The Maria Georgas for Bachelorette campaign was alive and well before she was even eliminated from Joey Graziadei’s Bachelor season. So when the 29-year-old wasn’t named the next lead during Joey’s After the Final Rose special on March 25, fans were surprised, especially since rumors swirled that she was very much a top contender for the job.
During a May 1 appearance on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast, Maria shed light on her almost-casting, confirming that she wasn’t just a contender, but the contender. “I was offered the role. I mean, it was mine until I said it wasn’t,” she said, adding that she even got to the stage of doing fittings for her Bachelorette debut. “It was set in stone,” she said. “I was it.”
So, what happened?
Maria Wasn’t Happy About The Bachelorette
Maria pointed to her friendship with Jenn Tran, who was named the next Bachelorette, as a key factor in passing on the show. “She was one of my closest girls in the house, and she was always verbalizing how badly she wanted this,” Maria recalled. “And when everyone around me was so supportive of me being in this position … I kind of took a second, like, Why am I not happy? Why am I not excited about this?”
She realized that it wasn’t her time — nor was she in the “right headspace” to go on her own journey. While a Maria Bachelorette season “would’ve been great,” she said, she preferred to go home and spend time with friends and family to get back to reality.
Maria also reiterated her praise for Jenn’s casting, echoing her shoutout from After the Final Rose when she told her friend how “amazing” she was. “She is the most perfect Bachelorette in my eyes,” she said on Call Her Daddy. “I couldn’t think of anyone better to do this, and she was so ready for it. And that was enough for me to say, It’s not my time.”
Why Maria Said No, Thanks
When pressed about why, the Canada-based Bachelor alum explained that she’d been “so anxious” throughout Joey’s season and wasn’t ready to give up any degree of freedom for another fast-paced production process.
“It’s so isolating being in there … having to be alone in that, I wasn’t comfortable,” she said. “I wasn’t mentally prepared for it.”
Maria also used her podcast appearance to push back on criticism from fellow Bachelor Nation alum Wells Adams, who shared rumors on his podcast that Maria “asked for too much” from producers, and lost out on the opportunity. ( He said, “That was stupid … You’re so very quickly gonna not be cared about here in a second, you know? And I think you’re gonna miss that.”)
“At the end of the day, I have to do what’s best for me,” Maria said. “It was so disheartening to hear someone who knows this process … to say something like that. Like, shut the f*ck up. Like, you don’t know me.”
