Ah, memories! The Bachelorette season 8 star Emily Maynard tells Us Weekly exclusively that she still finds it odd that people agree to appear on the popular ABC dating franchise, let alone twice, as she did.
Maynard — whose book I Said Yes: My Story of Heartbreak, Redemption, and True Love is set for release on March 1 — says that her hope that she would find the right person won out over her initial worries that the show wasn’t right for her.
“I still look back, and I think, ‘What in the world?'” the reality TV star, 30, tells Us about agreeing to be the Bachelorette. “My girlfriend and I would watch the show and just laugh [and say], ‘Who would ever agree to do this?’ And I still watch it, and I think, after all the embarrassing things that happen on this TV show, ‘Who in their right mind would ever agree to do this show, much less twice, like I did?'”
“But I think I was just searching so much for this meaningful life and this purpose that I was just open to anything,” she continues. “I thought that I would go on the show and hopefully find the love of my life, and everything would be perfect. I just had such a hole in my heart that I was trying to fill, and I thought maybe that was the answer. Clearly, it wasn’t.”
After things didn’t work out with Brad Womack, who proposed to her in the Bachelor season 15 finale, she picked Jef Holm in The Bachelorette season 8, but their romance eventually fizzled out as well. She married Tyler Johnson in June 2014, and the pair welcomed son Jennings in July 2015. Maynard had daughter Ricki, 10, with late fiancé Ricky Hendrick, who died in a 2004 plane crash.
The Bachelor airs on ABC on Mondays at 8 p.m. EST.
