The Bachelor bachelorette Katherine "Kat" Izzo has dished on Tahzjuan Hawkins crashing Zach Shallcross' group date, revealing how she would've reacted had Zach welcomed Tahzjuan onto the show.
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Katherine, a 26-year-old registered nurse from Tampa, FL, appeared on the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast and discussed with Becca Kufrin and Michelle Young how she had made "a point to only focus on Zach and block everything else out" during the first group date of the season.
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But it was nearly impossible to block out the fact Tahzjuan, who appeared on Colton Underwood's The Bachelor season followed by two seasons of Bachelor in Paradise, was trying to join the cast and steal Zach away from her at the afterparty.
"Honestly, my first thought was, 'Can you come back tomorrow? It's really late in the night, we can have a conversation about this later.' I was just like, 'Ugh, I can't believe this is happening right now.' Also, I didn't know in that moment that [Tahzjuan] was there to pursue him; we just heard, 'Tahzjuan is here,'" Katherine recalled.
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"I'm like, 'Okay, is this part of the date? What's going on? Is she here to pursue him or is she here to come and give us more pointers?'"
Earlier in the day, Tahzjuan had hosted the group date along with fellow The Bachelor alums Courtney Robertson and Victoria Fuller. The three women were tasked with judging the "bad bitch energy" in each of Zach's participating bachelorettes.
But once Tahzjuan got a good look at Zach, she realized he has many of the qualities she wants in a partner -- and so she asked The Bachelor star if she could join his group of bachelorettes.
"We didn't know [what Tahzjuan wanted] at that moment until we went over to her and asked her what was up. When [Cat Wong] first told us, we were all just, like, 'Huh? What's happening?' We had an idea, but it was still not confirmed what the whole purpose of her coming was," Katherine said.
Cat was the person who broke the news about Tahzjuan's intentions to the other bachelorettes because Tahzjuan had interrupted Cat's time alone with Zach.
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Tahzjuan's antics then resulted in the group of bachelorettes approaching her and seeking answers.
"We didn't know if she was talking to him, and we didn't want to interrupt... But finally, we were all like, 'Okay, let's just go and see what's going on.' And that's when we asked her. And still, we didn't really get a direct answer. It was mostly just, like, us being told that we didn't bring it," Katherine said.
Tahzjuan told the women that watching them onstage during the group date was "painful."
Tahzjuan also suggested on the show that the bachelorettes shouldn't have been threatened by her presence if they truly have "bad bitch energy." However, Tahzjuan would then tell the cameras that the bachelorettes had every reason to be intimidated by her.
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Michelle therefore pointed out how Tahzjuan's statements were contradictory and confusing.
"I did say something [along the lines] of, 'This isn't bad bitch energy, this is mean girl energy. This isn't really a way you [should] approach this situation,' or at least I wouldn't," Katherine explained.
"In those moments, too, it was really chaotic. There was a lot going on and, also, she wasn't really giving us straightforward answers, almost like she was contradicting herself."
Katherine, however, said she was "trying to give [Tahzjuan] the benefit of the doubt" and not paint her in an unflattering light.
"I was trying to think, 'Okay, maybe she's a little insecure or maybe she doesn't want to talk about how she's feeling. Maybe she doesn't want to hurt our feelings. Maybe she didn't want to say [she wants Zach] directly for multiple reasons,'" Katherine reasoned.
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"But when I started to process how she was approaching it, I was like, 'This just is not a very good display of bad bitch energy, this is kind of mean. You're not being very nice to us.'"
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Katherine said Tahzjuan was "insulting" in the way she tried "to build her relationship" with Zach.
"But at the end of the day, I wasn't here to express myself or explain myself. She was basically trying to tell us, I think, 'If you have a problem with it, tell me.' But we were all just like, 'It's not really worth the energy, because I'm not really sure how much of what I'm going to say is going to be processed [correctly],'" Katherine shared.
"Because she was misinterpreting what we were saying... so I was just like, 'It's not worth it.'"
Zach took some time to think about whether he should allow Tahzjuan to join his cast, but he ultimately decided against it. Zach didn't want to upset his Night 1 bachelorettes, and he told the cameras that he felt "really hopeful" his wife was among the original group.
During her podcast appearance, Katherine also revealed how she would've felt if Zach had decided to welcome Tahzjuan into the cast.
"It wouldn't adjust my view of who [Zach] is as a partner. I think at that point in the process, it's still early. So if you do feel something with her and she feels it vice versa, go for it -- it's not my place to tell you who to pursue," Katherine said.
The blonde beauty went on to point out, "It's not necessarily unfair, though we did give up our lives a lot [to be there] and she hadn't, or at least [she'd given up] less. But at the end of the day, this is a show about finding a husband or wife, and if you feel like you could [find that], then I would say go for it."
Katherine explained how a little competition never hurts in the name of love.
"I want my partner to choose me over everything," she noted. "So if he was feeling temptation, I would still want him to choose me over that temptation, too, so I would want [Tahzjuan] to be there if he was feeling it in that moment."
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Given it was only Week 1, Katherine said it "wouldn't have stung so much" if Tahzjuan stayed.
After Zach rejected Tahzjuan on Monday night's episode of The Bachelor, Tahzjuan was shown crying to a producer.
"It's just, like, everyone else figures it out and finds their person," Tahzjuan lamented. "But, like, I never do. I'm not going to cry. Bad bitches don't cry."
The producer apparently responded: "Sometimes bad bitches cry. It's okay."
While the episode was airing, Tahzjuan fired back at trolls who were criticizing her approach to dating Zach and also how she treated the Season 27 bachelorettes.
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