There’s a new guy giving roses to Olivia Caridi. The former Bachelor contestant raved about her beau on Instagram as they traveled through South Africa’s Tswalu Kalahari Reserve with friends.
“He’s the reason I’ve been spending a bit of time in Amsterdam, and now we’re living the dream at @tswalu in the Kalahari,” Caridi, 27, wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, February 26. “What is life.”
The “Mouthing Off” podcast host tagged her new guy in the post, but the fellow’s Instagram account is private.
The following day, Caridi posted photos of herself goofing off with her boyfriend. “After the evening drive when we all get to just hang out in the Kalahari and drink wine and laugh. That’s my favorite thing at @tswalu.”
Photographer and friend Rachel L’Antigua also posted a photo of the pair gazing up at a starry night sky. “South African Summer nights,” L’Antigua captioned the romantic pic.
Caridi commented on the upload, writing, “OH HAY … YOU ARE SO FANTASTIC.”
Accompanying them on the vacation was Brandi Cyrus and her South African boyfriend, whose identity she hasn’t disclosed. “The most magical of all the hours is sunset in the Kalahari with you,” Cyrus, 32, captioned photos of the duo kissing in the desert.
Caridi previously vied for Ben Higgins’ heart on The Bachelor Season 20, which aired in Spring 2016. She was eliminated in the sixth week of the season.
Amanda Stanton, the third runner-up of the season, described her beef with Caridi in her 2019 book, Now Accepting Roses. “She was a bit of a misfit who didn’t play well with others,” Stanton, 29, wrote. “Olivia was very vocal with us girls about how she was the only one for Ben. She would constantly throw jabs my way by saying Ben wasn’t ready to raise someone else’s kids.”
That September, Stanton told Us Weekly exclusively that Caridi was “upset” about her portrayal in the book. “I talked to her and I went on a podcast, and that was good,” she added. “When I wrote the book, the chapter that she was mentioned in was kind of about my experience on the show and how I felt at that time, and obviously we’re friends now and we have been ever since the show stopped airing.”
