Age ain't nothing but a number...except on The Bachelor.
Since the 29 contestants competing for Arie Luyendyk Jr.'s heart were revealed and Bekah Martinez was the only woman not to have her age listed, Bachelor Nation was buzzing about the Los Angeles-based nanny's age. While we learned pretty early on that Bekah was 22, the youngest contestant in the house, Arie, 36, only found out about her age in Monday night's episode...and was super-conflicted over their 14-year age difference before ultimately giving her a rose on their one-on-one.
Of course, the other women in the house and every one with a Twitter account seemed to have an opinion on Bekah's age, with most seeming to think she was not ready for marriage and was too young for Arie. During the episode's airing, Bekah sounded off on all the criticism on Twitter, and her tweets were kind of perfect.
"ah, yes. 22 really is SO young compared to the other girls," she wrote. "hopefully one of the many 25/26-year-olds this season can grant me some of their ancient wisdom." Oh snap! (And did anyone make a big deal over Maquel, who decided to leave the competition earlier in the episode after receiving a phone call that her grandfather had passed away, being only 23-years-old?)
Bekah also had proof for just how mature she is for her age, tweeting, "if i'm "too young" and "immature", explain how this week i did all my laundry and put it away immediately WITHOUT LEAVING IT IN A PILE ON THE COUCH FOR 3 DAYS?? #adulting #ready4marriage."
Bekah for next Bachelorette (should she not end up with Arie)!
After the episode, Arie called into Ashley Iaconetti and Ben Higgins' Almost Famous podcast and discussed Bekah's age.
"It did shock me that she was 22," he admitted. "I really expected her to be in her mid-twenties, even though she looks so young, just because we always had these really great conversations, she's very intelligent, she's very mature and she really read me really well."
As for why he ultimately gave Bekah the rose, despite his "inner conflict" over their age, Arie explained, "I couldn't deny the fact that there were a lot of feelings toward her...At that point in the show, I was probably the most connected to her and that made things really difficult for me."
Last week, former Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe defended Bekah on Twitter, writing, "All you little twatters tweeting about how Bekah is 22 but she's more mature than girls tweeting about her age. Or something."
P.S. The average age of this season's contestants? 27.
The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC.