Maria Georgas has slid into the chat.
The 30-year-old has responded to “The Bachelorette” cast member Devin Strader’s online activity following his breakup with Season 21 “Bachelorette” Jenn Tran.
During the After the Final Rose special on Tuesday, Tran, 26, called out Strader, 28, for following Georgas on Instagram the day after he broke off their engagement over the phone. Both ladies competed on Joey Graziadei’s season of “The Bachelor.”
“What I can’t understand is everything that you did after we’ve broken our engagement,” Tran confessed to her ex-fiancé before adding that his decision to follow Georgas was “so disrespectful to everything that we had shared together; I just don’t understand it.”
“Obviously, I failed you,” Strader responded. “And there’s nothing I can say other than that. But, everything I felt for you was real.”
On Thursday, Georgas decided to weigh in on what went down and wrote “put it to rest” as her caption. The Ontario, Canada, native previously revealed on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast that she was “offered the role” of Bachelorette for Tran’s season but “had to decline” because she wasn’t ready for the opportunity.
“Last night was hard to watch, and my heart goes out to Jenn,” she began in a TikTok video. “I can’t speak on her relationship. The only two people who can speak on her relationship are her and Devin.”
But Georgas can speak on where she stands in the mix.
“I’m over coming to defense for my character,” continued the reality star. “I know who I am and my friends and family know who I am. The fact that I had you guys watch me through a screen and still be able to see how real I was, I have no words. I understand Jenn having to speak up about it — say your piece, girlfriend, I respect it. I just think without the full context, it leads people to believe a whole different narrative.”
Georgas confirmed that Strader hit the follow button but that she doesn’t “pay attention” to who follows her and who doesn’t.
“I had no clue about that until people brought it to my attention,” she explained. “And by that time, when I found out, he had unfollowed. Let me clear the air on something: I have never met Devin before.”
But Tran told a different story.
During After the Final Rose, the “DWTS” contestant claimed Strader went “clubbing” with fellow contestant Jeremy Simon instead of mourning their recent split.
“I never went clubbing out with [Devin],” Georgas said. “He did his own thing. Did I go out with Jeremy – a night with friends, a bunch of us together? Yes, I did.”
The actress admitted that these days, she intends to meet people in “real life” and wants to continue “meeting people through friends.”
“That’s very normal,” she stated, clarifying that she would “not apologize” for meeting other Bachelor Nation members.
“I can’t control who follows who,” Georgas reiterated. “But what I can control is what I do about it. And what I’m doing is not following back. And I never followed back,” she said. “Now seeing how things transpired, I will never follow that man.”
“My character, my innocence, my peace is important to me. And I will not f— that up for no one,” she added. “Just because [Jenn and I] separated our ways and are no longer friends doesn’t mean we hate each other.”
Georgas concluded her message by reminding followers: “It doesn’t mean that if someone is going to disrespect her in my face, that I’m going to sit here and stand for it. Because I’m not. I’m just a regular person who went on a reality TV show. Stop holding me to a standard that doesn’t exist.”
Georgas’s response comes days after Tran revealed that she will appear on Season 33 of “Dancing With the Stars”alongside partner Sasha Farber.
The TV personality told People magazine she is “excited” to start this new journey but isn’t looking to spark a showmance anytime soon.
“I’m still very much going through a healing process,” Tran said before teasing, “Right now, I hate men, so …”
Her work husband, of course, is the exception to the rule.
“Besides you,” Tran exclaimed to Farber, 40. “I hate all men besides you.”
Joining the competition show is just one step towards a new beginning for the ABC star, who is focusing on the future after her breakup.
Tran recently stated she was ready to “move on with my life.”
“It definitely was a moment I’ve been wanting to happen for the past month,” she said about sitting down with her ex, on “Good Morning America” Wednesday. “I just needed to get that off of my chest and start a clean slate.”
Strader broke off their engagement in August during a 15-minute phone call while Season 21 was still airing.
“He basically said that he didn’t love me anymore and didn’t feel the same way,” Tran told host Jesse Palmer on Wednesday night’s “After the Final Rose,” noting that “he denied ever being in love.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
