Maria Georgas has confirmed that she was almost The Bachelorette lead.
In fact, she revealed that she was the lead for a short time, as she had accepted the role.
But then, she decided not to do it, and that’s how we ended up with Jenn Tran instead.
That answers many questions we’ve had about how we got to this point.
It also sheds some light on that awkward The Bachelor: After the Final Rose ending where The Bachelorette was announced.
Remember how they made it sound like The Bachelorette would be Daisy Kent at first? Then, after Daisy said she wasn’t ready for the role, they brought out Jenn Tran and had Charity Lawson announce her instead.
Things got even weirder when cameras focused on Maria, who was a part of the audience, as she encouraged Jenn and said she would be a great Bachelorette lead.
Maria Georgas clears up The Bachelorette confusion
There was no question that Daisy Kent turned down The Bachelorette role because she did it on After the Final Rose when Jesse Palmer asked about it.
But when Maria wasn’t named as the lead, Bachelor Nation was upset — until one of her The Bachelor castmates revealed that she was actually asked to take the top spot.
Now, Maria has confirmed that news and explained why she won’t be handing out roses this summer during her recent appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast.
“I was offered the role. It was mine until I said it wasn’t,” Maria admitted. “It became very overwhelming to the point where I had to decline.”
Maria even confirmed that, before backing out of the role, her Bachelorette spot was “set in stone,” and she was even doing fittings and getting ready to take on the role.
As for why she decided not to do it, she explained, “When everyone around me was so supportive of me being in this position, and everyone wanted this for me, I took a second. I’m like, why am I not happy? Why am I not excited about this? It took me realizing that it’s just not my time where I was like, respectfully, I need to decline. I need to take a step back.”
Maria Georgas’ dad previously said no one should talk about turning down The Bachelorette role
Maria’s revelations about turning down The Bachelorette come just weeks after her dad, Nick Georgas, was asked whether she was offered the spot.
It happened on The Bachmakers podcast where Nick said, “I don’t think anybody should really say too much about The Bachelorette because that’s not fair to Jenn… Jenn is a great person, and it’s her show.”
That started a bit of drama. Maria ended up defending her dad after The Bachelor fans thought he was taking shots at Daisy Kent when he was just declining to confirm whether Maria was asked to be the lead.
The Bachelorette will air in the summer of 2024 on ABC.