Jesse Palmer was born on October 5, 1978, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Football was in his DNA; his father, Bill, played for the Ottawa Rough Riders in the CFL. Palmer attended Confederation and St. Pius X high schools before earning an athletic scholarship to the University of Florida, where he played for the Florida Gators.

Palmer was drafted by the New York Giants during f the 2001 NFL Draft. He spent four seasons as a backup quarterback, followed by brief stints with the San Francisco 49ers and the Montreal Alouettes, before retiring in 2007 to pursue a career in broadcasting. After the NFL, he worked as a college football analyst for ESPN and ABC for over a decade. Then, he made headlines in 2004 as the lead on Season 5 of The Bachelor, becoming the first professional athlete and first non-American to fill that role.

Jesse Palmer has also built a prolific hosting career, having hosted DailyMailTV (2017 to 2020). Since 2017, he has hosted Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship and related baking shows. In 2022, he replaced longtime host Chris Harrison on The Bachelor franchise, going on to host The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise, and The Golden Bachelor.