Beverly Ortega's final moments on The Bachelor were far from rosy.
The season 29 contestant revealed that she had to go into emergency surgery for appendicitis, forcing her sudden departure during the third episode not long after receiving a one-on-one date with Grant Ellis.
"I take a nap, I wake up and my stomach's hurting," Beverly explained to Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt on the Feb. 10 episode of the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast. "I'm like, 'OK, maybe I just need to go to the bathroom,' or the food didn't sit well. I start throwing up. My stomach is continuing to hurt and I'm in excruciating pain. This goes on for 12 hours."
While she initially believed it could be food poisoning or the flu, she emphasized that something was definitely very wrong.
"They ended up taking me to the hospital," she said of the production team. "After three hours of being in the ER, the doctor came in and he's like, 'You have appendicitis. You're going to need emergency surgery.'"
It was especially difficult as the 30-year-old, who hails from New York, had to undergo the procedure in California. She recalled, "I was like, 'OK, like my family isn't here, my friends aren't here. I'm about to have major surgery on an organ.'"
Luckily, the surgery was successful and she returned to the East Coast days later. But being invited on the coveted one-on-one date made her early exit especially difficult to process.
"It took me a month and a half to recover emotionally," Beverly admitted. "Physically, I was OK, but emotionally I was not. I left with the 'what if,' and obviously, we were building a connection. He saw and felt exactly what I was seeing and feeling."
Although the dating competition didn't include more glimpses of her connection with Grant, she added, "We did have a lot of cute little moments."
"I was really sad, really, really bummed out," the insurance salesperson shared. "I didn't get to say goodbye to him. I didn't get to tell him what happened. So I hope he didn't think that like I left just because."
Despite the heartbreaking end to her Bachelor journey, she felt that "everything happens for a reason."
As she put it, "What are the odds that my appendix will act up days before I get on the show and then days before I get a one-on-one?"
But Beverly is also down to pack her bags for Bachelor in Paradise if the opportunity arises in the future.
"I do want to get married," she said. "I'm ready for kids and a family. I've always been a relationship type of girl and that was my intention going into the show."
Read on to see all the women vying for Grant's heart in season 29 of The Bachelor.
