“She was one of my closest girls in the house, and she was always verbalizing how badly she wanted this,” the executive assistant from Ontario 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.'”
However, she noted Jenn is the best person for the job.
“She is the most perfect Bachelorette in my eyes,” the 29-year-old shared. “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.”
And Maria knew she was stepping away for the right reasons.
“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.”
E! News has reached out to ABC for comment but has yet to hear back.
