Peter Kraus | Entertainment News, Photos, and Videos

Peter Kraus came in second place on Rachel Lindsay‘s season of The Bachelorette and everyone expected him to become the next star of The Bachelor, but he never did.

The 35-year-old reality star is opening up about why he turned down the show and he says he was offered the position three times!

“I tried to go back to normal life and it didn’t work,” Peter said on the new episode of The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast. “They asked me to be the Bachelor and I said no. Straight up no. A couple of weeks later, they called again and made it a little more formal, and I still said no. Then we were out in New York for Good Morning America … and they asked me there, and again I said no.”

Peter says he wasn’t able to commit to proposing to someone in that short time span. You might remember that his relationship with Rachel ended after he expressed the same thing.

“It was really hard for me and I couldn’t say I would for sure be able to get an engagement at the end,” he said (via Us Weekly). “It wasn’t that I knew for a fact that I didn’t want to, it was more that I couldn’t promise them that I would. I didn’t want to be forced to do it if I said yes to the show.”

Peter says that he wanted things on the show to change if he were to be the new Bachelor.

“I wanted to be able to spend more time with people individually. I wanted to be able to go into the house and see people in their natural habitat,” he said. “I wanted relationship counseling for myself and the top four or five girls during the process so that we could work things out on a deep level.”

Unlike most popular stars of the franchise, he never made a return appearance in Bachelor Nation.

Nikki Bella hit Busy Philipps‘ couch on Busy Tonight on Tuesday (February 19) alongside her sister Brie Bella, and opened what it’s like getting back into the dating game in front of the cameras.

The 35-year-old wrestler recalled her first date since John Cena split with Bachelorette alum Peter Kraus, which was documented on Total Bellas.

“That was like my first like, just, like first date in what, over six to seven years,” Nikki said. “It was so awkward and I totally got drunk. I didn’t even really want to flirt because it just was so awkward. When we watched it back I got so bright red, I couldn’t watch it. I was so embarrassed of myself.”

“No but you flirted ’cause I watched the footage back,” Brie laughed. “But it was really bad. I was like, My sister needs help on dating. She’s not a good dater.”

Click inside to watch the rest of the Bella’s appearance on Busy Tonight…More Here! »

Peter Kraus, who famously competed on Rachel Lindsay‘s season of The Bachelorette and was the runner-up, just revealed that he battled an eating disorder at age 20 for several years.

“At the age of 20 I had developed an eating disorder while blindly attempting to keep up with the level of fitness of my fellow models and competitors. For two years I struggled in silence, always trying but never knowing how to compete with my counterparts. In the winter of 2007 I hit rock bottom and decided that it was finally time to take charge of my health and fitness and learn how to do things the right way,” Peter revealed on Instagram. “So I enrolled myself in the dietetics program at MATC and graduated with honors, my first PT job, and my first @ironmantri under my belt two years later.”

“So on this #WorkoutWednesday I say thank you to a career that taught me so much, that while now retired, is still fun to go back to from time to time to do things the RIGHT way. If it weren’t for hitting ‘rock bottom’ I never would have had this amazing hill of life to climb back up. So embrace the shit some times. Learn from it, pick your ass up off the floor and get moving forward and upward again. Some times from the darkest places shines the brightest light,” he concluded.

When Arie Luyendyk Jr. was named the new Bachelor, many fans were shocked as they were expecting the choice to be Rachel Lindsay‘s runner up Peter Kraus.

Now he’s explaining why he turned down the gig.

“It all just ended so fast,” Peter told Us Weekly. “It was just me, sitting there by myself in my own thoughts. That was a really dark couple of days. When you have no outlets, it’s hard to get out of your head…It was just a loose conversation of, ‘Is this something you have ever thought about, something you would do?’ I was so distraught at that time that it was something that I could never see myself doing.”

“There’s a lot of fun – some of my closets friends are from the show. But there are cons too. I feel like you lose control and I’m definitely a control freak. There’d be a lot I wouldn’t have final say on, and that would be hard for me,” he continued. “As far as proposal, yeah I’m worried that at the end of it I wouldn’t necessarily be able to, but it’s not that I don’t want to…This is kind of part of my thought process, if i did get to the end and I do really, truly like somebody but for some reason I can’t just say this is for sure that person, I don’t want it to be the same outcome again. People are forgiving once. I don’t know if they’re forgiving twice.”

“There was never a cold turkey like, ‘This is not happening.’ I was not ready for this and they agreed…If it were to come up again, I would definitely consider it,” he added.

Peter Kraus, the runner up on Rachel Lindsay‘s season of The Bachelorette and considered a huge fan favorite of the season, will be returning for the new Bachelor Nation show, The Bachelor Winter Games!

Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss tweeted the news about the brand new show to his followers.

“I will be making a major announcement regarding #TheBachelor in the next couple hours!!!!!,” he tweeted. Over an hour later, he posted, “Yes, Peter will be looking for love– and going for the gold– on #TheBachelor Winter Games!!!!”

“Plus, sexy international Bachelors and Bachelorettes from the dozens of countries that also produce #TheBachelor…,” he added.

No other information, including premiere date, was revealed just yet.

The stars of Bachelor Nation are having fun in Las Vegas this weekend and there was a reunion between Peter Kraus and Dean Unglert, final four contestants on the latest season of The Bachelorette!

The guys posed for cute photos while walking the red carpet on night one of the 2017 iHeartRadio Music Festival on Friday night (September 22) at the T-Mobile Arena in Vegas.

They were joined by Wells Adams, Becca Tilley, Ashley Iaconetti, and the recently single Ben Higgins.

The group got into town the day before and they spent the night at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, where they sipped on cocktails at Heart Bar and then had dinner at Gordon Ramsay Burger. On Friday afternoon, the guys were seen having fun at the FlowRider by the Planet Hollywood Pools!

20+ pictures inside of the Bachelor Nation stars in Vegas… More Here! »

Peter Kraus was the fan favorite choice to be the next star of The Bachelor and now he is reacting to the show’s choice of going with Arie Luyendyk Jr. instead.

Peter was the runner-up on Rachel Lindsay‘s season this summer while Arie was the runner-up during Emily Maynard‘s season in 2012.

“Peter is very happy about the way things turned out and is happy for Arie,” Peter‘s manager told E! News. “He thinks ABC made a great choice.”

“Peter is going to focus on his passion, helping people through fitness and wellness,” the statement continued. “He is very thankful for the opportunity he was given with The Bachelorette. Things are going to be great for Peter Kraus fitness and his boot camps moving forward.”

Peter took to Instagram to share a lengthy message.

“ABC, you saw something in me, but something held me back. You treated me with such love and kindness and showed me glimpses of a life I never once dreamed that I could have. I will be forever humbled and grateful and will always look back at these last 6 months with an ear to ear smile, knowing that this has truly been a very special life indeed,” he said.