Jacqueline Trumbull Is About to Join the Tia/Colton Love Tangle on ‘Bachelor in Paradise’
On Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s season of The Bachelor, contestant Jacqueline Trumbull became one of the rare women who’ve actually sent themselves home from the show. Though she originally didn’t get much screen-time, she started to shine around Week Six when she scored a one-on-one date with the lead. And yet, considering their future plans, the 27-year-old beauty simply didn’t see them working out long-term, and so she said goodbye instead of waiting for a rose. Now, she’s returning to the franchise on tonight’s Bachelor in Paradise, hoping to score more roses and a real potential future with someone. So, what exactly do we know about Jacqueline?
She’s super, super smart.
For one, she’s a research coordinator from Morgantown, WV, who’s currently working for a psychiatry research lab. (Maybe she researched Arie before heading to the Bachelor mansion?) She told ABC that her job is a stepping stone toward getting a Ph.D. in chemical psychology, and that her career is very important to her.
Her bright future also factored into her decision to leave the show. That chemical psychological Ph.D. would require six more years of grad school. Considering the fact that she didn’t know what program she’d be going to yet, and that it likely wouldn’t be in Scottsdale, Ariz., Jacqueline sent herself home. Though she clearly liked Arie, her future plans were important to her, and she prioritized them over pursuing a relationship that she knew wouldn’t work in the real world.
She has other dreams, too.
Of course, all those plans are not to say she wouldn’t give it all up if she won the lottery. She said that if she ever collected a jackpot, she’d use it to build a wild animal conservation center in “Africa/India” — her words, not ours — and get a pet cheetah for herself. Oh, and a penthouse in Soho, because obviously. In other #lifegoals, she dreams of “creating our own world” with her future spouse — i.e. “creating our own values and goals,” “becoming better people together,” and fostering “respect, admiration, [and] protection.”
She’s a big fan of travel.
Her Instagram alone tells the story of all the places she’s been. Bachelor travels aside, she’s also spent time in Peru, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Spain, and Taiwan, just to mention a few. Last year, she even revealed in a post that she’d lived in Slovakia for a year, sharing her love for the Christmas markets there that she visited during her stay. “I lived in Slovakia for a year with wonderful host families and I couldn’t go home for Christmas,” she revealed. “They were my family that year and we nosed about, mulled wine and bratwurst in hand, through markets in Central Europe, buying traditional trinkets and food. They’re a kind of community when you’re away from home.”
She loves art and architecture.
When she’s not travelling through Europe, she seeks out small tastes of it at home in New York in the form of architecture. “When I’m sick of New York and want to be in Europe, I head to Soho,” she captioned one shot of a gorgeous, sunset-lit structure. She’s also shared her own works on the social media site, highlighting both sculptures she did in college and paintings she’s worked on recently. “Finally finishing this thing up (still have some more work to do),” she wrote in one post.
“I’m an extremely amateur painter and can basically only paint elephants, pelicans, and naked people, but it’s relaxing and a good exercise in trusting myself,” she explained. “Every time I think I’ve totally screwed it up, I keep the self-flagellation to a minimum, come back to it, and work it out. And then give it to my parents, which is the adult version of hanging artwork on the fridge.”
Jacqueline had a good sense of humor about her lack of screen-time on The Bachelor.
“Some of you have commented on my lack of airtime,” the 27-year-old said on Instagram. “The reason for this is that at this point in the process, I was in love with someone else. Kendall [Long] and I cuddled on the couch, cheers’d pee canisters, discussed the philosophy of magic, and traded zoology facts with poetry.”
We’re sure it helped that, while she didn’t find love with Arie, she did find the love of a new BFF with Kendall. She even joked about Kendall’s hobby of taxidermy. “It is my dying wish to end up pickled in a jar next to Mugatu and Ping,” she wrote. “I love you @keykendall88!!” How cute but weird but ultimately sweet is that?
She’s got a big heart.
While plenty of Bachelor Nation former contestants have used their new platforms and added followers to sell products (no shade, shout out to them for being on their hustle), Jacqueline’s also used hers to highlight important causes. Six months after an earthquake shook Mexico City, the reality star shared an Instagram post asking fans and viewers to donate money to UNICEF for rebuilding and relief efforts.
Rumor has it that tonight’s entrance into Paradise sees her tangled up in Tia and Colton’s love triangle. (Love square? Love rhombus? How many people are involved in this again? We’re having trouble keeping track at this point.) Let’s hope that that big heart of hers leads her to some real love instead.
