‘The Bachelorette’: Daisy Kent Reveals the Real Reason She Turned Down Season 21
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Daisy Kent finally opened up about why she declined to be the star of The Bachelorette Season 21. The Bachelor Season 28 runner-up explained the main reasons she turned down the gig to The Bachelor alum Nick Viall in the April 4 edition of The Viall Files podcast.
“There’s a few reasons. So, one, my health is like an aspect of it,” Daisy revealed. “And like, I knew as the lead, it’s a lot on you. Not only emotionally but also physically too.”
During The Bachelor, Daisy was open about her past health struggles and recent cochlear implant. She started losing her hearing when she was 17 years old due to Ménière’s disease, a disorder of the inner ear. Daisy was eventually diagnosed with Lyme disease.
Daisy said she “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. She admitted that “not getting enough sleep” was a concern for her and also having “hurting other people” through the process.
In the final days of filming The Bachelor, the 25-year-old became aware that Joey Graziadei’s heart belonged to Kelsey Anderson. Daisy met up with Kelsey ahead of the final rose ceremony in Tulum, and they held hands in solidarity as they rode to the beach together. While Daisy’s heart was broken when she realized Joey wasn’t her person, she stressed that she’s still open to love; she just didn’t want to find it on The Bachelorette.
“It’s not that I’m not ready to date, it’s that I wasn’t ready for that specific thing, and I think coming off the show and doing the show I didn’t realize how much of kind of a big thing it is, if that makes sense,” she said.
She went on to explain that she “thought really long and hard about all of it” before turning down the offer. “All of it wasn’t an easy decision,” she continued. “I was wondering after it got announced like how I would feel. If I would be like, ‘Oh, I wish I would have done it.’ But I’m so happy right now that I didn’t, so it feels like I know I made the right decision for me.”
Daisy’s fellow Season 28 alum Jenn Tran is making history as the first Asian lead of The Bachelorette. Nick asked Daisy if she’d consider doing The Bachelorette again in the future. Daisy replied that she’s “content” with letting that opportunity go away at the moment.
“I think right now, I just want to live and be happy,” Daisy told Nick. “I’m always going to jump at opportunities, but I think just this specific opportunity wasn’t right for me right now.”
The Bachelorette, Season 21, Summer 2024, ABC
