All About The Bachelor's Alayah Benavidez, Who Returns to the Show After Being Eliminated

We’re only three episodes in, but a potential villain has already emerged on this season of The Bachelor: Alayah Benavidez.

Last week, concerns about Benavidez were brought to Peter Weber‘s attention thanks to another contestant, Sydney Hightower, who accused Benavidez of being “fake” and acting like a “different person” when the cameras were on. Others agreed, which ultimately resulted in Weber sending Benavidez home during the rose ceremony.

She won’t be gone for too long, though — a sneak peek at Monday’s episode has already teased her return. Read on for everything you need to know about the 24-year-old reality star.

She’s controversial (obviously).

As we’ve mentioned, Benavidez, who has a pageant past, wasn’t universally liked in the house. During a pool party at the mansion on last week’s episode, several of the women agreed that she seemed to be putting on a front whenever the cameras were rolling.

“Maybe it’s just the background that she has with pageants,” one contestant said. “But we’ll be hanging out and then all of a sudden the cameras come on and her voice goes up like, five octaves.”

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What sealed the deal for Weber was when Victoria Paul, who was Miss Louisiana USA 2019, claimed that Benavidez had asked her to lie to producers about knowing each other before going on the show.

That said, some still have her back.

“Alayah has been nothing but kind to me,” eliminated contestant Jasmine Nguyen told PeopleTV’s Reality Check this week. “And there’s nothing about her personality, there’s nothing about even the way she speaks, that I find bad.”

She’s a pageant winner.

Benavidez is from San Antonio, Texas, and won the title of Miss Texas USA in 2019.

She’s an orthodontic assistant.

That’s her official job listed on The Bachelor, which, according to her pageant bio, helps finance her education.

She wants to become a published author.

The bio adds that Benavidez, who was diagnosed with dyslexia in high school, “looks ahead to earning a PhD and becoming an Ivy League professor and a published author.”

She’s a model and co-owns a boutique.

In her Instagram bio, Benavidez reveals that she also owns Three Bees Boutique, a clothing store that she says “helps fund literacy initiatives,” along with her mom and sister.

Chris Harrison hinted she’d be an important player.

“It’s been a while since we had a pageant girl,” the host joked while introducing this season’s contestants back in December. “She is definitely a part of that world. Maybe the wildest roller coaster ride of the entire season centers around Alayah.”

“Controversy, emotion, and something we’ve never had happen before on the history of the show happens to Alayah,” he added. “So definitely someone to watch.”

And she’ll be back.

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Yup, that’s right. In a sneak peek at the next episode, Benavidez returns, declaring, “I’m here to freaking set the record straight about what was said about me.”

The Bachelor airs Mondays (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.