The Bachelorette star Tayshia Adams insists she did everything possible to save her marriage before competing for Colton Underwood's heart on The Bachelor's 23rd season and continuing to find love on the franchise.
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Tayshia revealed she got separated from her husband of about two years, Josh Bourelle, in August 2017 and then got divorced in April 2018 before she began filming The Bachelor in September of that year. (Colton's season of The Bachelor aired on ABC in early 2019).
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"People heard I had just gotten divorced, and they were like, 'You just got divorced like three months ago, so you're not ready," Tayshia recalled on the October 22 episode of her Click Bait podcast with Hannah Ann Sluss and Joe Amabile.
"And I was like, 'Actually, I've been separated for practically over a year now and that relationship has been gone for a long time. So just because I got a divorce or just split up does not mean that relationship was not over long ago."
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Tayshia noted, however, "You should try to work it out and do everything you possibly can."
"When things were getting really bad, we were like, 'Okay, we need to go see a counselor,'" Tayshia said. "Actually, that was my doing, because I knew I needed to do absolutely everything in order to know that was the end of the road."
She added, "Because in my mind, divorce isn't a thing. You know what I mean? Marriage is forever. So I kicked and screamed and made sure we did marriage counseling, and at that point, you kind of walk through some things and you try as hard as you can, but you can't force someone to love you."
Tayshia apparently felt she was putting all of her time and energy into saving her marriage without much effort from Josh, who she married in February 2016 after four years of dating.
"So you've got to go your own separate way," Tayshia said.
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Since Tayshia felt she had done everything possible she could, she was ready to move on and date someone new on The Bachelor's 23rd season.
"That's why I was so happy and content to go look for love when I went on The Bachelor because I knew I did everything. That was a chapter closed," Tayshia shared. "It's a very different scenario when there's still, like, open doors."
"People never know the true story," Tayshia added. "And I was ready for it."
Tayshia, a former phlebotomist from Orange County, CA, was eliminated from Colton's The Bachelor season during his round of overnight Fantasy Suite dates.
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Tayshia was widely reported to be a frontrunner to star on The Bachelorette's fifteenth season last year, but the position ultimately went to Hannah Brown.
Tayshia therefore appeared on the 2019 edition of Bachelor in Paradise, where she fell in love with John Paul Jones but dumped him before the season concluded.
While the couple briefly reconciled and began dating in the real world after leaving Paradise, Tayshia and John Paul ultimately split in October 2019.
Just days before Clare Crawley was announced as The Bachelorette's Season 16 leading lady, Tayshia admitted to Entertainment Tonight that she would be "ready" for the gig.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
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"I have to say, anything that comes my way, I am ready for," Tayshia shared in late February. "I am ready for love!"
News Tayshia will be co-starring on The Bachelorette's currently-airing sixteenth season first shocked the world on July 31 when a spoiler about her replacing Clare was posted on Reddit and then Reality Steve spoiler blogger Carbone tweeted there was "some serious validity" to the posting.
ET subsequently confirmed on August 3 that Tayshia was the new star of The Bachelorette but Clare's short journey to find love would also be featured on the show this fall.
Tayshia was subsequently spotted and photographed taping the show in a sexy bikini at The Bachelorette resort, La Quinta Resort & Club in Palm Springs, CA.
Reports swirled this past summer Tayshia stepped in for Clare on The Bachelorette after Clare fell in love with bachelor Dale Moss and decided to quit the show 12 days into filming. (Reality Steve spoiler blogger Steve Carbone, however, reported producers forced Clare out and she didn't quit, which Harrison has since denied).
In late September, Harrison all but gave away Tayshia will starring on Season 16 this year.
"She's not not the Bachelorette," Harrison joked with ET at the time.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
"In all seriousness, Tayshia is a very good friend of mine. I absolutely love and adore this woman, and I would love for her to have that opportunity to be the Bachelorette, should that ever arise."
He added, "She would be a great candidate [for Bachelorette]. She always was. She was on the top of our list from the start."
Producers continued to play coy about Tayshia's participation on Season 16 for weeks until ABC finally confirmed rumors she'll be on the show by flashing footage of Tayshia stepping out of a pool in a sexy red bikini at the end of The Bachelorette's October 27 episode.
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The Bachelorette then released a preview clip of the next episode airing Thursday, November 5 on its Instagram page of Harrison announcing to Clare's remaining group of men another woman is on her way to date them since they had been "cheated" out of love with Clare.
To read spoilers on the ending of Clare's time on The Bachelorette, click here. And for spoilers on Tayshia's portion of Season 16, click here.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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