Bachelorette confession! JoJo Fletcher actually knew about former NFL player Jordan Rodgers before meeting him on the ABC dating show — and she’s not afraid to admit it.
The real estate developer, 25, revealed all on Tuesday, May 24, following the premiere of season 12 of The Bachelorette.
“A week before this whole thing started I think his name got leaked, and it was kind of all over the Internet, so, you know, it’s like ‘Jordan Rodgers, brother of Aaron’ — so that’s what I knew going into it,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “I knew just that tidbit about him, but nothing else, and I don’t think it made a difference either way. I don’t follow football closely, so it’s not like it made a huge difference, but I definitely knew that about him going into it.”
Fletcher and Rodgers, 27, had no contact before filming began, however. “The only thing that I knew about him was that he was potentially going to be part of the cast,” she said. “I’ve never spoken to him, never met him. That first night was the first night I’ve ever seen him in my life. [We had] no conversation, even on the Internet.”
Back in March, Us Weekly exclusively revealed that Rodgers, the younger brother of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, was a front-runner on the show. Fletcher even gave him the first impression rose during the premiere.
“Sometimes when you’re with somebody, you automatically have that sense of comfort and peace … the conversation flowed, he’s obviously cute,” Fletcher gushed to ET. “It was an easy conversation on a very stressful night.”
Not everyone has such nice things to say about him, though. On Monday, a woman who appears to be his ex-girlfriend accused him of cheating. “Riding the bench doesn’t get in the way of a relationship, but cheating does,” Brittany Farrar wrote via Instagram. “#yourpitchisntperfect #alwayswantedtobefamous #dreamscometrue #tuneinnextweekformoreBS.”