Corinne Olympios Says Nick & Vanessa Love 'the Limelight,' Hints She Made Up Mystery Man to Avoid 'Paradise'
Corinne Olympios may be the only former Bachelor contestant not jonesing to go to Paradise.
During a Facebook Live interview with ET's Lauren Zima on Thursday, the blonde beauty opened up about her "complicated" decision on whether or not to join this summer's Bachelor in Paradise -- and even hinted that she might have made up her recent relationship with a mystery man to "avoid" the reality series.
"OK, so, this mystery man of mine. He's going to remain a mystery, because... it's so complicated," Olympios shared. "We've talked about [me possibly going to Paradise], that's why everything's really on the fence right now. With him, with Paradise, I don't really even know what's going on with any of it. Nothing's set in stone on either end."
Olympios told ET last month that she was dating someone new, but wanted to keep his identity under wraps for now. "I'm just letting things happen," she said at the time. "I'm not rushing into anything. I'm really excited!"
Now, however, the 24-year-old reality star is singing a different tune.
"Who even knows if there still is a mystery man! Maybe I'm just fooling you all," she teased on Facebook. "I totally would do that too. Hint hint. I totally would! [Is the mystery man a tactic] to dodge Paradise? Maybe. You'll never know."
EXCLUSIVE: 'Bachelor' Star Corinne Olympios on the New Guy She's Dating, and How He Won Her Heart
But Olympios isn't the only one with a possibly "phony" relationship -- the Miami native said Nick Viall and his new fiancee Vanessa Grimaldi "look like they're doing things to get attention."
"I'm very happy for them. If they're happy, hey, why not," she said at first, before sharing her real thoughts on the pair's relationship. "You know what, I have mixed emotions about it. I really hope for the both of them, they are [real], but sometimes it looks like they're not, to be perfectly honest."
"It really looks like sometimes they're doing things to get attention. It does. I mean, I'm not saying anything bad about them. Nick always had my back from the beginning, and I really appreciate that. He really is a really kind, amazing guy, and Vanessa's really lucky to have won his heart, if it's, you know, real," she continued. "But sometimes it does look a little phony to me."
"In Vanessa's defense, she did come to [After the Final Rose], and say, you know, 'I'm a difficult person, we've had our ups and downs, like any normal relationship,' and don't get me wrong, that is a normal relationship. Nothing is perfect. But I just feel like in the public eye, she's not that real, like she was on [After the Final Rose], and it's a little bit more forced," she said of Grimaldi. "That's just my opinion."
"I will say I think Nick is a little bit more, like, loving of the limelight than I would say he was in the beginning," Olympios added of Viall. "I feel like he gets a little wrapped up in the attention. That's all, but everybody does."
As for the advice she would offer the couple, she said, "Work on it."
According to Olympios, she and Viall haven't seen each other since Women Tell All -- despite rumors suggesting otherwise -- and she also hasn't ever been engaged. These days, she's focusing her energy on her clothing line (sold at www.teamcornshop.com), and a new book.
"A Corinne book [will] probably [be done] by the end of the summer or Memorial Day. Yeah, it's happening," she revealed.
"It's not a tell-all. I'm not Andi [Dorfman]" she joked. This is more of kind of like, 'This is real life, these are scenarios that really happened, and yes, it's embarrassing,' type of thing. Like, 'This is what you do to get out of it, this is how you handle this.' You know, it's kind of going to be just a book about real [things]."
"I think I want to call it What Would Corinne Do?" Olympios added.
To find out what Corinne would prefer to have done on The Bachelor -- and other fun tidbits about her time on the show -- watch the video below.