Maria Georgas Reveals Why She Turned Down The Bachelorette

The Bachelor alum and the fan favorite, Maria Georgas, has finally spoken about her decision to turn down the Bachelorette.

Maria sat down with Alex Cooper of “Call Her Daddy” on the podcast’s Wednesday episode to open up about all things Bachelor.

“I was offered the role. It was mine until I said it wasn’t,” Maria confirmed. “It became very overwhelming to the point where I had to decline.”

Why did she change her mind?

“[Jenn] was one of my closest girls in the house, and she was always verbalizing how badly she wanted this,” she continued. “And when everyone around me was so supportive of me being in this position and everyone wanted this for me, I kind of took a second and was like, ‘Why am I not happy? Why am I not excited about this?’ And it took me realizing that it’s just not my time, where I was like, ‘Guys, respectfully, I need to decline. I need to take a step back.'”

Maria admitted she just wasn’t happy after singing the contract.

“It was set in stone. I was in it,” Maria continued. “When everyone around me was so supportive of me being in this position and everyone wanted this for me, I took a second. I’m like, why am I not happy? Why am I not excited about this? It took me realizing that it’s just not my time where I was like, respectfully, I need to decline. I need to take a step back.”

“I was not in the right headspace for this,” she said. “Because I know the extensive process it was to be on the show, right? So having a bunch of guys do the exact same thing and they’re there for me, I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time. It was hard for me to jump right back into it, honestly.”

“What people saw on their screens was only the half of what I kind of went through in the house,” she said. “Did I have time off before it aired? Yes. But again, everything was so—I was so anxious throughout the whole thing. And I get it, it would have been my own show, it would have been me having more control over things. But again, it’s so isolating being in there. And I would have to give up my phone—not my freedom, but having to be alone in that, I wasn’t comfortable. I wasn’t just mentally prepared for it.”

Maria called Jenn “the most perfect bachelorette,” and that she “couldn’t think of anyone better to do this.”

“She is the most perfect Bachelorette in my eyes,” she said of Jenn Trann. “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, ‘Yeah, it’s not my time.’ It was a hard time because, again, everyone was so wanting this for me. I just needed to be home with my family and friends and take that time off, to be honest.”