Cassie previously explained on her Instagram account that 'Young Once' 's filming occurred 'several weeks' before Caelan Tiongson returned to the Philippines for his basketball career and her casting on 'The Bachelor'.
- Feb 7, 2019
AceShowbiz - Cassie Randolph is one of the frontrunners in the current season of ABC's "The Bachelor" starring Colton Underwood. However, she currently faces backlash as she's featured with ex-boyfriend Caelan Tiongson on another TV show that airs concurrently as the ABC dating series plays out.
The show, titled "Young Once", followed the former couple, who dated on and off throughout college. It "follows a diverse group of recent graduates from Christian college who are now navigating dating, marriage, debts, and career decisions against the backdrop of life in Southern California."
While the first season revolved around their friend group's journey to forge friendships and romances as they attended the very religious Biola College, the second season picks up around the time of graduation.
Caelan recently took to Instagram to defend Cassie, writing, "I'm posting this here so no words can be misconstrued." He continued saying in the heartfelt, lengthy message, "As many of you know, my ex girlfriend is currently a contestant on the tv show The Bachelor. The both of us have also appeared on a documentary series called Young Once."
"The show catches you up on our lives as the first season was shot at Biola University while we were still going to school there. They happened to catch the closing of mine and Cassie's on and off relationship during the recording of this show," he explained.
He assured that the filming for "Young Once" was done way before the blonde beauty joined "The Bachelor". "Make no mistake that Young Once was filmed before The Bachelor, and the fact that they are airing at the same time is a strategy to attract viewers," he said. "Both Cassie and I made mistakes in our relationship, but I think we’d both agree it dragged out much too long anyways."
Caelan also added that their relationship "has been over for good since before she went on The Bachelor." He went on saying, "Her decision to go on The Bachelor was a decisive moment in my life to move forward so why couldn’t it serve as that for her as well? If I met my dream girl a month after our final closing this summer that would just be how God had it planned for me. Nobody has the right to tell her whether or not she has good intentions."
"I post this because of the outlets who reached out to hear 'my side' and because I heard Cassie was receiving a lot of negativity for our past relationship," he concluded. "I thought this would be the best way to preserve the truth and encourage the trolls to check themselves before tearing down a good human being. Life is about moving forward, not dwelling on the past."
This arrived after Cassie responded to the backlash on Wednesday afternoon, February 7. Writing on Instagram, Cassie revealed that "Caelan and I dated all through college and in 2015 we filmed Young Once. A while after our breakup we put our past behind us and became friends again."
She added, "We share a lot of mutual friends and he is close to my family. We both dated other people and had moved on." She admitted that they "considered getting back together" last spring, but it "didn't work out."
It was also said that the show reached out to her and discussed season 2, which is "a follow up on some of the original cast. This again put Caelan and I directly back in each other's lives."
Cassie explained in her post that the filming for "Young Once" filming occurred "several weeks" before Caelan returned to the Philippines for his basketball career and her casting on "The Bachelor". She concluded, "The timing of everything was completely chance. I care very much about Caelan and I want nothing but the best for him and his life."