The Bachelor alum Maria Georgas has revealed that she was officially offered The Bachelorette role for Season 21 and her casting was "set in stone" before she changed her mind and backed out.
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"It became very overwhelming to the point where I had to decline."
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Maria said she was "at the point where" she was "doing fittings" for dresses and outfits she'd wear on The Bachelorette prior to backing out.
"It was set in stone. I was in it," Maria reiterated.
Maria dropped this bombshell five weeks after ABC had announced Jenn Tran as the new The Bachelorette star during The Bachelor: After the Final Rose for Joey Graziadei's season on March 25.
"I have been trying my hardest to stay silent about this, but I think that moving forward -- and if I'm going to be in this world -- I have to be honest, especially with the people who have supported me," Maria explained.
Maria suggested that she was going through the motions for The Bachelorette and her heart simply wasn't in it.
"Jenn was one of my closest girls in the house, and she was always verbalizing how badly she wanted this. And when everyone around me was so supportive of me being in this position and everyone wanted this for me, I kind of took a second and was like, 'Why am I not happy? Why am I not excited about this?'" Maria said.
"It took me realizing that it's just not my time where I was like, 'Guys, respectfully, I need to decline. I need to take a step back.'"
Maria apparently was "not in the right headspace" to be The Bachelorette star this year.
"I know the extensive process it was to be on the show, right? So having a bunch of guys do the exact same thing -- and they're there for me -- I didn't want to waste anyone's time," Maria reasoned.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"And honestly, it was hard for me to kind of jump right back into it [after Joey's season]."
Alex went on to reveal that Maria had actually been scheduled to come on her podcast and make her The Bachelorette announcement in March. One day before the podcast episode was set to tape, Alex received a call that it wasn't going to happen and Maria was on a plane back to Toronto.
"Everyone was so excited, and I know what this season could have been like, and it would've been great," Maria said. "I just was not ready."
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Maria said The Bachelorette producers were actually "so supportive" of her last-minute decision because she had been "open and honest" about where she was at "mentally" and how she felt.
"I just wanted to come back to reality and take time off from all of this... I think people saw that and recognized that I wasn't posting [on social media] as much, and I was not speaking on things," Maria recalled.
"As much as I wanted my time off, I also wanted Jenn to have her moment, and she is the most perfect Bachelorette in my eyes. I couldn't think of anyone better to do this. She was so ready for it, and that was enough for me to say, 'Yeah, this is not my time.'"
Maria said, however, she's "super appreciative" and "grateful" for all of the fan support.
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Maria admitted her time on The Bachelor was stressful and exhausting, mainly due to all the drama, and so it was nice for her to be able to take a break.
"What people saw on their screens was only the half of what I went through in the house. Did I have time off before it aired? Yes. But again, everything was so -- I was so anxious throughout the whole thing," Maria shared.
"I get it -- it would have been my own show and it would have been me having more control over things. But again, it's so isolating being in there. And I would have to give up my phone -- not my freedom, but having to be alone in that, and I just wasn't comfortable. I wasn't mentally prepared for it."
Maria insisted that she didn't go on The Bachelor for fame and she wasn't interested in "milking her 15 minutes" by continuing on with The Bachelorette just because it was a great opportunity.
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Maria also clapped back at Bachelor in Paradise's Wells Adams, who had called Maria "a little unhinged" and wondered if producers thought Maria would be too difficult to control during the March 27 episode of his "Your Favorite Things" podcast.
"I heard that her demands were ridiculous and they were like, 'No,'" Wells said.
"I guess one of her demands is that she wanted to have her phone the entire time, which is like, come on! Another [rumor] I heard -- and who knows if any of this is true -- but I heard that she wanted... them to hire her friend to be her [own personal handler or producer], which, no! They are not qualified to do that job!"
Maria told Alex on her podcast that when she heard Wells' podcast comments, she immediately "wanted so badly to shut that sh-t down."
"But again, I just didn't think it was my time or my place," Maria revealed.
"He was like, 'Everyone is going to forget about [Maria] and [Joey's The Bachelor runner-up Daisy Kent]. This is going to be their biggest regret.' Forget about me! At the end of the day, I have to do what's best for me."
Maria vented to Alex that it was "so disheartening" to hear Wells say that about her given he knows about the process and what The Bachelor and The Bachelorette contestants have to go through.
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"[Wells] knows how mentally draining and physically draining this could be, so to say something like that, shut the f-ck up! You don't know me!"
Maria insisted she's "a very respectful person" and so Wells' claims "went against [her] character" and they are "so not true."
"Everyone knows you get your phone taken away and that's it," Maria confirmed.
"It's kind of contradicting for you to say I'm going to be 'forgotten' because I'm not the Bachelorette. Where do you stand? You were never the Bachelor. So are you forgotten?... You're forgotten in my head!... I would never say that about someone else!"
Jenn's season of The Bachelorette is currently filming and will premiere this summer on ABC.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
