Clare Crawley’s dramatic season of The Bachelorette is officially underway. And after last night’s premiere episode, we can’t even imagine what’s in store (well, aside from her quitting the show). Of course, there is one man who already knows what’s to come for Crawley and the dashing contestants: Chris Harrison.
PureWow recently sat down with the Bachelor franchise star to talk about his latest partnership with Kelly Blue Book and the recent release of their Auto Repair Guide—a go-to resource providing fair pricing for a variety of maintenance and car repairs. During the chat, the 49-year-old television host opened up about his relationship with the contestants before the show—specifically, if he gets to meet them prior to them stepping out of the limo (or in last night’s case, a Rolls Royce).
“It kind of depends season to season,” Harrison admitted. “Sometimes I will meet some of them and don’t meet all. It depends on what I need to do.”
According to Harrison, there’s a fine line when it comes to being friends with the guys. “Being a producer I wear one hat, but being the host I've learned along the way that my presence has an effect and I don’t mean that in an arrogant way. It’s kind of like being a parent. When I tell my kids ‘I'm your dad, I'm not your friend,’ that's kind of how I treat contestants on the show. And so I don’t necessarily want to ‘buddy buddy‘ hang out with them all the time. I want to be that voice that has that presence and has that authority. You kind of demean that by hanging around too much or getting to know them in certain ways. I've always been careful to walk that line. It depends on when my presence is needed and when it would be too much. ”