Evan Bass is blaming his and Carly Waddell‘s divorce on what he calls their “somewhat unorthodox” beginnings.
As fans of Bachelor Nation are well aware, Evan and Carly first met on Season 3 of Bachelor in Paradise. At first Carly couldn’t stand Evan, but he wooed her, and by the end of the summer, they were engaged.
In an interview last week with Bachelor Nation alums Mike Johnson and Bryan Abasolo, as reported in People, Evan claimed that meeting Carly, “changed my life. [Paradise] created this amazing bubble where I was able to connect with Carly, and I think it’s beautiful what that can do.”
That said, Evan also partially attributed the couple’s long-term issues to the fact that their romance began in an such an unusual way.
“I think when we got out of it, we weren’t able to set a proper foundation,” acknowledged Evan. Bachelor in Paradise gives you a kind of foundation that’s very — there’s nothing going on, right? You just have to work on your relationship. And you talk about real-life stuff and for me, it was very genuine, and I think when you get out, that transition, I think that’s probably where we missed it.”
Evan continued, “Like communicating about values and just communication in general. Figuring out how to work through life. I have obviously other children that aren’t with Carly, and so, there was just a lot to work through.”
Evan and Carly met on the show in 2016, and after three years of marriage and two kids together, shocked Bachelor Nation when they announced their separation in December 2020.
Following the divorce, Evan turned to therapy, looking for healing. “I have done a ton of therapy, like I started doing — I’ve been doing therapy for years — but I made sure that it was every week,” he said.
Evan added that he also paid attention to his physical health in an effort to “make sure I had as much of a chance to sort of rebound quickly as I could.”
Evan said that despite the work he has done on himself, he is “not out of it.”
“I still feel like it’s hard talking about it. I feel emotional, just thinking about it. It’s a deep sadness still,” Evan shared. “I don’t know if you ever just get completely perfect. There’s the scars and the wounds. They heal but they’re also there to teach you, and teach me, and I’m trying my best.”
In addition to three older sons from a previous marriage, Evan and Carly share son Charles “Charlie” Wolf and daughter Isabella “Bella” Evelyn.
When the pair first met on the beach while filming Bachelor in Paradise, alums Evan (who competed for JoJo Fletcher‘s heart on The Bachelorette) and Carly (from Chris Soules‘ season of The Bachelor) appeared to be an unlikely duo. Who can forget when the pair was forced to compete in a kissing contest immmediately following eating a hot pepper, and Carly couldn’t stop throwing up? That was a bad omen right there.
It wasn’t until Evan faked an injury (he’s admitted as much) that their on-and-off relationship seemed to jell. Even though the exact nature of Evan’s injuriy was never really clear, when Carly accompanied the erectile dysfunction specialist to the hospital, filling out forms as his “Emergency Contact” and sitting beside his bedside comforting him, her feelings for Evan apparently changed. That’s when my mistrust of Evan began. Too bad Carly didn’t listen to me as I was yelling at my TV.
“It was just this thing that was a roller coaster,” Carly has said. “I broke up with him like five times!”
Eventually, the couple fell hard, and Evan proposed on the show’s season finale. But in 2020, they announced their separation after three years of marriage. Some fans were surprised, unlike me who suspected that Evan had been faking all along, just like his fake Paradise injury.
TELL US – WERE YOU A FAN OF CARLY AND EVAN FROM THE START? OR DID YOU REMAIN A SKEPTIC LIKE ME? WERE YOU SURPRISED WHEN THEY SPLIT?
[Photo Credit: by Noel Vasquez/Getty Images]
