‘The Bachelor’s Beverly Ortega Reveals Why She Left Grant’s Season So Early: “It Took Me A Month And A Half To Recover Emotionally”

The Bachelor Season 29, Episode 3 showed the first self-elimination of Grant Ellis’ season. Based on the lack of details shared, however, members of Bachelor Nation were left wondering exactly why Beverly Ortega left the show so early.

For those who need a refresher, at the top of Episode 3, the 30-year-old insurance salesperson from Howard Beach, New York was excited to learn she’d be getting a one-on-one date with Grant later in the week. On the day of her date, however, the women revealed that Beverly was “very sick” and wouldn’t be coming back to the house. So what exactly happened?!

Beverly went on the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast with Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt to break down her premature departure from the show, shed more light on her medical emergency, and share if she’d go on Bachelor in Paradise.

Before Beverly got into the details of her medical emergency, she assured Bachelor Nation that she was “honestly so happy” she got a one-on-one date, and felt incredibly reassured that she and Grant felt the same about their strong connection.

“I honestly was so excited, because I’m like, ‘We’re gonna have the whole day. I’m gonna get to eat, sleep, just relax, no drama. And I take a nap, and I wake up, and my stomach’s hurting,” Beverly shared. “I’m like, OK, maybe I should just go to the bathroom, or the food didn’t sit well. I start throwing up. I’m like, OK, maybe I just need to get it out. So my stomach is continuing to hurt. I’m like in excruciating pain. I’m continuing to throw up. It’s a mess. This goes on for 12 hours.”

Though Beverly has diagnosed anxiety and her panic attacks occasionally cause her to vomit, she knew something wasn’t right because she wasn’t feeling anxious. “I wasn’t sure if it was food poisoning. I thought maybe. And my whole stomach was hurting, so it’s not like one side,” she explained. “I didn’t think it was like anything serious. I was like, OK, maybe I’m just in really bad stomach pain. And at this point, because I had gone so long throwing up, I was like, this is probably why my stomach’s hurting even more, because I have nothing in my tummy.”

Once it became clear that Beverly was not OK, production took her to the hospital, and after morphine and a three-hour stay in the emergency room, “The doctor came in and he’s like, ‘You have appendicitis and you’re going to need emergency surgery.’”

“At that point, I still was not really processing. I am a crier. I am emotional. Did not cry one time. I was like, ‘OK, like my family isn’t here, my friends aren’t here. I’m about to have major surgery on an organ,’” she said, noting she already had her gallbladder removed in 2018. Her dad suggested she get on a flight and have the surgery back home in New York, but the risk of her appendix bursting on the plane was too big. “So yeah, I was really, really sad. Honestly, it took me like a month and a half to recover emotionally,” she explained. “Physically, obviously, I was OK. But emotionally, I was not. I left like, ‘What if?’”

Because of her early departure from the show, Beverly noted that the final episode edits omitted a lot of her cute moments with Grant. To make the early departure more painful, she didn’t even get to say goodbye to Grant or explain what happened. “I was really sad — really, really bummed out…I hope he didn’t think that like I left just because,” she said.

Due to the toll that filming takes on contestants and the international travel requirement, Beverly knew that despite her desire to return to film, it was best for her to head home and recover. Her mom picked her up right after her surgery and though her family was sad that Grant and viewers didn’t fully get to see her, she feels that “Everything happens for a reason.”

“I was like, what are the odds that my appendix will act up the day, like days before I get a one-on-one,” Beverly asked. “I was looking forward to the one-on-one because, again, I deal with anxiety and I was obviously going to open up to Grant about that, which is a really huge part of my life. I wanted to see what his reaction was — if it was something that he was able to handle… It was really sad that we didn’t get that moment.”

Despite her Bachelor journey ending in heartbreak, Beverly revealed she’s “1000%” open to going on Bachelor in Paradise for another shot at finding love within the franchise.

“I feel like if I would have made it further, I probably wouldn’t have considered Paradise, but because I didn’t make it that far, yes. Because I do want to get married. I’m 30 years old, I’m ready for kids and family. I’ve always been like a relationship type of girl. And that was like my intention going on the show,” she explained.

While we didn’t get to know Beverly too well over the course of Season 29’s first two episodes, on Night 1 we learned that she almost competed for the title of Miss Dominican Republic but decided to compete for the title of Mrs. Ellis instead. In Episode 2, Grant was impressed by Beverly’s skills on the basketball court, and he later opened up to her about his family in a move that felt “big” for him. So here’s hoping we haven’t seen the last of her, and that her Paradise dreams come true.

New episodes of The Bachelor Season 29 premiere Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.