Entertainment

Bekah M. From ‘The Bachelor’ Finally Explains Exactly Why Her Mom Reported Her Missing

ABC

May we never forget the bizarre story that set Bachelor Nation ablaze: The Bachelor's Bekah M. was reported missing, yes, full on listed as a missing person in Humboldt County, California, even while people were watching her on the show. Though she has commented on it via Twitter in the past, as it turns out, why Bekah M. was reported missing is a totally relatable story. While appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Kimmel interviewed Bekah M., or Bekah Martinez, over a video call. After he asked if she got her pink fringed earrings from the marijuana farmthe North Coast Journal reported that the former Bachelor contestant had gone to Humboldt to work on a marijuana farm — Martinez got a chance to explain the whole story.

TheNorth Coast Journal listed her as a missing person in Humboldt County, California on Feb. 1. (The Northern California newspaper reported Bekah M. as being one of the "Humboldt 35," which included a list of 34 other missing persons. The list is now down to 33, according to the Journal, thanks to Bekah M. being accounted for.) "First of all," she told Kimmel. "A lot of people thought I lied to my mother saying I was on a farm when I was actually on the Bachelor but no, I had already been eliminated from the show."

According to the missing persons report, Martinez left for Northern California on Nov. 12, and her mother reported that she'd been missing on Nov. 18 after not heard from her daughter. Since The Bachelor began filming on Sept. 20, and now everyone knows that Martinez was eliminated after the seventh week, that means that she left the show sometime in early Nov. 2017. The fact that she then went away to have a fun week with her friends makes sense, but it also led to some of the confusion as to why she'd gone MIA since many people suspected that Bekah M. was chosen by Arie Luyendyk, Jr. on The Bachelor.

After all, since Bachelor contestants have strict rules about phone usage, it made sense that Bekah M. would not call her mom for a few days in a row. And, since Nov. 18 would likely be when The Bachelor was wrapping up, it made fans think that she had made it to the final two — or that she was the one Luyendyk picked.

But, as it turns out, Bekah M. had been eliminated and she simply went away. "I just decided to go up to the mountains with friends for a couple weeks and I was there for six or seven days without phone service," she told Kimmel. "I thought that I was going to have phone service, and I told my mother that I would. I just had this weird feeling on the six or seventh day and I was like 'I need to go home now' so I got in my car, drove to where I had service, called my parents, and then come to find out only 12 hours before, my mother had called the Humboldt Sheriff's Department saying that I was missing."

As for why the North Coast Journal reported that Martinez was on a marijuana farm when she'd just told Kimmel she wanted to go to the mountains, well, you'd have to know a bit about the local geography. "I was on a marijuana farm?" she said before laughing and then explaining, " It's Humboldt County." In case you're not from California, you should probably know that Humboldt County is densely populated with marijuana farms. Her simple explanation makes sense, and she also clarified to Kimmel that she's still a nanny in Los Angeles and not a weed farmer.

Besides the much-needed clarification, one of the best revelations to come from Bekah M.'s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live was the fact that the Bachelor contestant remained close with Kendall. It even sounds like she has stayed close with most of the contestants from Arie's Bachelor season, except Tia, who played a big part in Martinez's elimination. Hopefully, this means that the young Bachelor contestant will come back for Bachelor in Paradise. Because Bachelor Nation needs Bekah M. — as long as she remembers to call her mother and not send the whole country into panic again.