Sam Hartman let a family secret slip during his first major interview as the new Bachelor.
The NFL quarterback, 27, was live on ABC’s “Good Morning America” last Friday when he accidentally announced that his brother Joe is on the verge of proposing. The Washington Commanders player made the revelation while deflecting a question about whether his parents are pressuring him to have children.
“My brother’s about to get engaged,” Hartman declared on the morning show. He then froze, realizing what he had done. “Hopefully I didn’t just spoil that,” he told viewers. “Oh, shoot.”
The athlete quickly tried to calm himself, adding, “No, I think they know it’s coming.” His brother, a med school graduate currently in residency at Vanderbilt, has not publicly responded to the on-air mention.
Joe Hartman did, however, take to Instagram Stories after his brother’s casting was announced. “So I guess they just let anyone do this show,” he joked to his followers, roasting the new Bachelor.
Sam Hartman enters Bachelor Nation with an unusual pedigree. Unlike most leads, he has never appeared on a previous season of the franchise. He was drafted into the NFL in 2024 after playing college football at Wake Forest University and later the University of Notre Dame.
His college connections do link him to former Bachelor Nation figures, however. Tyler Cameron, 33, served as Wake Forest’s quarterback from 2013 to 2014 before competing on Hannah Brown’s 2019 “Bachelorette” season. Cameron’s college roommate, Matt James, 34, became the Season 25 Bachelor in 2021 after also playing for the Demon Deacons.
James celebrated Hartman’s casting Friday by posting a throwback photo with the new lead on social media, captioning it simply, “Two Deacs.” Cameron also weighed in, gushing that “Prince Charming is our bachelor!”
Taylor Frankie Paul, 32, offered her own reaction to Hartman’s casting via Instagram on Friday, dubbing him “cute.” Paul was slated to lead this year’s “The Bachelorette” season, but ABC canceled it days before its scheduled March premiere over a resurfaced video involving the “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star.
The Bachelor franchise has been off the air since 2025, when Grant Ellis proposed to Juliana Pasquarosa at the end of his season. The couple split mere months after the finale aired.
Hartman will helm the show’s 30th season when it returns. The network has scheduled the premiere for Sunday, March 21, 2027, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, with episodes streaming on Hulu the following day.
