'The Bachelorette' star Emily Maynard: Money played absolutely no part in why I picked Jef Holm

The Bachelorette star Emily Maynard selected Jef Holm as her final suitor and he proposed to her during Sunday night's eighth-season finale of the ABC reality dating show.


Emily selected Jef, a 27-year-old entrepreneur from Salt Lake City, UT, over Arie Luyendyk Jr., a 30-year-old race car driver from Scottsdale, AZ, during the finale and now says she's madly in love and has truly found her fairy tale ending. The pair is finally allowed to step out together in public and get on with their lives together as an engaged couple and parents to Emily's seven-year-old daughter Ricki. 

During a Tuesday conference call with reporters, Emily and Jef talked to Reality TV World about some pressing rumors that have recently been swirling around around Emily and the couple, officially setting the record straight. In addition, the happy couple touched upon Jef's plans to move to Charlotte, NC, and Emily's reaction to the way Arie had handled his ouster.

Below is the first portion of Emily and Jef's call. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion.

Reality TV World: Jason and Molly Mesnick, along with Trista and Ryan Sutter, have been the only Bachelor couples to get married and they both aired their ceremonies on television. Now RadarOnline reported recently that you'd love to do a spinoff show and document your wedding planning and the ceremony itself. So Emily, do you and Jef see yourselves starring in a spinoff show or at least airing your big day to share it with fans? What are your thoughts on that?


Emily Maynard: My thoughts on that are pretty clear. I have no interest in ever doing any spinoff show or anything like that. I don't know how that got started, but it's certainly not true. I have been looking forward to the day when I get to go back to normal and not have to worry about cameras or anything like that and Jef and I can just be two people who fell in love on a show, and leave that behind us.

Reality TV World: Earlier in the season, when I talked to Joe Gendreau after you, Emily, eliminated him, he predicted you'd end up with Jef because Jef has "got some money" and you wanted someone financially stable, and fans have also noted that Arie also seems pretty well off as well. So I just wanted to give you a chance to respond to Joe's comment and also address how much of a role financial stability played in your decisions in general.

Emily Maynard: I'll be honest with you. I thought Jef lived at home for the better part of our relationship while the show was airing, and I still kept him around! So I don't know what that says. I don't how Joe knows anything about me or Jef for that matter considering he was sent home first, but who knows.

But I certainly do not care about anyone's money. I don't need it. My father's worked really hard his entire life so that his children will never have to want for anything, and I'm very grateful for that and yeah, it played absolutely no part of it. I find it pretty insulting that anyone would ever say that.
 
Reality TV World: When you eliminated Arie before your final one-on-one date together really even began, did Arie react how you would have expected him to or did it surprise you in some way? For instance, maybe you had anticipated him being more emotional than angry or something like that.

Emily Maynard: No, I felt like I really got to know Arie just like he got to know me really well. It's hard. Relationships are hard and it was real life, and I can't say I would've reacted any differently. He was just going off on how he felt in his heart and I respect that 100% percent.


Reality TV World: Jef, you mentioned yesterday [on Good Morning America] that you and Emily really never talked about an engagement, so it technically came as a surprise to both of you. However, you two seemed to have some very deep meaningful conversations throughout the season about life, marriage, children, etc. So how did the idea of a proposal never get discussed? Were you kind of purposely avoiding the topic because maybe you thought throughout the season it wasn't really going to be a possibility or did it just simply not come up?

Jef Holm: Well, as you watched through the season, we took it step by step. When we first met, we were just friends and there was obviously an initial attraction that we both had with each other. There was a lot of chemistry, and then our feelings grew for each other and we started liking each other and I totally had a crush on her.

And then we fell in love and it just took gradual, normal steps that two people take when they meet each other and are dating and then get engaged. And so, it didn't really come up and I wanted to keep it a surprise once I knew that I was going to propose to her, and I knew that I was going to propose to her in Curacao.

Reality TV World: Emily, you also said yesterday you plan to tell Ricki soon about how you're engaged to Jef considering your relationship has gone public now. So how exactly do you plan to explain things to her and how soon? And do you think she'll fully understand what your engagement means, or maybe wonder how it's different from the one with Brad Womack?

Emily Maynard: Yeah absolutely, and that's something that I've thought about and asked my friends about. Yeah, it's something that I'll have to be very sensitive to and she's obviously the most important part of my life, and Jef is too, so I want those two worlds to collide and I want it to be easy. I know that Ricki and Jef are going to get along great and I don't think it's going to be a problem.


Reality TV World: Jeff, when do you think the big move to Charlotte will happen and have you already begun looking at houses or apartments? Also, what's going to be the hardest part of leaving Utah for you? 

Jef Holm: I have begun looking at houses and apartments and stuff in Charlotte. I'm really excited for the move. I think it's going to take place the first, second, third, maybe fourth week of August. Ricki starts school the 22th, so I want to be there to support her and get involved in her life as quickly as I can.

The hardest part of leaving Salt Lake will be my family lives there, my friends live there, my business is there. It's a big transition for me, but I'm fortunate enough that I can work from anywhere. And I'll be making frequent trips back to Salt Lake to work and see friends and family, and I'll take Emily and Ricki with me.

Above is the first portion of Emily and Jef's call. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the rest of the interview.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski