While conversation and controversy still swirl around The Bachelor, former Hudson resident Caila Quinn has moved on — emotionally and physically.
Quinn has gone to New York City as a marketing manager for the growing fitness program BollyX, The Bollywood Workout. She was training as an instructor for the program in Boston when The Bachelor came calling. Her background included software sales in Boston and internships with New Balance and TJMaxx.
But don’t expect to see her on Bachelor in Paradise or other related shows, her father, Chris Quinn, said Thursday. “I don’t know what she’s going to do … but to the best of my knowledge, she’s not going to participate.”
Chris, CEO of Streetsboro-based toymaker Step2, said Caila is ready to resume a more private kind of life, with dating that does not involve TV cameras.
“She’s doing great,” said he said.
“She’s doing incredibly well. She’s anxious to move forward and jump into her new life. We’re incredibly supportive as her mother [Rosanna] and father.
“We’re just proud that she came across as authentic. We’re proud that she came across as honest, and the person we know her to be.”
Asked if she will be willing to talk any more about The Bachelor, Chris said: “No. She has no interest. Not in a bitter way, I’m telling you. She’s so positive and grateful. She just wants to move on. … She’s very enthusiastic about her future.”
“We don’t want a lot of TV exposure,” he said.
“That’s not who we are. Our family doesn’t come from a lineage of people who’ve been on TV. We come from a lineage of business people. So this was completely new ground, and we’re excited to go back to what we consider a normal life.”
Caila finished in the top three of the reality-romance series’ latest season, outlasting everyone but Joelle “Jo Jo” Fletcher and eventual winner Lauren Bushnell.
She made it far enough that the show came to Hudson for a hometown visit, taping Quinn and bachelor Ben Higgins around town, at Step2 and at her alma mater, Western Reserve Academy.
The locations were all Caila’s ideas, and not based on some marketing push by the show or by Step2, Chris said.
“She thought it’d be fun to build a dream house. It wasn’t about showcasing Step2. It was about building a dream house,” he said, referring to the segment showing his daughter and Higgins in the factory building a toy house with their name on it.
After audiences saw her eliminated on The Bachelor, Caila was widely expected to be the next star of The Bachelorette. The show even came to the area to shoot footage of Caila for possible use on that ABC series.
But on Monday’s finale, Fletcher became the new Bachelorette instead, prompting talk that Quinn had been summarily dropped at the last minute.
Although Caila was “considered to be one of the options” for The Bachelorette, “we were never guaranteed anything,” Chris insisted. And Caila is “excited for Jo Jo. She’s a terrific person.”
He conceded that, when it comes to TV drama, Jo Jo has “a more interesting and dynamic family.” Fletcher’s hometown visit had considerable tension between Higgins and Fletcher’s brothers.
“We’re just a real quiet, reserved family,” Chris said.
So when Caila did not get The Bachelorette, he said, “We put a lot of energy into our faith, and Caila does as well, and we feel if it wasn’t meant to be, that’s OK. Caila had a good career and can continue to have a good career.
“We’re not as destroyed and distraught as some people would think. Actually, what came out of this was a love and affection more deeply than ever for the local community …”
As viewers saw Caila’s adventures on TV, their affection was felt by the family, especially after Caila came home.
“We’re more in love with Ohio than ever, and more in love with where my wife grew up [Northeast Ohio] than ever,” Chris said.
“People have been unbelievably supportive … of Caila and the whole journey. Because she’s a good person in her heart. She’s not pursuing Hollywood dreams.”
Instead, she’s in New York, with BollyX.
The company was a little worried about being tied to someone from a reality show, but BollyX co-founder and president Minal Mehta said, “She was just so elegant, so authentic and she was the person we know her as. It was incredible to see her on the show and we were just so proud.”
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Rich Heldenfels can be reached at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.