Arie Luyendyk Jr. spent his early adult life trying to build a racing career in the shadow of his father, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, before reality TV turned him into one of the Bachelor franchise’s most controversial leads. His appearance on Season 1 of The Traitors added a strange late-career twist: recruited mid-season into the game’s secret alliance, he chose to remove himself from the finale rather than risk being targeted by his own partner.
Luyendyk’s path to reality fame runs directly through open-wheel racing, a sport his family name is inseparable from.
Racing in His Father’s Shadow
Arie Luyendyk Sr. won the Indianapolis 500 twice, in 1990 and 1997, across 17 total starts between 1985 and 2002. His 1990 winning average speed of 185.981 miles per hour stood as a race record for more than two decades, until Tony Kanaan finally broke it in 2013. That was the standard Luyendyk Jr. grew up chasing.
Luyendyk Jr. built his own career mostly in Indy Lights, finishing 2nd in points as a rookie in 2002. He failed to qualify for the 2005 Indianapolis 500, but made his IndyCar Series debut there in 2006, finishing 28th. He continued racing Indy Lights through 2008, taking his only series win that year at Kentucky and finishing 4th in the points standings, before later moving into broadcasting as an analyst for NBC Sports Network.
The Bachelor Franchise Years
Luyendyk Jr. first appeared on reality TV as the runner-up on Season 8 of The Bachelorette, competing for Emily Maynard. He returned in 2018 to headline Season 22 of The Bachelor, where he became one of the franchise’s most talked-about leads: he proposed to Becca Kufrin on camera, then broke off the engagement in front of cameras shortly after, and pursued runner-up Lauren Burnham instead, proposing to her before the season’s live special had even finished airing.
Marriage, Kids, and Real Estate in Scottsdale
Luyendyk Jr. and Burnham married in Kauai, Hawaii, and have built a family and a business together since. They have four children: daughter Alessi, twins Senna and Lux, and their youngest, Livvy Rowe, born September 18, 2025. The couple splits their time in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Luyendyk Jr. works as a realtor with EXP Realty, leaning on his Bachelor-era name recognition to build a local real estate business focused on the Phoenix and Scottsdale markets.
A Late Recruitment on The Traitors
Luyendyk Jr. began The Traitors as a Faithful before being recruited into the Traitors’ ranks in Episode 7 by Cirie Fields and Christian de la Torre. The alliance didn’t last: sensing that Fields intended to target him at the very end of the game, Luyendyk removed himself before the final vote could take place, a decision that allowed Fields to win the full prize alone. He has reportedly held onto some frustration about how that finale played out, a small asterisk on a career that’s mostly been defined by racing legacy and Bachelor-franchise chaos rather than game-show strategy.