Everything happens for a reason. The Bachelorette alum Jason Tartick isn’t upset that he wasn’t chosen to be the 23rd Bachelor because it would’ve prevented him from connecting with a very important person in his life — Kaitlyn Bristowe.

Jason, 30, appeared on Good Morning America with fellow Bachelorette alum Blake Horstmann on Monday, January 21, and said he’s “very thankful” that he wasn’t selected as the Bachelor.

“[If I was the Bachelor] I wouldn’t have met someone very special to me right now — Kaitlyn,” the Buffalo native said of losing the gig to Colton Underwood.

The former banker, who competed with Colton, 26, for Becca Kufrin’s heart on season 14 of The Bachelorette, offered the former NFL player guidance before he started on his Bachelor journey. “I think the biggest advice I gave to him was stay in your lane and stay true to you and just be the Colton that we grew to [become] such close friends with,” Jason explained.

Blake, 29, shared similar words of wisdom. “We told him just to be himself … we really did,” the Colorado native said. “It was like, ‘Don’t worry about all that outside noise. We are there to support you.’ I was like, ‘Go be you [and] come back with the love of your life.’”

Jason and Kaitlyn, 33, went public with their romance earlier this month, and the former Bachelorette admitted on Wednesday, January 16, that she considers Jason her boyfriend. “We both feel like we’re established and where we wanna be in our lives and we have, like, the self-love and respect to actually, like, be in a mature, healthy relationship,” she said on her “Off the Vine” podcast.

A day after her admission, the former spin-class instructor flew to Seattle to surprise Jason and referred to herself as his “sweet girlfriend” on his Instagram Story.

Kaitlyn, who announced her split from fiancé Shawn Booth in November 2018 after three years together, previously confessed that she didn’t think she’d fall for anyone else from Bachelor Nation. “I never thought I would hang out with somebody from The Bachelor franchise!” she revealed on her podcast. “I feel bad for saying that … I was like, ‘You know what? I’ll just be a little more private, low-key. Whatever.’ But you can’t help who you like. … You can’t fight chemistry. You can’t fight a good guy.”

Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox!

Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone?
Download the


Us Weekly iPhone app now!