Maria Georgas Confirms She Backed Out of ‘The Bachelorette’: Why She Walked Away

At one point, Maria Georgas was going to be the lead of The Bachelorette Season 21. The breakout star of Joey Graziadei‘s season of The Bachelor reveals in the May 1 episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast that she had accepted the Bachelorette role — but she ultimately backed out.

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

After becoming a Season 28 fan favorite, Bachelor Nation fans campaigned for Georgas to be the next Bachelorette. The Toronto native admits she was already “doing fittings” for The Bachelorette when she decided to walk away. “It was set in stone. I was in it,” she explains.

During her interview, Georgas brings up fellow Bachelor contestant Jenn Tran, who was named the star of The Bachelorette Season 21 during the After the Final Rose special in March. “She was always verbalizing how badly she wanted this,” Georgas says. “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] I’m 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.'”

The 29-year-old reveals that she was “not in the right headspace” to be the lead of The Bachelorette. Knowing the “extensive process” it took to be a contestant on The Bachelor, Georgas didn’t want to “waste anyone’s time” on The Bachelorette if she wasn’t fully in it. That’s when she knew she had to walk away.

The reality star is thrilled for Tran to find love on The Bachelorette and doesn’t have regrets about backing out.

“She is the most perfect Bachelorette in my eyes,” Georgas says about Tran. “I couldn’t think of anyone better to do this. She was so ready for it, and that was enough for me to kind of say, yeah, it’s not my time. It was a hard time because everyone was so wanting this for me, but I just needed to be home with my family and friends and take that time off, to be honest.”

But don’t expect to see Georgas on the next season of Bachelor in Paradise. While she is single, Georgas reveals she has no plans to be one of the Bachelor Nation stars headed to Mexico to find love.

The Bachelorette, Season 21, Summer 2024, ABC