Would Maria Georgas Sign On to Be The Next Bachelorette? She Says…
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Originally appeared on E! Online
Maria Georgas may not have received Bachelor Joey Graziadei's final rose, but she might be ready to accept a proposal from ABC.
Asked about fans clamoring for her to hand out the roses as the next Bachelorette, the executive assistant told E! News' Francesca Amiker, "I'm in awe of it. I always wanted to be on the show, but not once did I ever think I could get the opportunity to be the Bachelorette."
Mostly, she continued, "It's amazing that people think that I can do that. So I'm just appreciative of that. And it makes me happy."
Particularly because signing on as the lead would give the 29-year-old a much-desired do-over.
Admitting she'd even consider a return to The Bachelor, Maria told E!, "Maybe the second time I'd do it better. And I would get my head in the game. Well, actually, I'd get out of my head. That's probably what I would do better for the next time."
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Meaning, count her among those yelling at their TV set when she pulled Joey aside to give him a too-little-too-late declaration of love.
"There's sometimes I watch back and I'm like, 'Oh, Maria, don't grab him to talk to him at the Rose Ceremony. What are you thinking?'" she acknowledged. "But when you're in it, you kind of just got to do what you've got to do."
Not that she was really operating from a place of strategy.
"I wish I had one," she shared. "My mouth has a mind of its own. And I just speak my mind. It's not something I planned to do. I was just like, let me go in there and be myself and roll with the punches. And that's what I did."
Which explains the mid-date freakout before hometowns that had Maria declaring she was hopping the next flight back to Ontario, Canada—alone.
Despite coming off a successful one-on-one in Montreal, she had started to fear her connection with the tennis coach wasn't quite as strong as the others. "I know what I signed up for," she said. "I don't know what was going through my mind. But I was willing to say like, 'Okay, I will let you continue your great relationships with everyone else. I think that I'm not going to be able to catch up.' It was overwhelming and everything accumulated into me trying to run away."
While she's happy Joey convinced her to stay, "I was really going to go," she said, stressing that it wasn't some sort of manipulation tactic. "I was not in a good headspace." Looking back, she continued, "I wish I just took a second to myself to take a couple deep breaths and [tell myself], 'Don't do anything that's going to jeopardize this.' Hindsight is 20/20."
She's been doing quite a bit of Tuesday morning quarterbacking as she watches herself each week and, actually, she feels pretty good about how she handled the house drama.
Though she made it clear "I don't stand or respect any of the backlash that's been going on to my fellow girls in the house," she thought she did a decent job of being there to make friends, even when facing off against Sydney Gordon and Lea Cayanan.
"People who were fighting me and trying to come for my character, I just couldn't stand for," Maria explained. "I wish that we were able to come to common ground in the moment. I wish I was able to make that happen. But I don't think there was anything I could have done to change things."
She's more of a lover than a fighter type—aside from the black belt she holds in Taekwondo. A hobby that earned her a pretty sweet first job as a tween.
"One of the dads that has a kid in Taekwondo with us was working on the movie The Pacifier and so he got us all an audition," she explained of her role as Firefly #1 in the 2005 Vin Diesel flick. "It's not like I was, 'I'm going to be an actress!'"
Nor is she pining to give Hollywood a shot now.
"I mean, never say never, but no," she said. "I'm just shy for acting. I'm okay with being myself but then having to act like something else, I can't. I'm not good at that."
Despite fans bringing up her childhood gig "as if I'm a movie star, I'm Jennifer Aniston," said Maria. "That is the one and only acting credit I have. But it's a pretty cool one, huh?"
Perhaps as cool as being named the next Bachelorette? Before that big announcement comes, though, check in with all the past standouts from the ABC franchise.
Kat Izzo & John Henry Spurlock
Status: Split
Though underwater welder John Henry Spurlock (one of Charity Lawson's suitors) and nurse Kat Izzo (she competed for Zach Shallcross' heart) didn't connect until midway through season nine of Bachelor in Paradise, they were willing to dive into the deep end. "I'm going to try something a little different," he said while offering up an Ascher cut Neil Lane diamond. "I'm following my heart today. My heart's telling me that you are amazing, you are everything that I'm looking for."
But days after the finale aired, the duo revealed they no longer saw forever in each other's eyes. "While our paths are taking different directions due to our career goals not aligning," they wrote in a joint Instagram post, "we are grateful for the love and support we’ve received from our family, friends, and Bachelor Nation."
Eliza Isichei & Aaron Bryant
Status: Split
Despite her nerves about a Paradise engagement, an all-dressed-in-white Eliza Isichei (one of Clayton Echard's exes) happily accepted Aaron Bryant's oceanfront proposal. Touched by the software salesman's decision to reach out to her mom for her blessing, she gushed, "I knew I was not in control of what was going to come out of my mouth."
The finale's coda acknowledged Charity's ex and marketing manager Eliza had hit some bumps after returning from Mexico, and days later they announced they had officially ended their engagement.
"Tricky emotions watching it all unfold," he wrote on Instagram Dec. 11. "We’re leading our amicable split with nothing but positivity and mutual respect for one another."
Aven Jones & Kylee Russell
Status: Split
Though postpartum nurse Kylee Russell lamented boyfriend Aven Jones' unwillingness to get down on bended knee—a move he was purportedly prepared to make while romancing Bachelorette Rachel Recchia—she ultimately accepted Aven's Paradise proposal to "get out of here and make it work."
Though that meant her planned engagement gown remained packed, "I just had to do what I felt was right," she said. "Love is all about taking risk."
Two days after their December 2023 finale aired, she announced on her Instagram Stories that their relationship had "dissolved due to multiple infidelities." Aven later issued an apology to Kylee, writing, "I have made major mistakes in the relationship and hurt someone who was very close to me."
Theresa Nist & Gerry Turner
Status: Married
Well, they never stopped believing. And on the November 2023 finale of the inaugural Golden Bachelor season, 72-year-old Gerry Turner proposed forever to fellow widow Theresa Nist. "Through the course of this journey, I said to myself, ‘How lucky would I be to find a second true love in my lifetime?'" he told the cameras. "And today I'm going to get down on one knee, look at Theresa, and ask her to marry me."
Like, immediately. Joking, "we don't have a lot of time to waste," Gerry revealed that he and his New Jersey-based bride would tie the knot in a live Jan. 4 wedding special.
"We laugh until we cry. We face many challenges, including a near-death experience on the California freeway," she recited in her vows in front of nearly all of Bachelor Nation. "I promise to be your calm in the storm... but most of all to have fun for the rest of the days we have left on this earth."
Charity Lawson & Dotun Olubeko
Status: Engaged
"I am happy with how this season turns out!" Charity Lawson teased to E! News, a statement that way undersold her August 2023 finale. Dropping to one knee, integrative medicine specialist Dotun Olubeko proclaimed their love to be "perfect," asking the child and family therapist, "Would you do me the honor of turning this fairytale into a reality?"
While their happily ever after awaits—the pair said they're considering a 2025 or 2026 wedding—the Georgia native will first take a spin through the Dancing With the Stars ballroom. "All right, baby," Dotun told Charity on The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose. "So I know you like to cut up, you like to dance and you like to get down. You know that we've talked about this—about how amazing this opportunity would be. And I am so happy to be the one to tell you that you're gonna be on Dancing With the Stars! Baby, let's go!"
Zach Shallcross & Kaity Biggar
Status: Engaged
Zach shall get his happy ending. Despite more than a few Fantasy Suite-related stumbles, Zach Shallcross ended season 27 in March 2023 down on one knee. "I am so in love with you," he told travel nurse Kaity Biggar. "You are my world. The love I feel for you is something I could have never imagined."
In July 2023, the Texas-based duo made an even bigger step in their journey, with Kaity sharing on Instagram, "Officially roommates."
Johnny DePhillipo & Victoria Fuller
Status: Split
Oh, the tangled webs we weave when we attempt to date within Bachelor Nation. In one of the more dramatic finishes of Bachelor in Paradise's eighth season, Victoria Fuller, the medical sales rep who competed for Peter Weber's heart, turned up to the November 2022 reunion in a super-serious romance—and not with Johnny DePhillipo, the realtor whose proposal she accepted in Mexico.
Shortly after she left the beaches of Nayarit with DePhillipo—who romanced Bachelorette Gabby Windey—Fuller ended their engagement and took a trip to Italy with pal Greg Grippo (one of Katie Thurston's suitors). And it turns out that was amore.
Announcing their plans to move in together this past November, Greg said, "She's my person. We're growing day by day. And I see it going the marriage route. I want that. And I know that that's important to her. And I want to be able to take that step with her."
Danielle Maltby & Michael Allio
Status: Split
Ah, Mom and Dad. Though they left BIP season seven hand-in-Neil-Lane-diamond-free-hand, Danielle Maltby, who lost her fiancé to a drug overdose years before she competed on Nick Viall's season, and single dad Michael Allio (he shares 7-year-old son James with his late wife) seemed slated for Bachelor Nation couple goals status.
But a year after Maltby relocated from Nashville to be with Allio in Ohio, he confirmed they'd split. "We both threw a lot into this relationship and it's really awful when it doesn't work out," Allio said on a September 2023 episode of Jason Tartick's Trading Secrets podcast. "When things don't work out, when you realize that love is there, but you're not necessarily compatible, you mourn the loss, not of just that person and that friend in your life, but also the future that you had envisioned."
Brandon Jones & Serene Russell
Status: Split
"I will love you until the end of time. I will love you until my last breath and I want to start forever with you," Brandon Jones proclaimed while proposing to "best friend" Serene Russell on season seven of Paradise.
Alas, their journey was cut short. Five months after their engagement aired, Brandon (a runner-up on Michelle Young's season) and Serene (who romanced Clayton Echard) announced they had split in a joint May 2023 statement. "We have tried to work privately on our relationship which has been incredibly challenging in the public eye," they wrote on Instagram. "This has been immensely hard to accept and painful, as there is a lot of love between the two of us. We are deeply hurting and can only ask that there be no hate."
Rachel Recchia & Tino Franco
Status: Split
Pilot Rachel's engagement to general contractor Tino Franco stalled when he kissed another woman while their 2022 season was still airing. "I do not stand by what I did at all," he said on The Viall Files. "It was not cool. It wasn't fair to Rachel, and it haunts me daily still. It's something I'm ashamed of and certainly wish I could have done it differently like a million times over."
Susie Evans & Clayton Echard
Status: Split
Well, it was certainly a journey. Susie Evans initially rejected Bachelor Clayton's overtures during the 2022 finale only to reunite with him off-camera...and then split once again six months later.
But the L.A.-based videographer insists their breakup was for the right reasons. "The people around me could see that my sparkle had dulled and I was far from thriving," she wrote in a Nov. 21 post for her blog "Susie Was Like." She acknowledged they "had joyous moments often, but deep down I was struggling and felt misaligned with the best version of me."
Susie is now dating fellow Bachelor Nation member Justin Glaze.
Michelle Young & Nayte Olukoya
Status: Split
Minnesota elementary school teacher Michelle accepted a Neil Lane sparkler from Texas-based sales exec Nayte Olukoya—and a $200,000 check from producers to put toward their future home. But, ultimately, the pair just didn't have the right foundation, announcing their breakup six months after their season's finale aired in December 2021.
Though he said on The Viall Files, "There was lots of ups and downs, lots of arguments, lots of fights and just not really clicking, not really seeing eye-to-eye," Nayte acknowledged that not having that final split conversation in person was "a dick move."
Maurissa Gunn & Riley Christian
Status: Split
Viewers fully got onboard with Maurissa Gunn and Riley Christian's vision of a future filled with sweet Sunday mornings. But ultimately the BIP season seven duo only got a couple dozen weekends together.
"We have decided to go our separate ways," patient coordinator Maurissa (who romanced Peter Weber) and attorney Riley (one of Tayshia Adams' suitors) announced in a joint January 2022 statement. "Never did we imagine this, but we've come to a point where we both need to work on ourselves."
Demi Burnett & Kristian Haggerty
Status: Split
Bachelor Nation's first same-sex couple got engaged on season six of Bachelor in Paradise but announced their 2019 split on Halloween.
"What has always been at the forefront of our relationship is love and care for one another. Our priority is doing what is best for us. With a heavy heart full of love for one another we have decided it is best for us to take a step back from our relationship," they said in a joint statement posted on Instagram. "We ultimately want what is best for us in the long run and for us right now, that means being apart and growing individually."
Noah Erb & Abigail Heringer
Status: Engaged
Paradise lost? Not quite. Though Noah Erb and Abigail Heringer broke up in Mexico during the BIP's seventh season, they realized they could see forever in each other's eyes. Initially settling in San Diego, the travel nurse (who competed for Tayshia's heart) and the financial manager (who received Matt James' first impression rose) recently purchased a place in his hometown of Tulsa.
"About to enter our Chip and Joanna Gaines era because your girl bought her very first house!!!" Abigail wrote on Instagram in July 2023. "Excited to start our next chapter and for all the memories we'll create here!!" Starting with a few wedding plans. Ahead of their move, Noah proposed at a beachfront San Diego home in August 2023.
Serena Pitt & Joe Amabile
Status: Married
Never hurts to have a little practice run. While planning their September 2023 vows, Serena Pitt (a finalist on Matt James' season) and Joe Amabile (the Chicago grocery store owner who found fame after Becca Kufrin sent him home night one in 2018) decided to just do the damn thing at City Hall near their New York City digs, roughly one year after leaving Paradise engaged.
"JUST MARRIED !!" Serena, now hosting the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast with her husband, captioned the October 2022 video. "We are still having a wedding this September but who doesn't want to get married twice!"
Kenny Braasch & Mari Pepin
Status: Married
"Mari, I am f--king so in love with you," boy band manager Kenny Braasch said as he slipped that Neil Lane diamond onto Mari Pepin's finger on the 2021 Paradise finale. "And I literally, like, I can't see my life without you."
So the Maryland beauty queen, who initially charmed Bachelor Matt, moved to Kenny's native Chicago and set about planning their forever. And before she and Kenny (eliminated by Tayshia Adams in week five) wed in a 65-guest oceanfront ceremony in Puerto Rico Nov. 11, they made their love permanent, getting inked with matching tattoos during a May trip to the Bahamas.
Becca Kufrin & Thomas Jacobs
Status: Married
Former Bachelorette Becca and Thomas Jacobs (one of Katie Thurston's suitors) got together on Bachelor in Paradise season seven in 2021, broke up on the show, then reconciled after production wrapped.
In May 2022, they announced they were engaged, and that Becca proposed. "I hope that other people can now feel empowered and say it's okay to bend the rules," she told E! News. The real estate agent returned the favor that October. In September 2023, the two welcomed their first child, son Benson. Wrote Becca on Instagram, "No amount of words can begin to capture the amount of love and awe we have over this tiny man."
Though she's awfully fond of her 6-foot-6 guy as well. Weeks after bringing home Benson, the pair wed in a spontaneous Oct. 13 ceremony.
Katie Thurston & Blake Moynes
Status: Split
On The Bachelorette's season 17 finale in 2021, Katie got engaged to Blake Moynes. The pair first declared their love for one another during their overnight date, which involved a paintball excursion, a cowboy tub and a conversation under the stars.
Getting down on one knee, Blake told Katie, "You deserve the world, and I'm excited to support you and be there for you every day moving forward."
Three months after the proposal aired, the couple announced their split. They explained in matching statements, "We are so grateful for the moments we shared together and the entire journey that has unfolded this year, but we ultimately have concluded that we are not compatible as life partners, and it is the most caring choice for both of us to move forward independently."
Rachael Kirkconnell & Matt James
Status: Dating
In the years since Matt and graphic designer Rachael Kirkconnell left his 2021 season together (then briefly split and eventually reunited), they've faced many a breakup rumor. But, yes, they're still sweet on each other.
"I think everybody needs to take a break from social media," he exclusively told E! News at a July 18 Baskin-Robbins event. "Our lives are lived so much in front of our phones that when anybody steps out of being on their phone 24/7, people think it's the end of the world."
Marriage remains the end-game for the L.A.-based pair. "I think the good thing about our relationship is we go at our own pace," the First Impressions: Off Screen Conversations With a Bachelor on Race, Family, and Forgiveness author told E! News in 2022. "And you've seen with other couples—they force the engagement and they're not together anymore. So, I think what we got is a working recipe and we're gonna get there."
Tayshia Adams & Zac Clark
Status: Split
After stepping in to complete Clare Crawley's 2020 season of The Bachelorette, Tayshia met and fell in love with Zac Clark. Though they left her season engaged, the former Bachelorette lead-turned-co-host later revealed that their relationship had some ups and downs.
"It's hard to be in a new relationship and then kind of go away for a couple of weeks, you know what I mean? And this is me being real and honest," she said on The Ben and Ashley I. Almost Famous podcast in August 2021.
She continued, "I think after that, it was kinda like we need to remember why we were with each other. And I think that that's absolutely normal." In November 2021, E! News confirmed the two had gone their separate ways.
Clare Crawley & Dale Moss
Status: Split
Clare fell head over heels for Dale Moss during season 16 of The Bachelorette. In fact, the two were engaged by the fourth episode. The surprises didn't stop there as, weeks after Clare's replacement Tayshia nabbed an engagement of her own, Dale took to social media and revealed his love story with the hair dresser was already over.
The pair sparked reconciliation rumors a month later when they were spotted together. Fast forward to July 2021, after several reunions, and Clare and Dale were fully back together—ring and all. But that September, the two called it quits again. Clare is now happily married to Ryan Dawkins and they're expecting their first daughter together.
Peter Weber & Kelley Flanagan
Status: Split
After his brief engagement to winner Hannah Ann Sluss and then subsequent split from runner-up Madison Prewett, fans were hopeful that the third time would be the charm for Peter. Alas, his romance with The Bachelor season 24 standout Kelley Flanagan wasn't meant to be, the pilot sharing on New Year's Eve 2020 that their nine-month relationship was grounded.
"While our relationship was filled with countless beautiful memories, our relationship simply didn't work out in the end," Pete posted to Instagram. "Kelley is someone I will always have a special love for."
The pair attempted to take flight once more in 2022, before revealing this past May that their romance had reached its final destination.
Peter Weber & Madison Prewett
Status: Split
Following the dramatic 2020 finale, the couple announced on Instagram that they'd no longer be pursuing a relationship. "Madi and I have mutually decided not to pursue our relationship any further," Peter wrote. "Believe me this was not easy for either of us to be ok with, but after a lot of honest conversations, we have agreed that this is what makes most sense for the two of us. The love and respect I have for Madi will continue to endure."
Madi added in her statement, "I will always love and respect him. I am convinced our paths were meant to cross and we are both better because they did."
