Bachelorette’s Ali Fedotowsky says producers chose who stayed on the show

For those of you who saw Monday’s episode of The Bachelor, you probably wondered just how Ashley S. got so far. Well, there might be an actual answer to that gnawing question: According to former bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky, the show’s producers decide who gets to stay if the bachelor/bachelorette is indifferent.

Ali told E! News that when she was the bachelorette, there were only a few men she really cared about keeping on the show. As far as the rest, they were likely chosen to add drama and keep viewers interested.

“Chris probably never even liked her,” she said of Ashley S., who confessed her love to bachelor Chris Soules before getting kicked off the show.

Ali also explained that she wasn’t always interested in the men she kissed on The Bachelorette. She told a horrified Giuliana Rancic that sometimes a contestant leans in and, in order to avoid rejecting them on national television, she just goes with it.

“But kissing is so intimate,” said an equally appalled Jason Kennedy.

“Hashtag: pity kiss,” Giuliana joked, which, go figure, started an actual hashtag.