Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for WE tv Former Bachelorette, DeAnna Pappas, attends an event.
Bachelor Nation could have looked very different according to an ABC Executive as Chrishell Stause was almost cast instead of DeAnna Pappas. Now, Pappas is reacting to the news of her season of The Bachelorette that almost was not.
“Graham Bunn was on my season of The Bachelorette and apparently he only went on the show because he thought Chrishell was going to be the Bachelorette,” Pappas said while on Us Weekly’s Here for the Right Reasons podcast. “I guess they had dated before and then they broke up and he was going to try and win her back. And I guess he got there and it was me instead.”
While on a recent Bachelorette recap episode of The Viall Files, ABC Executive Rob Mills revealed Stause was likely to be the Bachelorette before Pappas gained public support when former-Bachelor Brad Womack broke up with her. Pappas’ season led to a chain reaction of seasons including those of Jason Mesnick, Jillian Harris, Jake Pavelka and Ali Fedotowsky.
While Mills appeared on The Viall Files to discuss The Bachelorette, host Nick Viall brought up the current season of Dancing With the Stars, on which Stause competed. “She would never remember this,” Mills told Viall. “I’ve actually had lunch with Chrishell. This was about 10, 11 years ago, to talk about being the Bachelorette.”
At the time, the network was looking for a guaranteed success after some “stuff that wasn’t really working.” Stause was then acting on ABC’s daytime soap opera, All My Children.
Mills described an “incredible lunch” with Stause, where he left “convinced this is the Bachelorette, this is the Bachelorette.” That all shifted after Womack jilted Pappas and a public swelling for her to be cast on the female-led iteration of the show. Mills added, “I remember Ellen Degeneres actually calling the president of ABC at the time, saying ‘this woman needs to be the Bachelorette.’”
Stause Revealed She Is Open to the Possibility of Leading a Future Season of ‘The Bachelorette’
After the Selling Sunset star was recently eliminated from Dancing With The Stars she told Access Hollywood that she would be open to leading The Bachelorette.
“I am definitely in a place in my life where I feel like, you know, I would love to add that element in. I’m a hopeless romantic,” said Stause. The Days of our Lives actress added, “Listen, I’m single, I’m ready to mingle. Maybe I can like wow someone with my dance moves.”
She admitted to being wary of having her romantic life shared through such a public medium, but she said, “I would be okay with it if it meant that I’m meeting a bunch of guys without going on dating apps and they actively know who I am, what I’m about. They’re ready and willing.”
Since missing out on joining the popular dating franchise, Stause went on to get married to and divorced from This Is Us actor, Justin Hartley. The former couple first met in 2013 and married in 2017. Hartley filed for divorce in November 2019.
“We had a fight that day [he filed] over the phone and I never saw him since,” Stause told Mary Fitzgerald on Selling Sunset. “We didn’t talk things through and before we had a chance to figure things out, he filed [for divorce].”
She added, “I found out because he texted me that we were filed. Forty-five minutes later, the world knew.”
Pappas Is Now Married to Stephen Stagliano
After it became obvious to Mills that Pappas had to be cast as The Bachelorette, she would lead the series’ fourth season. Her final rose would be given to Jesse Csincsak, but the couple announced their split in November 2008.
At the time Csincsak posted a video to the former couple’s website. Though the video is unavailable, People reports he said, “It’s our responsibility to tell you we’re not together anymore.” According to the video, Pappas broke up with him by telling him, “I love you, but I’m not in love with you.”
Pappas still found love through Bachelor Nation, marrying Stephen Stagliano in 2011. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the couple met at a party for The Men Tell All special in 2009. Stagliano’s brother was a contestant on Jillian Harris’ season of The Bachelorette.
They now share a daughter, Addison Marie, and son, Austin Michael.
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