During The Bachelor Season 28’s three-hour finale in March, Daisy Kent shocked Bachelor Nation by turning down an offer to lead The Bachelorette Season 21 on live television. Weeks later, the 25-year-old has no regrets. In fact, she doubled down on her decision to step away from the franchise in a recent interview with Bachelor alum Nick Viall.
The former Bachelor, Bachelorette, and Bachelor in Paradise star welcomed Kent on his popular podcast, The Viall Files, to chat about the shocking Season 28 finale, her relationship with Joey Graziadei, and more. When he pressed Kent on why she turned down The Bachelorette offer, she shared the factors that went into her major decision.
“So there’s a few reasons. My health is an aspect of it, and I knew as a lead it’s a lot on you — not only emotionally, but also physically, too,” Kent explained. “It’s nonstop. And I talked to a lot of past leads when it was in talks with me, and I just knew from a health point it would be a lot.”
As former lead of The Bachelor Season 21, Viall confirmed the job is “very taxing.” He called the experience the most challenging thing he’s ever done, telling Kent, “You’re right. It’s 18-hour days for eight weeks in a row. You’re emotionally responsible for your feelings and 30 other men.”
When asked to elaborate on her Bachelorette fears, Kent added, “Just not getting enough sleep and all that stuff. I knew they would take care of me. They made it very evident that they would.”
Another major concern? She didn’t want the responsibility of hurting people or faking feelings for the sake of TV.
“There’s usually 30 people and you can’t send everyone home at once. What if I didn’t like actually like them? I don’t think I could actually sit there and kiss somebody,” Kent told Viall. “I thought really long and hard about all of it…it wasn’t an easy decision. But I was wondering after it got announced how I would feel — if I would be like, ‘I wish I would have done it.’ But I’m so happy right now that it didn’t. It feels like like I know I made the right decision for me.”
Viall commended Kent for having the “guts” and “emotional maturity” to say no to the opportunity, and Kent emphasized that there’s so much outside of the franchise she wants to do still. “I just felt like it was important that I take control of my life and the path I want,” she explained, revealing she told producers she wasn’t interested around two weeks before the finale, when Jenn Tran was named the Season 21 star much to the surprise of Bachelor Nation.
Longtime fans of the franchise know that Viall wasn’t cast as The Bachelor lead immediately after his last season of The Bachelorette, so The Viall Files host asked Kent if she’d ever consider revisiting the offer down the line.
“Right now, I’m content with letting that go away. And I know most people might not understand that, and if you were to ask me even a year ago…I’d be like, ‘Oh my gosh, 100%. I’ll do it,” Kent said. For those curious, she also shot down Viall’s proposition for a future Bachelor in Paradise appearance, should Paradise ever return.
“It’s not that I’m not ready to date. It’s that I wasn’t ready for that specific thing,” Kent clarified. “Right now I just want to live and be happy. I’m always gonna jump at like opportunities, but I think this specific opportunity wasn’t right for me right now.”
While you wait for more news on Jenn Tran’s upcoming season of The Bachelorette, you can listen to Viall and Kent’s full conversation here.