Brad Womack, Ellen DeGeneres. Getty Images(2)
Former Bachelor Brad Womack is recalling an awkward interaction with Ellen DeGeneres.
“I went on [The] Ellen [DeGeneres Show] and I just bombed. I mean, I just bombed,” Womack, 52, said on the Monday, January 20, episode of the “Almost Famous” podcast. “Even the publicist at the time kinda gave me the puppy eyes, like, ‘Oh that didn’t go so well.’”
“She called me a jerk the first season because I didn’t pick anybody,” Womack added of DeGeneres, 66. “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.”
Womack was previously The Bachelor on season 11 of the franchise in 2007, but chose no one in the end. He was then cast as the lead again for season 15 in 2011, and ultimately popped the question to Emily Maynard. Womack and Maynard, now 38, called off their engagement months after the finale aired. (Maynard went on to become The Bachelorette in 2012 and accepted a proposal from Jef Holm. The pair announced their separation later that year. She has since married Tyler Johnson and they share five children as well as Maynard’s daughter Ricki, 19, from her relationship with the late race car driver Ricky Hendrick.)
Brad Womack revealed that he got in touch with ex-fiancée Emily Maynard “one time” after their split. “I’m a very, very respectful guy when it comes to situations and if someone’s in a relationship,” Womack, 52, said on the Monday, January 20, episode of the “Almost Famous” podcast. “I remember when I had heard she […]
Womack recalled being a “ball of nerves” going into his appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, noting that it was when he realized “I’m about to do this thing again.”
“It was really nerve-racking,” he said. “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.”
When asked why the comedian apologized to Womack, he said he thinks DeGeneres “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.”
Sorry, Neil Lane — not every Bachelor decided to get down on one knee during their respective finales of the ABC dating series. Former host Chris Harrison addressed the pressure for the lead to propose during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in May 2018. “People need to know that nothing is guaranteed. There is […]
He continued, “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.”
Us reached out to DeGeneres for comment.
Since his time on the franchise, Womack has kept his romantic life private. On January 1, Womack 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 shared. “I’m really happy. We’re really happy together right now.”
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