Who Is Dean Unglert, the 'Bachelor' Veteran and Former Villain?

Dean Unglert has built quite a reputation in Bachelor Nation, mostly for being the center of one epic love triangle. He's alsooh th on this season of 'Bachelor in Paradise.'

Dean Unglert, Todd And Savannah Chrisley Visit "Extra"
(Image credit: Noel Vasquez)

Potential spoilers for Bachelor in Paradise season six ahead. If you're a longtime fan of the Bachelor universe, Dean Unglert will be all-too-familiar to you. But if you're a bit newer to the franchise, and you're wondering why this mustachioed man is about to "grace" our TV screens thanks to Bachelor in Paradise, have no fear. Dean has had built quite a reputation in Bachelor Nation, mostly for sh*t-stirring and being the center of one epic love triangle. This isn't his first time on BiP, but (if rumors are to be believed) this might be a good season for the villain of the last BiP. So what do we know?

Dean says he was inspired by Free Solo to take on a nomadic lifestyle. "I just moved out of my house. I'm just, like, trying to travel the country and see what happens...I live in a van now."

"I'm planning on [traveling] all across the continental U.S. and then maybe up into Canada as well—so, I don't know if that's very conducive for a relationship," he added. "If it does happen, great, but if not, then I'm not willing to fight it, I guess."

Also, in case that didn't make things clear enough, Dean added that he's currently unemployed, although it looks like he does have some sponsorships based on his Instagram.

We first saw Dean on Rachel's season of The Bachelorette—he got a reputation for being a classy, soulful, good guy that he subsequently torpedoed. Dean "juggled" two women, Kristina Shulman and Danielle Lombard, on the fourth season of Bachelor in Paradise (Dean makes reference to that in this season, regarding Blake, saying "we've all been there," ugh.).

It'll make for some very awkward TV, because Kristina is ALSO on this season of BiP. And Kristina made it very clear how awful the love triangle was for her, so there might be a heated exchange between her and Dean. 

Dean was also on the short-lived The Bachelor: Winter Games. So he has been all over this franchise, is my point. Interviewers and contestants sometimes refer to him by the very cool and not at all weird nickname "Deanie Babies," which is based on his Instagram handle.

Let's make this clear: Dean has earned his reputation as a villain, even outside of the drama on the last BiP. Just a few months ago, he shaded just about every single Bachelorverse relationship: "None of these Bachelor relationships are real, not a single one of them…Maybe you’ve got some marriages and some kids and those ones are real, but every one of them’s fake and contrived and I’m not into that,” he said. "Granted, there are some that are real, like those ones I guess, but boyfriend-girlfriend relationships, every single one of them is fake.”

In the same interview, he also shaded his ex from Winter Games, Lesley Murphy, saying there were "a lot of issues" and that "it never really felt super, super genuine." Dude! 

Dean says he stayed totally sober this entire season. "Which is a challenging thing, in that circumstance, because you get bored a lot, all you wanna do is drink, your friends are drinking, all you wanna do is join them.”

“I’m excited to watch it back,” he added. “For the first time, I’m finally like, ‘I don’t have to worry about being drunk and saying something stupid on camera’ because I didn’t get drunk.”

This is also the season where he brings an...intriguing bit of facial hair, which he has since shaved off post-show:

All the contestants joke about it, including Dean, and there are long, lingering shots of him grooming it. It's weird.

This is not a spoiler, because it's mentioned in the preview, but Dean/his mustache have "swept Caelynn off her feet." At this point, both contestants' appearances have been drama-filled, so I'm starting to see how they might totally be attracted to each other. It's also worth noting that Dean miiiiight have been texting Caelynn before the show, and even potentially at some point while Caelynn was involved on Colton Underwood's season of The Bachelor, according to Katie Morton during the "Women Tell All." Sooo they might have a history, is my point. 

No spoilers here, but could Dean finally have found "the one" (in classically dramatic Dean fashion, no doubt)? He recently took to social media to bash Blake for releasing Caelynn's "hookup" texts, so he appears to be fully supportive of her post-show, regardless of what might have happened on it. 

Here's every spoilery thing we know about this season.

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Katherine J. Igoe
Contributor

Katherine’s a Boston-based contributor at Marie Claire who covers fashion, culture, and lifestyle—from “Clueless” to Everlane to news about Lizzo. She’s been a freelancer for 11 years and has had roles with Cosmopolitan and Bustle, with bylines in Parents, Seventeen, and elsewhere. It’s “I go to dinner,” not “Her huge ego,” but she responds to both.