Since appearing on The Bachelor in 2020, Madison Prewett has been pretty open about the tougher aspects of her reality TV experience. She allegedly lost 20 pounds while vying for Peter Weber’s heart (presumably thanks in part to his mother laying into her during a “scary” live finale). However, Barb apparently wasn’t the only frightening part of her experience. Prewett got real about the “traumas” she suffered, and I’m shocked to hear that the producers actually called themselves “witches.” Umm, what?
Madison Prewett visited The Candace Cameron Bure Podcast recently, where they talked topics like how Christians are portrayed on TV and Prewett’s experience on The Bachelor Season 24. The reality star recalled a conversation she and her husband Grant Troutt had with a neurologist, where she said she wishes she could see before-and-after images of her brain after everything she went through. Prewett said:
I think that for me, it was two different traumas. It was like, when I was filming the actual show and just the pressures. I mean, even a lot of the producers would call themselves witches. There was just a lot of really dark things that were happening.
Candace Cameron Bure was shocked at the revelation that the producers would give themselves such a nickname. Her reaction isn’t really surprising, given her belief system and how she thinks scary movies could be a portal to bring evil into the home, but I have to say I agree with her on this front.
The Bachelor is supposed to be about falling in love, right? Even if they meant it in a witch doctor/love potion kind of way, it’s a strange energy to bring to your job, in my opinion. I’m not naive, though; I’ve been a fan of Bachelor Nation for long enough to have seen the producers pull some pretty wild stunts on the contestants that don't always seem to have their love lives front-of-mind (need I mention the poop baby again?).
Suffice it to say I don’t understand why the producers would have thought of themselves as having to be witchy. As for the second trauma Madison Prewett experienced, she said that came when the public finally saw her journey with Peter Weber play out on TV, saying:
The other aspect [of trauma] was honestly watching it through whenever it was live and people were responding to it and tabloids were responding to it, and I went from anonymous Alabama girl to all of a sudden having, you know, celebrities talk about me and People magazine post about me and all these followers, and it just was a very crazy whiplash and just a moment that I think no one can prepare you for.
“Whiplash” is a good word for it, because it doesn’t sound all bad, given how it did make her famous (she’s on Candace Cameron Bure’s podcast, after all!). But while Madison Prewett admits she’s glad to have gone though that experience, it’s not one she would recommend for her friends. She told the Great American Family actress:
It’s so funny because since then I’ve had multiple people come up to me and be like, ‘I want to apply to go on The Bachelor,’ and I’m like, ‘Absolutely not.’ Like, I would not let anybody that I love [go] on the show.
Strong words!
There is no season of The Bachelor premiering on the 2026 TV schedule in January, but on Sunday, March 22, tune in to see The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul take her place as The Bachelorette. Episodes will air at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and stream the next day with a Hulu subscription.
