Ali Fedotwosky Manno revealed that she almost quit The Bachelorette after producers made her give a rose to Kasey Kahl.
The former Bachelorette star, who headlined the series in 2010, also said she would never have been allowed to “stop everything” her season the way current lead Clare Crawley reportedly did for the upcoming round of the ABC dating show.
In a new interview, Ali confirmed that she knew who her top two guys were ” the first night” — Roberto Martinez and Frank Neuschaefer – and she hinted that the rest of her dates were a bit of a charade. But after a date with Kahl, aka the “guard and protect your heart” tattoo guy, Ali was ready to send herself home.
Ali detailed her change of heart to ET Onlin e .
“I got into a full-on screaming fight with my producer, saying, ‘I’m not giving him a rose! This is too cheesy, this is not happening!’ And she was like, ‘You have to give him a chance.’ I’m like, ‘I’m not going to give him a chance,’ and I walked off the show,” she recalled. “I said, ‘I’m done, I quit, I’m not going to be the Bachelorette anymore.’”
Ali said she felt “betrayed” that producers continued to film her as they prepared to make her possible exit “part of the show.”
But a decade later, it sounds like that’s what they may have been done with Clare. Amid reports that the 39-year-old quit filming The Bachelorette after two weeks and is being replaced by Tayshia Adams, Ali said the twist is “amazing,” although she doesn’t think she would have been allowed to do something like that earlier in the franchise.
“I think in my season if I had said that, that wouldn’t have been allowed, to stop everything down or send a bunch of people home. So the fact that they’re shaking it up and saying, ‘Sure, fine, you can go, and we’ll bring in someone new,’ I think that’s so much fun, and I hope that’s the case,” she said.
Ali added that if the California hairstylist truly found love fast — she is rumored to be engaged to one of her suitors, NFL player Dale Moss — she thinks it’s “awesome” that producers didn’t make her fake things with her other guys on camera.
Because production on Clare’s Bachelorette was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, many fans think she was in touch with some of her guys before filming started. Ali said “we have to assume” ABC’s leading lady was talking to some, if not all, of her previously announced suitors ahead of time. Ali admitted that even in her archaic season, she did some secret off-camera Googling using a hidden cell phone she packed for her Bachelorette journey.
