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Season 14 of The Bachelorette is heating up with contestants being narrowed down to the final 3 this week.

One of the finalists is Garrett Yrigoyen, a young Basque American from Manteca, California.

 

What do we know about Garrett Yrigoyen?

According to his cast bio, Garrett is a 29-year-old medical sales representative currently living in Reno, Nevada who loves the outdoors.

While the name Yrigoyen stands out as obviously Basque, I was unable to find information on who in his family’s immigration history came from the Basque Country.

My sister is a super fan of the show and served as my research assistant on this mission. She was able to learn that his grandfather, Mike Yrigoyen was born in Elko, Nevada in 1917 to Frank and Isidora Yrigoyen.

So clearly this branch of Yrigoyens has been in the United States for some time.

Garrett has a lot of flags adorning his Instagram bio: American, Spanish, Italian, Mexican, Greek, English, and Bahamian. However it’s unclear if these are representations of his ethnic identities, places he’s traveled, or something else entirely.

But he does acknowledge his Basque heritage in a recent Instagram post wishing his dad a happy Father’s Day, in which he used the hashtag #basque.

He also has recently been to J.T.’s Basque Bar and Dining Room in Gardnerville, Nevada.

And it was brought to my attention that he has SINESTU, the Basque word for “believe,” tattooed on his left wrist. Thanks to eagle-eyed Isabelle in Bakersfield, California for the tip!

 

Garrett and Becca Going Strong Since the First Impression Rose

Last night’s episode showed Becca visiting Garrett’s hometown of Manteca and meeting his family.

My sister and mom who watched the episode were eagle-eyed in their search for any sign of Basque home decor, but the show stages these families’ homes so much that there was little indication of any personal items in the background.

Garrett has made quite an impression of this season’s Bachelorette, Becca Kufrin, with many pegging him early on as a frontrunner. 

RECOMMENDED 9 Movies Filmed in the Basque Country

Since the beginning, people have even been studying their body language to see how attracted they are to each other!

In the first episode, Garrett showed up to meet Becca in a minivan full of dad items like a soccer ball and car seat to demonstrate to her how great of a dad he would be. Despite how corny this gimmick was, Becca loved it.

Garrett then took her fly-fishing in the pool of the mansion, which endeared him to her because it reminded Becca of childhood memories with her late father.

So she gave him the First Impression rose to show that he was an early favorite.

In the last three seasons of the show, all of the men who received the First Impression rose went on to get engaged to the Bachelorette, so the odds have been in Garrett’s favor since the first episode. 

Since that First Impression rose, Garrett has been on a series of group dates and two one-on-one dates with Becca.

Their first real date was in Park City, Utah, where they went shopping, bobsledding, and had a dramatic dinner in which Garrett revealed to Becca that he’d been married before. That was but a mere hiccup in the date, as they went on to makeout on the dance floor at a private Granger Smith concert.

On their second one-on-one date in the Bahamas, Becca and Garrett took a ride in a seaplane, had a beach day, and shared a romantic dinner in which they once again dove into Garrett’s past marriage. Garrett told Becca he was falling in love with her.

Last night’s hometown date revealed more talk of Garrett’s first marriage. His family expressed concern that they didn’t want to see Garrett hurt again like after the breakup of his marriage, and Becca had to constantly reassure them that she had no intentions of hurting him. In the end, it seems she convinced them because the couple thought the meeting had gone well. 

 

Controversy Surrounding Garrett

First Marriage and Divorce

Garrett paints his ex-wife, Kayla Cunningham, as a villain, saying she was emotionally abusive toward him and tried to drive a wedge between him and his family.

They were married on September 9, 2015 but their divorce was finalized soon after on March 25, 2016. According to Garrett, he and his wife separated only two months after their wedding.

But there are two sides to every story, of course. His ex-wife is keeping out of the press for now but according to Heavy.com:

an alleged friend of Cunningham told Life & Style Magazine that Yrigoyen changed after the two married. The friend claimed that Yrigoyen became cold and disrespectful to Cunningham, as well as her family. The same friend claimed that Yrigoyen left Cunningham without any warning when he packed up his bags.

We’ll never really know what happened between Garrett and his first wife, but this interview painting him in a bad light had some fans worried for Becca.

Questionable Instagram Likes

The biggest controversy surrounding Garrett however is not his first marriage, but early on in the season he was called out for liking some offensive images and memes on Instagram.

The posts included transphobic, misogynist, racist, and xenophobic memes commonly found on alt-right social media accounts. His old Instagram account has since been deleted and he has created a new one.

You can get a full rundown of the controversial Instagram likes over at Glamour.

When these Instagram likes came out, Becca was asked in interviews about what she thought and she did not outright condemn them. Rather, she asked viewers to keep an open mind.

This response leaves many speculating that she is most likely currently engaged to Garrett.

• “She’d only bother with this sort of non-committal explanation of Garrett’s gross actions to save face if she were already committed to him” [InStyle]
• “Becca, who has publicly supported Hillary Clinton and progressive initiatives like the Women’s March, came to his defense on this matter without even acknowledging the offensive nature of his social media activity. It seems sort of unnecessary … unless, in real time, he has already made it to the final round of The Bachelorette and, possibly, become her fiancé, as already some suspect” [InStyle]

On Garrett’s part, he issued a lengthy and heartfelt apology:

“I am sorry to those who I offended and I also take full responsibly for my ‘likes’ on Instagram that were hurtful and offensive. … I am not perfect, and I will never be anywhere close, but now I will always be more informed and aware of what I am liking and supporting, not just on Instagram, but in life. I never realized the power behind a mindless tap on Instagram and how it bears so much weight on people’s lives. I did not mean any harm by any of it. My Instagram ‘likes’ were not a true reflection of me and my morals.”

You can read the full apology here.

Despite Garrett’s messy divorce and controversial social media activity, there are a lot of indicators that Garrett and Becca are going the distance!

 

Aita’s Reaction to All of This News

My mom and sister watch The Bachelorette religiously every Monday night.

And inevitably, every Monday night, Aita leaves the room the second it comes on, so disgusted he is with this show. (I’m still not sure why.)

But when I started digging around and learning all about Garrett Yrigoyen for this blog post, I had to let Aita know.

And I think he might have just become one of The Bachelorette‘s biggest fans!

There was a lot of ranting about how Basques are everywhere and how they’re the best — of course the Basque one made it to the end!

A lot of ranting about how this Bachelorette must be smart for picking the Basque one, “recognizing the value,” as he put it.

Was he phased by the controversy? Not at all! Aita laughed that anyone who got mad about Garrett’s Instagram likes didn’t understand the Basques.

Make of that what you will…

But the best part of the whole thing was trying to teach him how to pronounce the name Garrett. All but impossible.

 

Stay Tuned to The Bachelorette

Will Becca be the new Mrs. Yrigoyen?

We’ll just have to keep watching!

Stay tuned to ABC at 8PM on Monday nights for a few more weeks to watch Garrett and Becca’s relationship progress.

You can also catch up on this season on ABC Go and Hulu.

Who are you rooting for this season of The Bachelorette? What do you think about the Basque American contestant causing controversy?

 

Continue Reading:

• 9 Movies Filmed in the Basque Country