‘Bachelorette’ update: UNC student makes a ‘spiffy’ impression in season premiere
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Read more about Xavier Bonner on ‘The Bachelorette’
The UNC-Chapel Hill doctoral candidate is courting Charity Lawson on Season 20 of “The Bachelorette.” Here’s our coverage.
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Xavier Bonner, a Ph.D candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, made his debut tonight on the 20th season of the ABC dating reality series “The Bachelorette.”
Xavier is on the show this season to try to win the heart of Charity Lawson.
Readers first met Charity, a Columbus, Georgia, native, on Season 27 of “The Bachelor” with Zach Shallcross.
A true Southerner, she has a master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Auburn University. Xavier is a Ph.D candidate in the Biomedical and Biophysics Department at UNC-Chapel Hill. Xavier is performing HIV research, where he’s “better understanding the genotypic and phenotypic determinants of macrophage tropism,” according to UNC’s The Graduate School. They already sound like a great match.
We’re sure most of the 25 dudes on this season are good guys, but we’re here to follow Xavier’s journey.
Here’s what happened on tonight’s episode. Of course, there are spoilers ahead.
Who is Xavier on ‘The Bachelorette’?
The intro: We get our intro to Xavier when he steps out of the limo to meet Charity. She tells him he looks “spiffy” in his suit. He tells her he’s looking for the “cure for a lonely heart.”
He tells her that he’s working on his degree, and “Bachelorette” switches to a video of Xavier at UNC, in a lab coat doing some research. We learn:
- Xavier is 27 years old.
- He describes himself as “a science nerd” and says he hopes he and Charity “have some chemistry.”
- His mother has an autoimmune disease, and he attributes his interest in those diseases to her.
- When he’s not in the lab he likes to knit! We see him in a pink knitted beanie, knitting what looks like a bright green beanie.
- He plays the ukulele.
- And he likes to work out.
You can read more about Xavier — including the tidbit that he’s 6’6” — at nando.com/warmTV.
The twist: Charity’s brother Nehemiah Lawson, whom we met on the family visit of “The Bachelor,” is here as an undercover bartender, to look for any sleazebags. They give him the fakest looking wig and mustache you’ve ever seen, so this scam can’t last long.
Xavier + Charity: Xavier gets some one-on-one time with Charity at the cocktail party and immediately says, “You’re so pretty.”
She asks him what qualities he’s looking for, and he says someone who’s honest, genuine and vulnerable. As for his own vulnerability, he says it’s not hard for him to express his emotions.
“Anytime I have the opportunity to tell someone how I feel I definitely do, and that’s what I want to do on this journey,” he tells her.
Anything he’s scared about? “I feel like I’m a pretty open person and I like to be open, I just need the opportunity.”
Then they share a very romantic kiss that kind of goes on and on.
In her post-kiss interview, Charity says: “Xavier, Xavier, Xavier. Definitely takes me by surprise. He’s one I’ve got to keep my eyes on. That kiss is almost too good to be true. Like, too good. Too good. I’m hoping all the guys are this great.”
Nehemiah revealed: In the second hour, Nehemiah tells his sister some of the sketchy convos he overheard at the cocktail party. One dude named Brayden got called out for his jerky behavior, because he was super braggy after he shared a kiss with Charity, saying he thought he was going to get the first impression rose. He explained that he was just excited and nervous and talked too much, but he was sorry. Charity made him sweat it out, but in a totally surprise move, she actually gave him the first impression rose.
Who got a rose? Who went home?
Xavier obviously got a rose, and I think he’ll be around for a while.
It was hard to catch everyone who went home, but it looks like those exiting are:
- Chris
- Joe
- Khalid
- Nick
- Peter
- Taylor
Moving forward:
- Aaron B.
- Aaron S.
- Adrian
- Brayden
- Caleb A.
- Caleb B.
- Dotun
- James
- Joey
- John
- John Henry
- Josh
- Kaleb
- Michael
- Sean
- Spencer
- Tanner
- Warwick
- Xavier
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This story was originally published June 26, 2023 at 11:00 PM with the headline "‘Bachelorette’ update: UNC student makes a ‘spiffy’ impression in season premiere."
