Who Is 'Bachelor in Paradise' Star Chris Bukowski, Newly Out of Retirement?

Potential spoilers for Bachelor in Paradise season six ahead. For anyone who's been a longtime fan of Bachelor shows, the name Chris Bukowski will be very familiar. The guy's a veteran of the franchise at this point, and even quit reality TV after several dramatic, and eventually kind of embarrassing appearances (he's stated he has no memory of the second season of Bachelor in Paradise, which he appeared on). But Bukowski is back, making a whole bunch of jokes about how old he is, and apparently giving it one last go to find love. So what do we know about this long-time Bachelorverse contestant?

He owns two bars and is an advisor on a dating app.

Before we get into the crazy drama: Who is this guy? He's apparently a consultant on the dating app Catch, and he owns two successful sports bars, so that's what he's doing with his time in between apparently looking for love and recovering from his various show appearances.

He's set the record for most Bachelor franchise appearances.

So, including this appearance on BiP, Chris has been on six Bachelor Nation shows. Wow. According to his bio, Chris was a part of The Bachelorette Season 8 (Emily Maynard), The Bachelorette Season 10 (Andi Dorfman), Bachelor Pad Season 3, and Bachelor in Paradise Seasons 1 and 2. So, like, a good chunk of his life has been show-based, since 2012. 

He retired from the show.

In an open letter he wrote in 2015, Chris explained, "We all have our battles, but my TV obsession had taken me down a dark road. I was battling anxiety that led me down a road where I couldn’t find happiness. I compounded the problem by getting addicted to my anxiety medication. How was this happening? How did everything go from perfect to complete crap? It didn’t matter how much money I had or how many women wanted to date me. I was just a hated, desperate person.”

But maybe some time off has helped him clear his head? In the premiere he said he'd dated in the real world and it'd given him some perspective, so...maybe.

At least he has a sense of humor about it.

Chris has shown that he can laugh about the whole thing:

And during the first episode, when Chris Harrison highlighted the record-breaking aspect of Chris B.'s time on Bachelor Nation, Chris B. admitted with a laugh, "Not completely proud of it." So he's all in on the situation.

Early spoilers indicate that this might finally be his season.

No full spoilers here, but there have been rumors that Chris might finally find his person on Bachelor in Paradise. We saw some initial vibing with Katie Morton, she of Colton's Bachelor season who also happens to be friends with Demi Burnett and Hannah Brown. Chris was seen gushing over her gorgeous hazel eyes, saying that she immediately caught his eye. And it's not hard to see why:

In various BiP trailers, Katie has said she's not into the drama and just looking for one dude to love, so she's clear "there for the right reasons." (An overused sentiment, but potentially true in this case!)

Depending on the outcome, I would love a deep-dive interview with Chris after the show. Did he have a sense that this season might finally be it for him? Did he feel mature enough to finally take the leap? Did he just get tired (lol)? I mean, if he gets engaged or ends up in a committed relationship, what he'll probably say is that he finally found the love of his life, etc. etc., but again I am just so curious how he got to this place after several whirlwind runs on the franchise. 

Here's every spoilery thing we know about this season, including how things might shake out for Chris.

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