Nick Viall and his wife, Natalie Joy, are claiming that Maria Georgas had similar behavior to Clare Crawley while on set of The Bachelor.
“I also heard from some friends of ours who are close to the source that filming with her was close to filming with Clare Crawley,” Natalie, 25, alleged on the Tuesday, May 7, episode of “The Viall Files” podcast.
After Nick, 43, confirmed he had also heard that rumor, guest Josh Peck replied, “Guessing it was a little tough with Clare.”
Nick explained that Clare was “famously the only Bachelorette who quit a week into filming,” adding, “which kind of tracks, I mean, Maria quit even before filming started.” (Maria claimed earlier this month on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that the next Bachelorette role was “mine until I said it wasn’t,” saying she backed out of the role because she was “not in the right headspace.”)
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“When you’re doing your fittings, you’re the Bachelorette, you’re the Bachelor, you’re the lead,” Nick said. “You’re filming, I mean they’re taking content.”
Within hours of the podcast episode airing, Clare, 43, took to her Instagram Story to share a message seemingly pointed at the claims.
“To the women perceived as ‘aggressive,’ continue to be assertive,” the quote read. “To the women perceived as ‘bossy,’ continue leading. To the women perceived as ‘too much,’ continue taking up space. To the women perceived as ‘awkward,’ continue to ask hard questions. To the women: be yourself.”
Back in March 2020, Clare was named the season 16 lead of The Bachelorette. Less than two weeks into filming months later, Clare exited the show early after getting engaged to Dale Moss. (The couple ultimately split in September 2021 after an on-and-off relationship.)
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As for Maria’s claims that she stepped back from the role of The Bachelorette season 21, Nick alleged that he thinks “there’s another version to this story.” (Jenn Tran was announced as the lead during the After the Final Rose episode.)
“I think that’s definitely Maria’s truth,” Nick claimed. “In my experience with the show — I don’t know anything specific about what happened with Maria and the show and why she turned it down — but in my experience, the few instances where someone was meant to be the lead and in the last minute there was a switch, I only know that experience from when the show decided that the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.”
While noting that it’s “entirely believable” that Maria turned down the role of The Bachelorette, Nick said he hadn’t “heard of that version” before.
“Imagine how difficult it might be to work with someone who — instead of thinking it was possible that they could rub anyone the wrong way — that it was more believable to this person that their own friend, who they hadn’t spoken with in several years, for no other reason than to prove himself right, decided to come up with this elaborate conspiracy theory as to why she might have rubbed some women in the house the wrong way,” he noted. “That person might, you know, be challenging.”
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Nick also shut down Maria’s “bizarre conspiracy” that he had played a role in her feud with fellow contestant Sydney Gordon while vying for the affections of Joey Graziadei. (During her appearance on “Call Her Daddy,” Maria speculated that Nick’s friendship with fellow Bachelor alum Ashley Iaconetti — who is close with Sydney, 28 — may have led to her edit on the ABC series. Maria also noted that Nick theorized she would become the “villain” if she joined the franchise.)
“That is true, long ago I did tell Maria — because Maria used to always ask me to get her on the show — and I did tell her that I could see her being the villain,” Nick said. “And somehow that turned into Maria thinking that in my zero free time and not knowing that she was on the show that somehow I made it my mission to [take her down].”
Nick pointed out that Maria was instead a “fan-favorite” of Bachelor Nation’s during her stint on Joey’s season.
“It’s just giving delusional, honestly, at the end of the day,” Natalie said.
