<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"The Bachelor&amp;#039;s Ben Flajnik has said that he didn&amp;#039;t realize the women at the cocktail party were &amp;quot;so mean&amp;quot; to new arrival Shawntel Newton.  Newton made a surprise appearance in San Francisco in a bid to join the race for Flajnik&amp;#039;s heart, saying that they had talked before he became The Bachelor and she had always been interested in pursuing a relationship.  However, the other women were unhappy at the funeral director&amp;#039;s presence and made several jibes towards her in person and privately to the cameras.  Writing in his weekly blog for People, winemaker Flajnik - who had introduced Newton to the women - said: &amp;quot;After watching, I didn&amp;#039;t realize that the women were so mean to Shawntel and I was a bit taken aback. I mean I knew it was a bold move on Shawntel&amp;#039;s part, but some of the women took it a bit too far.&amp;quot;   Flajnik went on to say that Newton had been right in feeling a &amp;quot;connection&amp;quot; between them but that the timing had been wrong for them to pursue a relationship which is why he sent her home at the rose ceremony.  &amp;quot;I knew if I kept Shawntel around I would lose all the credibility I had built with these women and it wouldn&amp;#039;t be easy to dig myself out of that hole,&amp;quot; he explained, before thanking Newton for taking the time to travel to San Francisco and put her heart on the line.  The Bachelor&amp;#039;s host Chris Harrison teased in his Entertainment Weekly blog that Newton&amp;#039;s arrival was a &amp;quot;pivotal&amp;quot; moment in the season and changed everything going forward.  &amp;quot;The ladies&amp;#039; reaction was so strong Ben couldn&amp;#039;t help but realize just how serious these women were taking this. In return, Ben made the decision to send her home, which sent a definite message to the women that he&amp;#039;s equally serious and sincere about this.&amp;quot; In addition to Newton, two other women were sent home at the rose ceremony: Jaclyn Swartz and Erika Uhlig, who fainted and briefly halted proceedings.  Brittney Schreiner, who had arrived on the first night with her grandmother Sheryl, voluntarily chose to eliminate herself from the show after turning down a one-on-one date with Flajnik and admitting that the whole experience was not for her.  The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8/7c on ABC. &amp;gt; Read Digital Spy&amp;#039;s full The Bachelor headlines "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-bachelor/news/a360548/bachelor-ben-flajnik-i-didnt-realize-women-were-so-mean-to-shawntel/>