The villain arc continues! Some Bachelor Nation fans weren’t thrilled to hear that Shanae Ankney is returning to the franchise for season 8 of Bachelor in Paradise.
“Shanae on BiP doesn’t sit right with me. She wasn’t just a ‘villain,’ she was straight up ableist hello???” one Twitter user wrote after the casting announcement was made in August 2022.
Other viewers, however, were rooting for her second act. “Please put Shanae on Bachelor in Paradise. It would make life so much funnier,” another fan wrote via Twitter in April.
The 30-year-old reality TV personality was ill-received by some viewers as a contestant on Clayton Echard’s season of The Bachelor earlier this year. She drew backlash for her treatment of the other women in the villa — particularly her comments about Elizabeth Corrigan’s ADHD diagnosis.
After Shanae pushed Elizabeth, 33, during an obstacle course race and told Clayton, 29, that the Colorado native was the one red flag of the bunch, the two women hashed out their differences during a January 2022 episode.
“You’re one way one minute with me and then you’re [another] one the next. Like, that’s two-faced to me,” Shanae said, criticizing the real estate advisor for ignoring her during a conversation they’d had previously.
Elizabeth then explained that her ADHD had likely been the cause of her not responding to Shanae while she was trying to focus on what Ency Abedin was saying.
“It’s really hard for me to have multiple auditory inputs because I can’t process the information. I have ADHD, I’ve had it really bad since I was a kid,” she said.
Although the two Bachelor contestants ended the conversation with a hug, the conflict came up again later in the evening. When Elizabeth revealed she was still upset about Shanae trash-talking her to Clayton, Shanae accused her of lying about her feelings in their previous chat. She then implied that Elizabeth was lying about having ADHD and stormed out saying, “Fake, fake, fake. ADHD, my ass.”
Although Clayton gave the recruiter multiple chances during his season, he spoke out against her behavior once episodes began airing. When a Bachelor viewer tweeted that it was “honestly scary how manipulative” Shanae was during a February 2022 episode, the Missouri native retweeted it, adding the comment, “Lock her up! She’s killed all my credibility already.”
After Elizabeth’s elimination episode aired in January 2022, the medical sales representative apologized to her via Twitter.
“I’m sorry, Elizabeth, for what you’re going through. I wish I could have seen what was happening when I wasn’t there,” Clayton wrote at the time. “I would have sent Shanae home immediately for making fun of you for being neurodivergent, had I known.”
Scroll through for five things to know about Shanae’s Bachelor Nation drama ahead of her stint on Bachelor in Paradise:
