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Tayshia Adams, this season’s star of The Bachelorette, talks to BOSSIP about her season, the unusual circumstances, and her hopes for the future.

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Much like everything else we’ve experienced in 2020, this season of The Bachelorette is unprecedented. Fans started this journey by watching Clare Crawley look for love, but after her and contestant Dale Moss ran off into the sunset, 16 guys were left high and dry at the La Quinta resort in Palm Springs. Enter Tayshia Adams, a fan favorite from previous seasons of The Bachelor and Bachelor In Paradise, here to save the day.

The completely awestruck reactions of all the men in the room the second Tayshia strolled in mirrored the thoughts of the fans, excited to give this season a fresh spin after an unconventional first few episodes. Now, over the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen some genuine connections develop in a season that feels like one of the realest and most-relatable we’ve ever seen.

We spoke to Tayshia ahead of this week’s double-header to see how she feels about the men she got to meet, the differences between this year and season’s past, and more.

On the men’s reactions to her walking in:

It gave me chills to be honest, because you don’t see what some of the guys say in their own interviews. So, watching that back was…it was amazing and it was really cool to see the guys just welcome me with open arms, from a different perspective.

How she felt watching how viewers treated Clare, and whether or not that made her nervous for her own debut:

It didn’t make me nervous, I think, if anything, I just felt really bad because Clare did nothing wrong. She was The Bachelorette to find love and she did exactly that, and just because it looks a little different than some other people’s journeys doesn’t mean anything. She’s a great person, so the fact that she got so much hate was something that I was not happy about.

On her prospects not being fans of the Bachelor franchise and not being familiar with who she is prior to meeting:

I did notice that. It’s so funny, there was maybe 3 or 4 guys who were aware of the show. But nobody was expecting anything, and I think that’s what made this season so different is that these men were genuinely trying to figure out if they were falling in love too. It allowed me to be more vulnerable, and that’s also why they are so vulnerable, so I think it helped a lot. I loved that they didn’t know and hadn’t watched 25 seasons prior.

Do you wish you got the chance to look at social media prior to meeting contestants?

To be honest, I think the way that my season played out is ideal and perfect for me. I think that if I would have had too much time, who knows, I could have honed in on someone who maybe wasn’t the right person for me, but it was just because of whatever else. I think the way that I went about my season and the way that I came into my season without the men knowing who I was, and I didn’t know who they were, was perfect.

On taking a contestant’s location into consideration during the dating process:

It’s definitely a question we all kind of had, night one/two. Just because, everybody’s careers is obviously a factor whether they can or can’t move. And then myself, my family is here, so I think, sure, I did take it into consideration, but I don’t make that a non-negotiable.

Are there more real-life conversations going on behind-the-scenes than viewers ever get to see?

So much more conversation happens than you guys see. Unfortunately, they’re packing in multiple days of footage in two hours, and it’s just impossible to show every ounce of our conversation. But, especially for me, those bigger questions were definitely things that were discussed, because they’re important to me.

On her circumstances being better for finding “real love” without such extravagant dates:

With my experience, I feel like the guys were able to be super comfortable, and so was I. This experience–just this whole year, in general, people were more vulnerable and open and yeah, it did help a lot that we were just in Palm Springs.

Were there any connections that didn’t last on the show that might have had a better chance under different circumstances?

I think that I explored all relationships as much as I could, and I think that if things don’t work out with certain people, then they just don’t work out. Do I hope that we’re all friends at the end of all of this? Absolutely, I care about every single person. I adore them all. But no, I don’t think that time really took away from a lot of relationships, I think that they developed the way they were supposed to.

On the infamous “smokeshow” controversy:

I had no idea all of that was going on, I didn’t know “smokeshow” was such a controversial word in the men’s house. And the fact that Twitter blew up about it, I think, was kind of hilarious. You know, what’s funny, is that nobody actually ever asked me how I felt about it, but everybody else had an opinion, which is funny.

Did you find it offensive?

I don’t find it offensive, no, I didn’t think that he meant it maliciously, or anything like that. But I think that, when it was continuously used time and time again, it kind of got to be like, ‘okay, is this actually, like, a joke, or are you really trying to pay me a compliment?’ But no, my initial reaction was not that I found it offensive.

Tune in to this week’s Bachelorette double-header with the Men Tell All special TONIGHT and The Bachelorette on Tuesday, 8/7c on ABC.

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