On Monday yet another bachelor was sent packing on “The Bachelorette,” and this time the unlucky-in-love competitor for Desiree’s heart was Michael Garofola, a federal prosecutor based in Miami. While Des gushed that he always looked on the bright side of life (and, to their credit, neither one of them launched into a Monty Python song), he lacked Brooks’ smoldering hotness, Chris’ bad poetry-writing skills and, more importantly, his relationship with Des wasn’t quite as advanced as some of the others on the show. Michael G. talked to reporters in a conference call about being on the show, getting cut, and going after Ben and James.
While Garofola conceded that the may have been a little too harsh in his attack on Ben during the shocking two-on-one date, he said, “I don’t think it hurt me in the long run… I will say I may have taken it a little too far and been a little too aggressive, especially in front of Desiree.” Still, that doesn’t mean he’s taking any of it back.
He stands by his belief that Ben was “misrepresenting who he really was.” “There’s no better example than [the time when] Des asked, ‘What is most important to you?’ A very open-ended question… and he said the most important thing to me is going to church every Sunday. He didn’t say his faith or God, but the literal act of going to church every Sunday.” Given that Ben was the only member of the house who opted to skip out on a church visit Easter Sunday while the show was in Germany, “that would seem to contradict his statement. It was a misrepresentation of who he was putting forward, this manicured version of himself as a Southern gentleman who goes to church all the time.” Still, he emphasized that he was not attacking Ben for his faith or his parenting skills — just his misrepresentation of how important they were to him.
Still, he says he has no “personal vendetta against Ben at all… I don’t hate the guy. I don’t think he’s a villain.” But he doesn’t seem to think of Ben as a pal, either. When asked if he had reached out to Ben after leaving the show, he said, “We are not allowed to talk to the other guys on the show until after ‘Men Tell All,’ so that’s my company line on that.”
He seemed more conflicted about his involvement in James’ ouster. Noting that he and James were “good friends” at the beginning of the season, he said, “I think the situation with James [was like when[ two roommates get on each other’s nerves.” He adds that “That was really Kasey and Drew’s battle to fight, and I was there in a support role for those guys. I trusted them. I wasn’t there, but James in his explanation, his response and argument, sort of admits he said those things and justifies it as being the reality… I felt that that was something that needed to be confronted; he was one way in front of the cameras and another when the cameras are off…But at the same time, I probably got a little too involved.”
He was much happier discussing the four men still left in the game: Zak W., Brooks, Chris and Drew. “[They’re] great, great guys and will be great friends of mine for the rest of my life. I could sleep very easily knowing Desiree will end up with a great guy.”
As far as whom he thinks is most likely to win Desiree’s hand in marriage, he said, “It seems Chris might be best for her at this time. But being there, there was no getting around the undeniable chemistry between Des and Brooks. I could tell from very very early on that it was just [that she had] a different look, a different voice… you could tell he was a frontrunner from the beginning.” Noting that he considers Brooks to be “a best friend for life,” he added, “Des has good taste.”
He also feels that, in watching the show now, he’s able to understand why he went home and the other men remained. “In seeing how far her relationships have progressed with these other guys, there’s no question in my mind that she made the right choice… Seeing it on television, I can see why she made the decision she made. I thinks she made the right choice for her.”
He also clarified a few things that we saw on television. His ex didn’t cheat on him (when she went to Vail with another man, they were broken up), and his final one-on-one with Des was more scintillating than we might have thought. “Unfortunately, part of a television show is that not everything makes it into the final cut. There was a lot more back and forth [than what people saw]. Watching it, it looks like I’m just talking to her… but she shared some things. and I think she was touched by what I was saying. [But] my feelings of hope about falling in love eventually were nothing compared to guys telling her they, in fact, loved her. I think my relationship hadn’t progressed as far along [as those of the other guys]. Why I’m not really sure.”
And for anyone who thought he was calling Mommy to have a good cry as soon as he got into the van, it wasn’t quite the way it seemed after all. “Until the rose ceremony we don’t know who was getting a hometown. I knew [my family] had been given a heads-up… but we’re not on the phone with our families every day. In… the rejection van, I was doing my interview and I was like, oh great, my mom is going to be really disappointed. I’m sure she was excited to meet Des, and I was given an opportunity to give her the news. As soon as I heard the sadness in her voice, then the dam broke… The purpose wasn’t to vent, the purpose was to say, ‘Mom I have bad news. Tell Dad he doesn’t have to keep working on the basement. Tell my sister she doesn’t have to take time off of work. You don’t have to cook meatballs. It was sort of a logistical call.”