“It Was So Tough”: Carissa Opens Up About Voluntarily Leaving The Bachelorette Mansion

On last night’s episode of The Bachelorette, a contestant decided to voluntarily leave the competition. While it may sound shocking, it’s actually something that’s happened plenty of times before throughout the franchise. In Jimmy Nicholson’s season of The Bachelor, the women seemed to have been dropping like flies, so Brooke shouldn’t feel too down about what transpired.

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After not feeling a connection with the 26-year-old Bachelorette, Carissa chose to bow out of the show, leaving Brooke a little blindsided. POPSUGAR Australia caught up with the contestant and found out her thought process leading up to the difficult move, and what she has planned for the future.

POPSUGAR Australia: Tell us, what made you apply for The Bachelorette?

Carissa Croft: I’m a pretty open-minded person and the kind of person who is open to new experiences. Obviously, I’m still on my journey to find love, but when I saw Brooke was the lead, she is someone who I could definitely see myself with, and she has a lot of qualities that I look for in someone. And at the time when they were filming, I was looking at starting a new job overseas, and it just so happened, everything just worked out.

As I said to Brooke on the red carpet, my symbol for my mum who passed away is rainbows and around the time of the audition process, I just kept seeing rainbows everywhere. So everything unfolded, I got on the show out of so many people that applied, so it felt like it was meant to happen.

PS: You chose to leave the mansion of your own accord. Describe your thought process before you made the decision.

CC: The first night I met Brooke, I felt an instant connection with her and I was really looking forward to further developing that and seeing how things went. But time moves so quickly in the mansion, and it’s quite hard to get that one-on-one time with Brooke, and what I found by the time I did get that one-on-one time, I had already created some really strong friendships in the mansion.

And some of those friends had already created strong romantic connections with Brooke. I ended up feeling a little conflicted, I hadn’t created a connection with Brooke and I noticed I began to pull back because it just didn’t feel like the right thing to do, to go and pursue someone my friends cared about and already had a connection with. I didn’t want to waste Brooke’s time, it was really important for me to be authentic throughout this experience.

PS: Do you have any regrets about your time on the show? Would you do anything differently?

CC: Definitely no regrets. I think everything works out exactly as it’s meant to. It took a lot of courage to pull Brooke aside at the cocktail party to let her know how I was feeling and where I was at. So, I’m proud of myself for having the courage to talk to her. Even though things didn’t work out, I hope Brooke finds someone at the end of her journey.

PS: Before telling Brooke, did you speak to anyone in the mansion about your decision?

CC: It was so tough. You kind of do want to talk to people and figure out what’s the best way to do it. I didn’t want to stir more drama and tell people how I was feeling. I really did take the time to think about how I felt. I actually spoke to a couple of the girls about it but I mostly kept quiet about it.

PS: Who do you think will be the last person standing?

CC: There are so many amazing people in the mansion, but I did notice Darvid was someone who definitely stood out. He’s really grounding and has a lovely energy about him. He came across as such a genuine and kind person to me, he was even supporting me and talking to her, which I thought was very selfless. I feel like he is someone who has a really good chance.

PS: Finally, what’s up next for you?

CC: Back to my original plan. I’m going to Bermuda in less than two weeks, going to join a boat over there and start travelling. My plan is to buy a sailboat and sail around the world, and hopefully, I find someone who would like to do that with me.