‘The Bachelorette’s “Men Tell All” FP Drama, Explained

The Bachelorette Season 20 “Men Tell All” special aired on ABC Monday, August 14, but in a twist, the biggest drama of the night had nothing to do with Charity Lawson.

Though Charity got her fair share of time with the group of exes, and some of the season’s biggest beefs with Brayden Bowers and Sean McLaughlin were addressed, two mysterious letters and a contestant who was eliminated Night 1 wound up stealing the show. If you’ve watched the two-hour episode, you’re likely still wondering who is Peter Cappio and what the heck does “FP” stand for? If so, you’re not alone!

The Peter drama came completely out of nowhere, and though members of Bachelor Nation could have gone their whole lives without knowing about it, now that we do, we need to break down the childish Season 20 behavior.

Wondering who Peter from Charity’s season of The Bachelor is? What “FP” means? And which Season 20 men took part in the inside joke on Instagram? Here’s everything we know about The Bachelorette‘s FP-gate.

Who Is Peter Cappio On The Bachelorette Season 20?

First things first: Who is Peter, the man at the center of the “Men Tell All” FP drama? Peter Cappio is a 33-year-old airline pilot from New York, New York, who unfortunately goes by the name “Pilot Pete” — as if the franchise didn’t have enough of those already.

Anyway, per his official Bachelorette bio, “This commercial aviator has traveled the world with his dream job but still hasn’t found the love of his life. Peter describes himself as ‘the life of the party’ and hopes his future wife can match his positive energy. Peter considers himself a man of faith and truly believes that his future wife is out there.” His fun facts revealed he’s addicted to ChapStick, never loses in Mario Kart, and loves to play pickleball. Oh, and you can follow him on Instagram at @pilotpete.fly, where he currently has 15,500 followers.

It’s worth noting that Peter got eliminated after Night 1 of The Bachelorette, but after Week 1 of Charity’s season, he already had an impressive 12,500 followers. So he definitely had a strong social media presence before he joined the show. So what went down at “Men Tell All”? Let’s get into it.

What Does “FP” Mean On “Men Tell All”? The Bachelorette Drama, Explained

As Sean was responding to criticisms from some of the guys, Peter chimed in and caused quite the commotion. Caleb B. asked, “Who the heck even are you?” And when Peter introduced himself, Caleb screamed, “You’re the dude! He’s back!”

Jesse promptly changed the subject from Sean to reveal some BTS Peter drama that secretly unfolded before Bachelor Nation’s eyes at the start of the season. After a quick intro from Jesse, Peter explained, “When the season wrapped we had a cast Zoom call [and] 15 or 16 of the guys, at the end of their headshots, put the initials “FP” at the end of their post. Brayden was actually man enough to come to me and tell me what it meant, and what it meant was ‘F*** Peter.” The pilot said he was initially “confused and ultimately pretty upset” when he learned that these guys he barely knew put the secret code at the end of their Instagram posts, and he told Palmer he had no idea he rubbed anyone the wrong way.

Xavier turned to Peter and apologized, saying, “Before we go any further, we shouldn’t have done that. It was a bad play. It was just an inside joke. Nobody would have known it was against Peter if [Brayden] hadn’t shared it.” Jesse put two Instagram posts that featured “FP” at the end of the captions (from Sean and Aaron B.) on screen to show viewers, and Peter questioned why the guys did it.

“Cause you are a bitch, that’s what you are,” Aaron S. said. “It’s basically because you said FU to every single dude that tried to speak to you,” Caleb B. added. Even John spoke up, saying, “The very first night, you sit down next to me, you look at the camera, you look at me, you open your body up, make sure the camera’s getting you at the right angle, and you go, ‘So who do you think is here for the wrong reasons?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know, you maybe?'”

Aaron S. claimed Peter was the first guy on the Zoom call after everyone got home and was asking about endorsement deals even though he was on the show “for five seconds.” Aaron said, “I remember you laughing and saying, ‘Thanks for putting me on the map. I’ll make a t-shirt out of it. Then the next night you used this as a platform for a pity party. I have no respect for that, dude.” When Jesse pressed him, Peter claimed he never made shirts. But it’s clear there’s still a lot about this “FP” joke gone wrong that we still don’t know, like what exactly Peter did to offend the guys and who took part in the “FP” posts…

Which Of Charity’s Bachelorette Contestants Wrote “FP” In Their Instagram Posts?

Thanks to Palmer snitching on Sean McLaughlin and Aaron Bryant, we know for sure that those two contestants took part in the FP posts. And since Xavier apologized to Peter for his involvement, we know he was another participant. But Peter said “15 or 16 guys” included “FP” in their Instagram announcement posts, so who else may have been in on the joke?

When Decider visited Sean and Aaron’s posts on Monday, August 14 (ahead of the “Men Tell All” special premiering on ABC, but well after it taped), both men had “edited” their posts seven and eight weeks ago and removed all trace of “FP.” Assuming other contestants followed in their footsteps, here’s a list of all of Charity’s men who edited their Bachelorette Instagram announcements since originally posting them. (It’s worth noting that there’s no proof all of these men deleted “FP” from their posts. Some men may have edited their posts for other reasons.)

• Aaron Bryant
• Aaron Schwartzman
• Brayden Bowers
• Dotun Olubeko
• James Pierce
• John Buresh
• John Henry
• Sean McLaughlin
• Spencer Storbeck
• Xavier Bonner

And here’s the men without “FP” in their initial posts, and no sign of edits:

• Adrian Hassan
• Caleb Arthur
• Christopher Spell
• Joe Menzia
• Joey Graziadei
• Kaleb Kim
• Michael Barbour
• Tanner Courtad
• Taylor Pegg

Contestants Caleb Balgaard, Josh Young, Nic Barber, Warwick Reider, and Khalid Hassan were not included in the above lists, because they don’t currently have headshot posts from the start of the series on their Instagram accounts — though it’s unclear if posts were deleted since the “Men Tell All” special filmed.

Hopefully we’ve helped narrow down the suspects a bit. But we still have some serious “FP”-related questions for the men of The Bachelorette Season 20. Can we call another emergency “Men Tell All” episode, Jesse? These men have some more explaining to do.

New episodes of The Bachelorette premiere on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Episodes are available for next-day streaming on Hulu.