Bachelor Nation viewers who were hoping for two engagements for the price of one on season 16 of The Bachelorette may be disappointed. Tayshia Adams, who took over for Clare Crawley during the Tuesday, November 10, episode of the ABC series, admitted she wasn’t ready for a proposal.
“I told them, ‘I don’t think I’m gonna get engaged at the end of this, I think I might just leave with a boyfriend or whatever,’ and they [understood] and said, ‘We’re not gonna pressure you to do anything,” the 30-year-old former phlebotomist explained on the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast on Tuesday. “You do what your heart wants, so I didn’t ever really feel that pressure of, ‘Oh my God, I need to find a husband right now.’ So I just kind of lived my journey how I wanted to.”
Tayshia added that she felt like she had “enough” time with her 20 contestants. (In addition to the 16 men who Clare, 39, dumped for Dale Moss, Tayshia met Peter Giannikopoulos, Noah Erb, Montel Hill and Spencer Roberston during Tuesday’s episode.)
“I feel like the guys really showed who they were and what they had to offer and I did the same. When you know you know, I think. Either you have an attraction to someone or you don’t and I feel like that’s what I kept leaning into,” she explained. “I don’t really think I had too short of a time. That was a fear that I had.”
News broke in August that Clare ended her Bachelorette journey because she was already in love with Dale, 32, after two weeks of filming. Tayshia revealed on Tuesday that she had 48 hours to decide if she wanted to take over for the hairstylist.
“I mean, in a perfect Bachelor world, according to them, it would’ve been, like, I would be in the car an hour after my conversation with them. They were hoping I would leave that day, but I actually said I needed to think about it, and I needed to talk to my parents and I need to take a minute,” she recalled. “The way I was entering the Bachelorette space was very unconventional,very true to 2020. But I was taking on a little more [time,] I think, than previous Bachelorettes have in the sense that there was somebody before me and I was gonna ask the guys to not only remove themselves from that headspace, but then take me on and see if they were willing to be open.”
Tayshia continued, “48 hours. And that includes sleep and all that kind of stuff and that’s only because I’m like, ‘You guys, I need to go to CVS, I need to get my little necessities.’ I’m like, ‘I need to run and do some errands, I need to go to church!’”
While one suitor, Jason Foster, quit during Tuesday’s episode because he still had feelings for Clare, Tayshia believes everything happens for a reason.
“As crazy as it sounds, I think this introduction to being the Bachelorette was the best way possible for me. Sure, it would’ve been fun to have been announced the way everybody else has and all that kind of stuff, but I think the way that I entered and I met all of these guys was perfect,” she said. “I feel like if I had too much time, I might’ve done what Clare would’ve done, like, looked up all these guys on Instagram, kind of had an idea on who I wanted to talk to, you know what I mean? And I just went into it just honestly giving it my all and leaning into the process and honestly being me.”
She concluded, “And I loved that I didn’t know anything about them and they knew nothing about me. They didn’t know who was coming through those doors. I loved it all. I thought it was amazing.”
The Bachelorette airs on ABC Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
