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Fabrice Quits Bachelorette Amid Rumors
Tuesday Feb 01, 2005 2:55pm EST
By Cynthia Wang and Stephen M. Silverman
After weeks of hype, seemingly suave Bachelorette contestant Fabrice Le Parc finally made his "shocking announcement" (as ABC promised) on Monday night's installment of the reality romance.
Though rumors spread that he might come clean about everything from his sexual orientation to his real job (some reports claimed he's an actor, not a "real-estate investor"), Fabrice broke the "big news" to Jen Schefft: He just didn't want to be her groom.
"We all came here looking for love," he told her prior to Monday night's rose ceremony, "but right now, I don't feel that there is this kind of passion between us ... I don't think it's here or that it's ever going to be here."
With that, he voluntarily quit the show.
ABC had been promoting Le Parc's announcement for weeks � and at the same time, the Internet was abuzz with tales about Fabrice's purported life outside the show. Web sites unearthed a headshot and screen credits (such as 4 Secondes de Chute Libre) for Fabrice's career as an actor.
Le Parc � nicknamed "Frenchy" behind his back, for his continental swagger � also was revealed to have posted shirtless photos of himself on the gay community boards of ChicagoPride.com and BigMuscle.com. Meanwhile, Le Parc previously appeared on a "straight" reality show in France called Operation Seduction, in which he and three other men sailed the Caribbean with a boatful of beautiful women in a quest to find the sexiest girl.
ABC and producers aren't commenting on Le Parc or details of his personal life, but they add that Fabrice will get a chance to have his say on Feb. 21, when The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All airs. The special will feature Jen and all of the kicked-off suitors discussing what happened behind the scenes.
Either way, it was clear Fabrice and Jen weren't meant to be. Following Monday night's ceremony, Schefft said she wasn't planning to keep him around anyway.
"I actually think it was a good decision on his part, and we both knew by this point that there wasn't anything between us, but it was certainly dramatic," Schefft wrote in her online diary, which is posted on ABC's Web site. "As he was saying this to me, he kept creeping closer and closer. I didn't know whether to laugh or act like I was really upset. I ended up just standing there and listened to his little speech, trying not to laugh. It was certainly an awkward moment."
