LOS ANGELES — Jake Pavelka is flying the plane this time around.
The 31-year-old commercial pilot assumes the title role when the 14th installment of The Bachelor kicks off Monday night, a season that he promises will be filled with plenty of turbulence.
"I can tell you from the get-go it is a very rocky and a very dramatic season," Pavelka shared in a recent teleconference for the ABC show's opener.
Pavelka was rejected on The Bachelorette last season by Jillian Harris. Having been on both sides now, he can certainly relate to the pressure of being in the cockpit come rose time.
"I definitely have a new respect for what Jillian and Jason Mesnick and past Bachelor and Bachelorettes have gone through," he said. "You can't really tell somebody what that feels like to stand there. I don't want to say you are judging anybody, but I've been on both sides and it almost feels like that."
Pavelka will be joined on the season opener by Harris and the man she chose over him, Ed Swiderski. Looking back, he has an appreciation for how the couple endured a rocky beginning.
"They complement each other. It's unbelievable," he said. "It was really a testimony to me to see such a successful relationship because they had some pretty hard little mountains that they had to climb."
Pavelka is the middle of three brothers. His mother is a retired nurse and his father works as a dentist. While he admits that he has flaws just like everyone else, rest assured that he likely won't be at the center of a scandal.
"I'm not married and don't have eight mistresses. Pardon me, Tiger Woods," he said. "I think everybody has got skeletons in their closet. I mean it's just impossible to live life in the 21st century and not have some sort of skeleton in your closet, but I don't have anything that would shock everybody"
The Texas native said he went into the season feeling like he'd know his final four women by the end of the first rose ceremony, but that didn't happen.
"Halfway through the entire journey, I still had absolutely no idea whatsoever, because it was cast for my temperament so well," he said.
Photo credit: Craig Sjodin / ABC
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