ABC
Jenn Tran Slams Narrative She Only Got Bachelorette Lead Because Maria Turned It Down: ‘Not the Truth’
Jenn Tran was “disappointed” to hear Maria Georgas’ “narrative” of how casting for season 21 of The Bachelorette went down. The show’s new lead was away filming when her Bachelor costar claimed to have been the original person chosen as the Bachelorette, and Jenn is now setting the record straight on what really happened.
“The truth of the matter is, there’s a lot of narratives out there and they’re not necessarily the truth,” Jenn, 26, said on the Wednesday, June 26, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “This show has been going on for years and years – 21 years of this show specifically – and every season there are multiple people in contention for the role. Multiple people are doing interviews or doing fittings or filming intro packages. And it’s never really you until it’s you. That’s why I was a little disappointed. The narratives out there aren’t exactly true.”
She reiterated that there’s “always multiple people” considered for the lead role every season and confirmed that her casting was not a “last minute decision.” In fact, Jenn said she was in talks with producers for “months” before she got the call.
“It was disappointing to come back from this incredible journey for myself and see all this speculation around it and have all these things take away from what my journey was,” the physician assistant student admitted.
In May, Maria, 29, also appeared on “Call Her Daddy,” which is when she claimed to have accepted the Bachelorette role and had started doing fittings before dropping out. “It was set in stone. I was it,” Maria shared. “[But] 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 [and] I was like, ‘Respectfully, I need to decline. I need to take a step back.’”
Daisy Kent, who appeared on season 28 of The Bachelor with both Jenn and Maria, also previously confirmed that she was in contention for the gig. However, she said she decided to pass on becoming the Bachelorette for a number of reasons, including the toll long hours of filming and traveling would take on her physical health.
Despite Jenn’s disappointment at the narrative that was put out there while she was away finding love, she said “everything’s good” between her, Maria and Daisy, 25, now. “That’s the thing about being in this world and being mature and just knowing what world you’re in and being a person and being mature about it all is we’re all fine,” she said. “It’s all good.”
Maria also had nothing but kind words to say about Jenn during her “CHD” interview, gushing, “She is the most perfect Bachelorette in my eyes. I couldn’t think of anyone better to do this. She was so ready for it, and that was enough for me to say, ‘Yeah, it’s not my time.’”
Meanwhile, Jenn, who is Vietnamese, has also had to deal with chatter online about the casting decision. “There was a lot of people wanting somebody else or wishing I was American,” she shared. “There’s a lot of racism around it too and there’s just a lot of people who can’t wait to have input on it and wish it was somebody else and what not. I think you just can’t win.”
She also added, “In a weird way, it makes me feel validated that there needs to be change. I lived my whole life with people telling me racism doesn’t exist and Asians don’t have to deal with it. … To have these things about me said online, particularly about my race, just validates the fact that there is so much hate in people’s hearts still. I’m happy to take on the brunt of it if it means I’m making a change for people that are going to come after me.”
The Bachelorette premieres on ABC Monday, July 8, at 8 p.m. ET.
