Making history as the first hearing-impaired contestant on “The Bachelor”, Abigail Heringer speaks candidly about her first few days on the highly anticipated season 25 of “The Bachelor”.
Heringer, a client financial manager from Beaverton, Oregon, appeared on the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast to reflect on her experience so far, as well as her decision to share her hearing loss with Matt James.
On Monday night’s episode she said she “was born completely deaf.”
“So there’s something a little bit different about me,” she told James during their introduction on the show. “And that is, I’m deaf. So I’m going to be reading your lips a lot tonight, but thankfully you have really beautiful lips. So I’m not complaining!”
“I love that,” James replied. “I’m going to enunciate for you.”
She explained to hosts (and former Bachelorettes) Rachel Lindsay and Becca Kufrin why she chose to be honest with James from the start: “I think a lot of people can just kind of relate to being in my shoes. Being in your 20s, you are on the dating apps and you’re trying to date around. But I think what I just really struggled with is, it’s so superficial. And you know, just kind of doing the same thing, and I was getting the same results and I just wasn’t happy with that.
“You know, it is a huge part of who I am. But just kind of being a hidden disability, and you can’t really see my cochlear implant when I wear my hair down, it is kind of a scary thing just to bring up to somebody on a first date ’cause you really don’t know how they’re going to take it.”
The brunette beauty’s story has set Twitter ablaze with support for those with disabilities:
This is why representation is important
look at how many people are educating themselves on the deaf community and cochlear implants just from abigail’s story #TheBachelor #BachelorNation pic.twitter.com/5X4TfQByn8 — M (@M37851382) January 5, 2021
Abigail, my daughter is 7 and bilaterally implanted. Seeing the representation and you not being afraid to be who you are makes my heart SO happy.
— Brittany Wilcox (@bdub1209) January 6, 2021
Diversity isn’t exclusive to race. Love seeing @AbigailHeringer onscreen & we look forward to seeing more of her story.
This BDC member is hard of hearing, reads lips & uses assistive listening devices. Having someone on #TheBachelor like me is special.#RepresentationMatters — Bachelor Diversity Campaign (@bachdiversity) January 5, 2021
Her honesty clearly struck a chord with the Bachelor, who granted her the much-sought-after First Impression rose before sharing a steamy kiss.
“To open up about it and to not only have him acknowledge it but to actually see it as a really attractive quality, it was just a really special moment, for sure. It just kind of came the full circle.”
Heringer is one of the 32 women vying for the heart of Matt James, 29, who is also making history this season as the first Black Bachelor.
