On June 15, Kaitlyn Bristowe received a proposal from Chris Harrison to do something she's wanted to do for years. No, she's not getting married to the face of Bachelor Nation. Instead, Harrison asked the Season 11 Bachelorette to join the cast of Dancing With The Stars, and Kaitlyn Bristowe's reaction to the request was full of pure joy.
On Monday's episode of The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons — Ever!, Bristowe went on a video chat with Harrison about her Bachelor journey, as well as her current relationship with Jason Tartick. At the end of the interview, Harrison surprised her with an invitation to join Dancing With The Stars Season 29.
Hilariously, in the build-up to the DWTS announcement, Harrison mentioned he was an ordained minister, which led Bristowe (and fans) to believe Tartick was going to propose. She even checked her SO's pocket for a ring box before realizing there wasn't one.
Harrison then broke the real reason for the build-up by inviting Bristowe to join ABC's Dancing With The Stars. Bristowe was stunned. “Are you serious? I’m shaking. Oh my God. Chris, I’m going to cry," she said. "I feel like this is back to the moment [when] you told me I was the Bachelorette. That is the last thing I thought in the world you were going to say. I thought you were going to ask me to take over your job.”
Many franchise leads have gone on to participate in the ballroom dance competition soon after their seasons ended, but for Bristowe, whose Bachelorette season aired in 2015, this has been a long time coming. In 2017, Bristowe said she was blocked from joining DWTS by Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss. “He said he didn’t want people wanting fame after his show,” Bristowe tweeted. Fleiss responded to that statement on his own Twitter account, writing that Bristowe had his "total support" if she wanted to appear on DWTS. (ABC did not respond to Elite Daily's request for comment on the situation in time for publication.)
Whatever the issue was, it seems to have been worked out, because Bristowe is officially going to appear on DWTS. Following the announcement, Bristowe took to Instagram to express her excitement — through dance, of course. A video of her and Tartick shows she's spent the past few years learning a thing or two about ballroom dancing.
With the coronoavirus pandemic delaying TV productions, Season 29 of DWTS doesn't have an official start date yet. In the meantime, Bristowe is doing what she can to prepare. "My mom has been sending me plenty of YouTube tutorials on how to ballroom dance," she told Entertainment Tonight. "I have hired a trainer. I am trying to get into the best shape of my life. I cut back on the wine, sadly. I just want to go in feeling my best and my strongest."
