Jenn Tran is not here for the narratives surrounding Daisy Kent and Maria Georgas turning down the Bachelorette role.
“Obviously I didn’t have my phone at the time all of this was going down because we had went right into filming right after it was all announced,” Jenn, 26, said on the Wednesday, June 26, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “Coming back to all of that, yeah, obviously I was really disappointed to see all of that because, I mean, the truth of the matter is, there’s a lot of narratives out there and they’re not necessarily the truth.”
Jenn explained that there have been 21 seasons of the show, with “multiple people” in the running for the gig every iteration. “Multiple people are being interviewed, or doing meetings about it all, doing fittings or filming intro packages, and it’s never really you until it’s you,” she said.
Jenn clarified that she was not approached about the role last minute. Instead, she recalled having meetings and talking about the opportunity for months before she received a phone call extending the offer.
“They asked me and I had the choice and I chose to do it. I said yes,” she said. “The thing with the narrative sets out right now is it was disappointing to come back from this incredible journey for myself and then to see all the speculation around it and to almost have these things kind of take away from what my journey was.”
Jenn noted that she’s at a point in her life where she’s not letting anyone “take claim,” adding that she’s “always thought about others first.”
“It took awhile for me to really find my voice in certain things,” she said. “This is something that I’m so proud to be able to say, ‘This is my time and this is my journey.’ That’s what I want it to be focused on because I’m able to have a voice now to talk about it and to be able to stand my ground on it. This is my journey, I’m so happy about it and I’m so happy for everyone to finally see that.”
Jenn added that she and the other women are in a good place. “Just knowing what world you’re in and being a person and being mature about it all is that we’re all fine and it’s all good,” she said.
Jenn was announced as the season 21 lead of The Bachelorette during the After the Final Rose episode in March. (Jenn had previously vied for the affections of Joey Graziadei during The Bachelor season 28, but the tennis pro, 29, ultimately popped the question to Kelsey Anderson.)
In the months afterwards, both Maria, 29, and Daisy, 25, admitted that they had turned down the opportunity to hand out roses.
“I was very open and honest about it and very transparent that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it but like two weeks before [AFTR I had decided],” Daisy said during an April episode of “The Viall Files” podcast. “They were all super nice and respectful and understood all my reasons. They still want to see me grow and said, ‘If we can help you in any way, we want to.’”
Maria, for her part, revealed during an appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast in May that she was offered the role but ultimately passed on being the Bachelorette.
“It was set in stone. I was in it,” Maria shared at the time. “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.”
The Bachelorette season 21 airs at 8 p.m. EST on July 8 on ABC.
