The reality TV gods have given us the treat we need to make it through the first Monday of 2021: The Bachelor returns to screens tonight.
The 25th season of the show returns with 32 women competing for this season’s bachelor, 28-year-old Matt James. As this is the era of Covid, the entire season was filmed at the Nemacolin, a resort in Pennsylvania, and all contestants had to quarantine before shooting.
And, as luck would have it, one of the women competing is from the DC-area: Mari Pepin, a 24-year-old from Odenton. We rounded up everything we know so far about Pepin ahead of tonight’s premiere:
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She’s a former pageant queen
Pepin was Miss Maryland USA 2019. Although she didn’t win the Miss USA 2019 title, she did finish in the top 10 that year. She was also Miss Maryland Teen USA in 2014.
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She’s a Towson University graduate
Pepin graduated in 2018 and majored in communications.
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She is an Army brat and was born in Puerto Rico
According to her pageant bio, Pepin’s family lived in multiple places due to her dad’s job in the Army, ultimately settling down in Maryland. She attended Meade Senior High School in Fort Meade.
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She works in marketing
According to Pepin’s Bachelor bio, she is a marketing director, and she announced last June on Instagram that she’d launched her own social media managing company, Innovessa.
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She doesn’t like sauce (????)
Perhaps the most controversial stance Pepin could have posted on social media: She does not like any sauce besides BBQ sauce and ketchup. It has yet to be determined if this has affected her standing with the honey mustard-Bachelor crossover fanbase.
Mimi Montgomery joined Washingtonian in 2018. She’s written for The Washington Post, Garden & Gun, Outside Magazine, Washington City Paper, DCist, and PoPVille. Originally from North Carolina, she now lives in Del Ray.
