On the Aug. 23 episode of Bachelor in Paradise, Tammy Ly had a bombshell to drop on the beach. She accused fellow contestant, Victoria Paul, of coming on the show with a boyfriend back home. The revelation came after Victoria began spending time with James Bonsall, despite admittedly not being that interested in him. However, with a rose ceremony looming and the guys giving out the roses, Victoria knew she had to make sure there would be someone she could get a rose from.
“Victoria P. has a boyfriend back at home and she’s trying to use any guy here to elongate her time here on Paradise, just so she can go running back to her boyfriend at home anyways,” Tammy alleged. “Right now, Victoria P.’s unfortunate victim is good, sweet James, and I think he needs to know.”
Tammy pulled James aside on the beach and filled him in. Needless to say, he was shocked — especially since he and Victoria had just been making out on the beach hours earlier. “I feel like you deserved to know because I want you to find a connection,” Tammy said. “I’m just looking out for you. I don’t want to see you played.” Tammy also told James about Victoria continuously forgetting his name, and accused her of being a “rose chaser.”
“I like to think I have a good radar for bulls***, but if this is true, then clearly I’ve been away off,” James admitted. “At this point, I don’t want to start gossip or start drama, but I feel like I can’t trust my own judgement at this point.” Another contestant, Kelsey Weier, lives in Nashville like Victoria and is friends with her, so James pulled her aside for clarification. She confirmed Tammy’s story, which is when James knew he had to confront Victoria directly.
From the get-go, Victoria was defensive. “No, I do not have a boyfriend back home,” she insisted. “I dated someone from February until, like, May, and him and I broke up before I got here. He encouraged me to step into this with an open heart and that’s what I did. I wish him well.” As James continued to question her story, Victoria got even more defensive, as she continued to insist that she and her boyfriend were broken up before she came on BIP.
“I spent my majority of my time with you and I just want to make sure I’m spending my time wisely and not being used for a rose, essentially,” James told her. In a confessional, he added, “I can’t confirm or deny what I’m being told is truthful, so not only am I pissed off that I’ve potentially been manipulated, I’ve now wasted precious time that could’ve been spent connecting with other people.”
Victoria was mostly upset about Kelsey and Tammy going behind her back to talk to James about her life at home, and she confronted them about it. “I am literally in a place where I’m willing to own my mistakes,” Victoria said. “I am, of course, disappointed that you guys felt like you needed to talk to him instead of coming to me. I’m hurt and blindsided right now.” Kelsey called Victoria out for trying to make herself look better, and Victoria claimed she was always planning on telling James about her situation at home. “I don’t think you were going to tell him the truth about a lot of things,” Tammy fired back. “I have the receipts.”
Victoria stepped away from the conversation to clear her mind, and she broke down in tears. “I can’t believe I just did that,” she revealed. “I’m crying because I’m upset that the words I’m giving the people I love are being questioned. I could not come into this without an open heart because that would require me to lie to someone else. I can’t fake it. I can’t lie. I have to have a conversation with James and let him know my intentions were pure.”
Once again, Victoria pulled James aside for a one-on-one chat, and dropped an even bigger bombshell than expected. “I walked into this, regardless of what anyone else may say, 100 percent open,” she explained. “I think the best thing for me to do is to take all of me, imperfect me, growing me, and walk away from this. I hope that you walk away from this with the love of your life. There are a lot of amazing girls here. Even Kelsey and Tammy — they are better than this.”
And with that, Victoria exited the beach to head home. “I don’t need to search to find something that I already have at home,” Victoria concluded, confirming that she did, indeed have a man back in Nashville. Meanwhile, James wound up giving his rose to Demi Burnett.