Brad Womack's first time on The Bachelor ended controversially, but his second time around brought him the happy ending he has been searching for.

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The Bachelor star was given a second chance following his memorable rejection of his final two bachelorettes during the show's eleventh-season finale in 2007, but Womack's return for the fifteenth-season -- which was filmed earlier this fall and will premiere on Monday, January 3 at 8PM ET/PT -- left him a very happy man in love.

"I did find love and I'm very happy to say that -- very happy to be able to say that -- I'm very much in love. I'm a happy guy," Womack told reporters during a media conference call on Wednesday.

"I can promise you there is a very happy ending. I did find somebody... so for the viewers who do want to see that happen, no matter who the guy is or the girl for that matter, that it happened. A true love story happened. So, for no other reason, that's a good reason to watch -- because it worked."

While skeptics may suggest the show's producers pressured Womack to find love on The Bachelor this time around, the 38-year-old said his actions and decisions were his own and as real as they could get.

"I sound like a jerk when I say this, but love and all that, I take it very seriously, and not a chance would I let anyone pressure me to make any kind of a decision like that. Truthfully I can say if I didn't find love, I would have walked away again, even though I would have been publicly exiled," he said.

"It's real life whether people believe that or not. I made it very clear that I was there to fall in love... I really do look at this as my very real life. I just wanted to come on the show and be my true self and let people in, and it worked!"

Womack said he was grateful to have been given a second chance at finding true love, and that this season was entirely different from his first experience on the show.

"It was completely different for so many reasons. I was so much more open to the process, and then I just had a great time. I know that sounds strange -- because I had a good time last time too -- it was just so much more fun. The women were so much more engaging. It was a great experience," Womack told reporters.

Womack -- who called himself a "painfully" shy person -- also said he had underestimated The Bachelor's impact prior to his initial participation and had naively not realized that his life would become an open book afterward.

"I was afraid of the unknown and how public my life was going to become," Womack said.

This season, he said hopes he will be able to just return to his private life -- which he insisted will remain in Austin, TX, where he owns four bars -- after the show airs without any additional public or negative attention.

In addition, Womack reiterated his prior explanations that he underwent extensive therapy in attempt to reflect on his past and commitment issues and belief that the treatment and several new self-discoveries allowed him open up and geniunely get to know the women on his second The Bachelor edition.

"I truly believe this process can work and that's the only reason why I decided to do it again," Womack stated. 

Womack's initial beliefs in The Bachelor convinced him to give it another shot, however he said he was initially more nervous and anxious than he was for his first season as he was unsure how the new season's women would react to him.

According to Womack, many of the women were apprehensive at first and grilled him about his prior The Bachelor season.  And one -- as viewers have already seen in ABC's on-air promotional clips -- even stepped out of the limo and gave him a glimpse of how the majority of women in America viewed him by slapping him across the face.

"The slap unfortunately, was very real. I don't know if it's a prelude of what's to come because everyone calmed down a little bit. It shocked me of course, but we moved on, we talked about it, we laughed it off and moved on," Womack noted.

However, while the women's questions and concerns quickly subsided after Womack explained himself, The Bachelor star said that doesn't mean the season will be without drama as he has been told things got tense and fiercely competitive between the bachelorettes when he wasn't around.

According to Womack, this season's women were also much more aggressive in their attempts to steal him away for numerous private conversations than those in his first season.

During the call, The Bachelor star also attempted to explain why he felt he needed to resort to seeking love on television despite regularly encountering single women as the successful owner of four bars.

"I never mix business with pleasure -- ever. I just want to settle down with one -- just one woman -- that's it," said Womack, adding he doesn't pick up women at work and wanted to use The Bachelor to meet women he wouldn't meet in his normal life.

However, Womack also told reporters he had deliberately avoided dating after his initial The Bachelor edition as his public rejection of DeAnna Pappas and Jenni Croft eventually caused him to realize he had commitment issues and most women to decide they weren't interested in him.

"I purposely took myself out of the dating world and I went on dates, but very very few. I'm talking maybe four or five dates over a three-year span. I became a very lonely guy," he said.
In addition, Womack insisted single women weren't the only members of the public who responded negatively to him and said he encountered many other people who openly disliked and bashed him.

"It was brutal. People didn't hold back at all," Womack noted.

Womack met with Pappas and Croft as part of his return to The Bachelor and told reporters that while he was in complete shock when he saw the two women, he had been wanting to have a conversation with them for some time and the meeting gave him the closure he needed.

Womack also acknowledged his initial The Bachelor season may have very well ended differently if he had been through therapy before participating in it.

"Maybe I would have stuck around and at least given a relationship the chance instead of just walking away," he said.

However, while he may have given a relationship a shot, Womack said he definitely still wouldn't have proposed to either woman.

Womack also didn't reveal whether he had proposed marriage to the woman he "found love" with at the end of his second The Bachelor attempt, but told reporters there is a chance he could briefly return to television a third time.

"That's a really good question and I'm not so sure about that," Womack replied when asked whether he and his selected bachelorette might marry in a televised wedding someday.

"If and when I get married, that day is going to be all about my wife. And so, it's up to her... That day is very sacred to me, but it really is all about her... I really haven't even thought about that... I think I'm breaking out in a cold sweat just thinking about it. But, I don't know... Never say never."
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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