The Bachelor's Jenn Tran has weighed in on the Sydney Gordon vs. Maria Georgas drama that's going to lead into a tense two-on-one date on Joey Graziadei's season.
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Jenn called the Sydney and Maria drama "interesting" during the February 8 episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast, which is co-hosted by Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt.
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"I think maybe things were blown out of proportion, whatever it was," Jenn said.
Sydney apparently interpreted one of Maria's comments about Madina Alam being an older contestant as malicious when it was intended to be supportive. Sydney therefore talked behind Maria's back on The Bachelor's second episode.
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On last week's The Bachelor broadcast, Sydney threw Maria under the bus by telling Joey about how she thought Maria was a catty "bully" and a manipulative "mean girl."
Sydney told The Bachelor star, "She attacked me and I sat there and maintained my composure. She called me embarrassing, weird and dumb. I ended up walking away. I just couldn't be in that hostile environment."
Maria, in turn, denied the allegations and insisted that she'd never bully another woman, mainly because she had been bullied as a child and knows how it feels.
Maria also told Joey that if he liked Sydney, he couldn't possibly like her, considering they're complete opposites.
Jenn revealed on "Bachelor Happy Hour" that Maria is actually one of her "best friends" now.
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"I love Maria... I love her. We weren't super close in the beginning; I didn't know a lot about her. She's got one of those personalities that kind of intimidates you at first. So I was a little like, 'Do I want to know her?'" Jenn admitted.
"Well, I wanted to get to know her, but I was a little scared. I'm a little shy sometimes. But [Maria] is a girls' girl through and through. I absolutely love her. She's the best!"
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Jenn acknowledged how she was "really confused about what was going on" in the house between Maria and Sydney while they were filming the show late last year.
"People were telling me, 'This is what she said,' and, 'This is what she said.' And I'm one of those people who, like, I don't want to form an opinion until I actually know what's going on," Jenn explained.
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"So I never felt like I was getting the full story from anybody. So I was kind of just sitting there and watching it all happen. So I don't know."
Jenn shared how the house wasn't really divided between the two sparring ladies, although Sydney "had more of a team" behind her than Maria had.
"There were also a lot of other people who were just, like, in the middle and not getting involved," Jenn recalled.
"I just think the whole thing really did get blown out of proportion and caused so much tension."
Jenn called the conflict in the house "silly" because she didn't think the root of the problem was "anything crazy juicy" or even worth talking about.
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"I love drama! I love to see the drama happen," Jenn admitted. "I loved gossip, but I was like, 'This is not fun drama.' It was not something juicy."
The Bachelor's Allison Hollinger and Edwina Dorbor both took Maria's side in the dispute.
Allison claimed Maria was just "bold" and being herself, and Edwina insisted that Maria, although very "straightforward" with people, wasn't a bully at all and that Sydney was "blowing things out of proportion."
Since Joey, however, was confused about which woman was at fault, he decided to give both Maria and Sydney a rose at the third Rose Ceremony of The Bachelor's 28th season.
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After footage of Maria and Sydney's feud aired on ABC, Maria simply asked The Bachelor viewers to "stay positive and kind" to everyone on the show.
Maria recently wrote via Instagram Stories, "Emotions are high but please stay positive and kind to everyone involved."
But Sydney aimed a lengthy gaslighting rant at Maria in an Instagram post.
"Now, if you watch The Bachelor, you might see it in the previous [January 29] episode," Sydney said, seemingly referring to Maria's behavior.
"Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation where an abuser is trying to cause self-doubt and confusion in one's mind. Gaslighters tend to seek control by gaining power, and they do so by distorting their reality so that the victim is forced to question their own judgment and intuition."
Sydney went on to give three examples of gaslighting. Sydney's first example was "denying that something ever happened."
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"It could be somebody saying that they never said something... [claiming] it's something against their character. That makes the victim think.... 'Maybe I heard it wrong,'" Sydney said.
The second example was "trivializing your feelings and emotions."
Sydney explained that after a person expresses his or her feelings of hurt, a gaslighter may respond with, "You're making a big deal out of nothing. That's crazy."
Sydney said a gaslighter doesn't want to take responsibility for a mistake, and so the person may shift the blame and undermine the victim's thoughts. The gaslighter may also deflect their own feelings or problems onto the victim.
Sydney ended her rant by telling her followers that their feelings are always valid, no matter what.
"I also want to point out that this is a reality TV show and so drama is exaggerated to make it entertaining," Sydney concluded. "So let's please not give any hate, because at the end of the day, we're all real people."
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