40 Surprising Rules 'Bachelor in Paradise' Contestants Have to Follow

Since swim trunks aren't exactly conducive to microphone packs, ABC makes the men wear matching necklaces with a mic built in. Truly the cutting edge of fashion and technology over here.

Obviously, signing your life away to BiP means you gotta kiss on camera—but fear not, producers will turn around! This also comes from my new favorite person Dylan Barbour, who said, "Looooool yeah the producers just turn around" when a fan asked, "Is it awkward making out with all the cameras/crew staring at you?"

If contestants get a Fantasy Suite date, they have to wait all night long for actual 1-on-1 time. According to Evan Bass, "couples really only get a few hours of alone time," and the Fantasy Suite portion "doesn’t start until the wee morning hours. Ours was 2:30 a.m."

This horrifying BTS fact comes courtesy of Wells, who told TV Insider, "This is something that people don't realize: All of those day beds that everyone goes and like sits on and stuff? Those get wet and then inevitably get moldy smelling. By the end of the season, those daybeds are nasty. If you've gotten to the end there, and you're about to get engaged, uh, you're avoiding those." Truly help.

"There are cameras everywhere and there's nowhere to hide," a former producer told People. "So when cast members behave outrageously, they allow themselves to forget there are cameras—and just get caught up in the moment.”

While cameras are never not lurking, it sounds like what happens in the ocean stays in the ocean. Just ask Raven Gates, who said, “When I was on, [Adam Gottschalk] would take me into the ocean and say some dirty sh*t to me."

Dylan confirmed that there *is* a drink limit on Bachelor in Paradise—specifically "two an hour on the hour."

Chris Bukowski said that "in Paradise, it's always five o'clock. I woke up in the morning and I had a glass of vodka soda—actually two—before I went down to the house. I didn't eat anything. There's not much to do."

Less a rule, more a way of life. This one comes straight from Wells, who said, "No one drinks beer because everyone is terrified of carbs. The only people that drank beer were [Chris] Bukowski and...me, probably."

In the words of Wells, "So Hannah G. started the trend of this horrible drink called 'Happy Juice,' which is white wine and red bull and it was so gross. It's a like an allegory for Paradise: Weird and gross but also like makes a lot of sense because you've got to stay up late. At the beginning, everyone made fun of it and by the end of it, everyone was drinking it!"

It's called Vidanta Resort Nuevo Vallarta, and Glamour reports that a ton of the special 1-on-1 dates on BiP go down here.

Dude is basically just on vacation. While he shows up every now and then to lurk in a bush, Chris told Glamour that he's essentially straight-chilling—like to the point where his family and friends visit him."Honestly, I get a lot of downtime. I'm here at the resort. My kids come into town. My friends come into town. It was hard for me to leave planet Earth and come down to Mexico the first time we did this three years ago, but about halfway through our time in Tulum, it was like, 'Wait a minute. This is the greatest gig in the world! Let’s unplug and just enjoy.' It's my summer camp."

So, if you're wondering why everyone looks so sweaty on camera...there's literally no AC. Why would they do this to people, you ask? To make sure contestants ditch the comfort of their rooms and head outside to the beach or pool. As Mikey Tenerelli told Flare, "You got out of the shower and you were basically sweating again."

Oh, so you think the weddings in Paradise are real? Nah, turns out everyone is faking it. Marcus Grodd dropped this bombshell after he and Lacy Faddoul got married at the end of BiP season 2 saying the ceremony wasn't legal: "When we came back, we were supposed to start the paperwork. But she stalled. I feel duped.”

According to Reality Steve, Bachelor in Paradise aired for six weeks in 2019, but the show "filmed for about 21 days in June."Just so we're all on the same page, this means that ABC expects BiP contestants to fall in love in...*checks notes* just three weeks.

CNN obtained the contract and had it looked at by NYC-based attorney Nicole Page, who said that it gives the producers permission to "basically take your image and do whatever I want with it and I own it and you have no recourse."

It's right there in the contract, which gives ABC "the right to change, add to, take from, edit, translate, reformat or reprocess...in any manner Producer may determine in its sole discretion."

Blake Horstmann went on a rant about producers manipulating him, saying, "Okay, so this is gonna be a long one...but f*ck it, I'm off contract...When I received the date card, I 100 percent planned to take Hannah. I even left my interview saying I was gonna take Hannah. When I walked out of the interview, three producers sat me down for close to an hr and convinced me to take Tayshia. It was 100 percent my decision, they didn't force me or anything, but at that point I really truly did trust the producers and that they had my best interest. Obviously, I was very wrong and they didn't want me to be happy with Hannah bc that would have very much ruined there [sic] plans for the season..."

Amy Kaufman confirmed that contestants are pressured into proposing in her tell-all book Bachelor Nation, saying that producer Elan Gale tried to make Chris Bukowski propose to Elise Mosca—even though he fully didn't want to and "couldn't stand her."

Okay, yes, BiP producers might take, uh, liberties in the edit room, but as far as drama goes, what you see is what you get. "Producers aren't forcing people to do questionable things," the anonymous producer told People. "There are no storylines written. The worst thing they'll do is let people know that the people who succeed here tend to make a lot of friends, or find someone to be in a relationship with."

Unlike The Bachelor and The Bachelorette (where you have to pay your own way...including outfits), ABC pays contestants to be on Bachelor in Paradise. Specifically, you can make between $7,000-15,000 per season.

An anonymous producer told People that intimate relationships are inevitable on BiP because it's basically adult summer camp. "It's like real life is suspended. Time is just different there. You're filming around the clock, production is around-the-clock and it's around-the-clock partying....The whole point of the show is that to succeed you need to make friends, and people feel it's advantageous to drink and hook up and find a boyfriend or girlfriend." Oh, and speaking of hookups....

When it comes to hooking up, anything goes on Bachelor in Paradise—meaning they don't have to wait for Fantasy Suites. Sure, the suites are a great way to have swanky privacy, but Evan Bass said there's a sex room on set. To quote: "There was even a room back at the Paradise ranch we called the "Boom-Boom Room."