'Bachelor' Alum Brad Womack Recalls Awkward Ellen DeGeneres Moment
Brad Womack is reflecting on an awkward moment with Ellen DeGeneres.
The 52-year-old The Bachelor alum, who originally led Season 11 of the franchise in 2007, spoke about his experience on The Ellen DeGeneres Show during an appearance on the Almost Famous podcast.
“I went on [The] Ellen [DeGeneres Show] and I just bombed. I mean, I just bombed,” he said.
“Even the publicist at the time kinda gave me the puppy eyes, like, ‘Oh that didn’t go so well.’”
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“She called me a jerk the first season because I didn’t pick anybody,” he said of the host.
“Thank god, she asked me back for a little bit of redemption. But it was the third time I was on Ellen to announce the second season.”
Brad chose no one in his season, and was cast as the lead again for Season 15 in 2011. He ultimately popped the question to Emily Maynard. They called off their engagement after the finale aired.
He also recalled being a “ball of nerves” going into his appearance, realizing “I’m about to do this thing again.”
“It was really nerve-racking. She didn’t cut me any slack, of course, and the audience wasn’t having it. It was a bad appearance. But yeah, she did call me a jerk, but thank God she apologized,” he recalled.
Brad said he thought Ellen finally “got the other side of the story.”
“Not picking anybody the first season, of course I became public enemy No. 1 right away,” he said. “That was not my intent, I wanted to stay true. I said this so many times, I really do believe in the premise of the show. I just didn’t want to sell-out.”
“I think [Ellen] took her initial reaction and was thinking, ‘Who does this guy think he is?’ And then I guess through, I don’t know, some other channel she got the true story, and she invited me on. I was able to tell my side of the story and so it went a little bit better. I got a little bit of redemption, but not much.”
He has since kept his romantic life private, until he recently hard-launched a romance with a woman named Gabriella.
“We’re having a lot of fun together. She’s an inherently kind human being,” he admitted. “I’m really happy. We’re really happy together right now.”
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