’t necessarily want to put out there in the public right now,” Aaron noted.
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Aaron concluded how this woman’s privacy has been compromised recently and he doesn’t want to continue invading her privacy.
On December 1, Genevieve shared her perspective on Aaron’s scandal during an appearance on Ben and Ashley’s “Almost Famous Podcast.”
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About The Author:
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.