It’s an understatement to say that while Jordan Kimball and Jenna Cooper found love, their relationship ended up in a very hopeless place. The Bachelor in Paradise season 5 couple seemed like they had it all: Kimball said she’s the “girl version of me” (the biggest possible compliment, coming from him) and Cooper found someone she could “pluck eyebrows” with. During the show, the happy couple seemed to be truly in love; ultimately, Kimball proposed to Cooper, and she happily accepted. Chris Harrison was asked to officiate the wedding. Everything seemed to be coming up roses.
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Unfortunately, things went off the rails after the Bachelor in Paradise live finale. Spoiler blogger Reality Steve published alleged screenshots of text message proving that Cooper had been cheating on Kimball with an unknown guy after the show ended and while they were planning their wedding. The messages were pretty damning: they profess their love for each other, and Cooper talks about getting “real kinky” with a “belt and whips.” Needless to say, that didn’t go over well with Bachelor Nation. The explosion was like a million gold hot shorts raining down from the sky.
Cooper was immediately hit with accusations that she wasn’t on the show for the “right reasons,” a cardinal sin in Bachelor world. She denied the allegations, but Kimball ended the engagement, telling People, “It felt like a body drop. I got taken down. I’m weak in the knees and I feel like I have rocks in my stomach.” He subsequently posted a long, sad post on Instagram (with a black and white photo of himself, naturally).
Cooper’s denials became more, uh, forceful. In a now-deleted Instagram post, her camp issued a statement that the text messages were fake, and that “forensic evidence” proved her innocence. She even accused Kimball of faking the messages himself. Spoiler alert: he did not.
In the months since, Cooper wrote a tell-all book, which Kimball quickly slammed, bluntly telling Life & Style, “I’m not entertaining anything she says. It’s almost been a year and she is still at it. What a nightmare.” Meanwhile, Cooper may or not be living out her succubus mermaid fantasies in Hawaii, which, hey, get it girl. A fitting end to an exhausting saga.