Who Is Victoria Paul, Nurse, 'Bachelor' Contestant, and Pageant Winner?

Spoilers for The Bachelor ahead. Peter Weber's been making some interesting choices on his road/flight path to love on this season of The Bachelor. One of the contestants that we know does relatively is Victoria Paul, who is a pageant winner (like many of his women this season) and has a really interesting backstory. She also, judging by spoilers, has a good run on the show. So what do we know? 

She's a pageant winner.

Paul is Miss Louisiana USA and is originally from Alexandria. She competed in Miss USA and got into the top 15. She talks about her pageant experience a bunch and it's very clearly an important part of her life. Per her pageant bio (opens in new tab), she works part-time in dermatology and full-time in urgent care as a practical nurse.

Also, she has a really interesting backstory: "Victoria is passionate about fitness and health but also about empowering and motivating others, especially children. The 26-year-old draws from her own challenges that she faced in her childhood. At one time, Victoria and her family lived in a homeless shelter."

This is Paul:

And here she is with some of her fellow pageant winners (she's on the far right):

She shared a personal story about her childhood with Weber.

Paul looked to be an early frontrunner after their one-on-one date, during which they went line dancing at The Canyon Club in California. During the evening segment of their date, Paul opened up to Weber about her difficult childhood, explaining that her mother was an addict and that the family had lived in shelters and at times gone hungry. Weber was moved by her bravery, and the two forged a strong bond. In subsequent dates, Weber mentioned several times that Paul was a contestant that he deeply trusted.

Which made what came next particularly dramatic. Over the course of three episodes, fellow pageant queen Alayah Benavidez become public enemy number one in the house, was eliminated, and then un-eliminated. Paul initially told Weber she hardly knew Benavidez and that Benavidez had lied about her, but then admitted that she'd been lying—the two were friends and had even gone to Las Vegas together. Weber and the rest of us were...confused.

Her Instagram privacy settings have changed.

It appears as though Paul's Instagram is no longer private. She made it private in mid-September, which is typical for someone going on the show, and making one's profile public again is usually a sign that the person was eliminated or left. Please note, though, that I am fully speculating here and it could mean nothing. Paul hasn't said anything about the show or her time on it (for obvious contractual reasons), but she has posted about her pageant work:

So TBD on how her journey ends. Here's what we know about Weber's whole season so far (opens in new tab).

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