Raven Gates: Rumored ‘Bachelor’ Runner-Up Might Still End Up With Nick Viall

Raven Gates may not be winning The Bachelor this year, but there’s reportedly a good chance that she still ends up walking the aisle with Nick Viall.

Warning: There are potential Bachelor finale spoilers ahead.

Although viewers won’t know before Monday’s finale exactly who Nick selects to receive the Final Rose, those following the spoilers floating around the internet know that Vanessa Grimaldi is the one pegged as this season’s Bachelor winner. Vanessa was named by insider Reality Steve, who has shared inside information on his blog and picked the correct Bachelor and Bachelorette winner all but once. Other blogs have picked Vanessa as the winner, and fans collecting clues online believe that producers have tipped off that Vanessa is the one getting a ring.

But the woman with Nick Viall at the end of the show might not be the one who ends up with him for good. Other reports have noted that Nick and Vanessa are already on shaky ground, and one insider said a regretful Nick is planning on reaching out to Raven Gates to continue their romance.

“Nick knows he made a huge mistake proposing to the winner and is panicking. The runner-up is the woman he truly loves,” an insider told In Touch.

As OK! magazine added, Nick Viall had difficulty even before making the pick between Vanessa Grimaldi and Raven Gates during the Bachelor finale.

“He was having a total breakdown and didn’t want to go through with making the final decision,” on the finale, an insider noted, though eventually, “Nick gets down on one knee and asks one woman to marry him.”

It didn’t take long for Nick to have “second thoughts” about the decision, the insider added.

If it’s true that Nick Viall regrets picking Vanessa Grimaldi and wants to make a run at Raven Gates instead, it’s a decision that would actually have precedent on the show. As Us Weekly noted, former Bachelor star Jason Mesnick had a similar last-minute change-of-mind that actually ended up with him marrying his season’s runner-up.

“Try again! Jason Mesnick proposed to Melissa Rycroft in the season 13 finale, but it apparently wasn’t meant to be. In the live After the Final Rose special that followed, Mesnick ended things with Rycroft and revealed his lingering affection for runner-up Molly Malaney. But all’s well that end’s well: He and Malaney tied the knot in an ABC special in 2010 and now have two children.”

Bachelor host Chris Harrison has already been publicly sowing doubt about Nick Viall’s final pick. In an interview on Good Morning America, Harrison hinted that Nick and Vanessa Grimaldi might be off on a rough footing right from the beginning.

“[This] might be the first Bachelor in the history of this entire franchise to be left at the end,” Harrison said. “And believe me when I tell you, he knows that.”

Even if the shocking rumor is true, fans of Raven Gates might not get to see a happy ending right away. The OK! magazine report noted that Nick Viall plans to play the part of a happy couple with Vanessa Grimaldi after the Bachelor 2017 finale, going through the interview circuit and letting the relationship run its course before reaching back out to Raven. So hold tight, Team Raven, there might still be a happy ending.

[Featured Image by Raven Gates/Instagram]