Getty Ivanka Trump arrives to speaks during a campaign event for her father.
Before Ivanka Trump married Jared Kushner in 2009 and long before Donald Trump entered the political fray in 2015, Ivanka says she was approached by ABC to be the lead on The Bachelorette.
In 2007 — when Trump emerged as a star on The Apprentice — she told People that The Bachelorette was one of the “tons of shows” to offer her a role. So why’d she turn down the chance to sort through dozens of eligible suitors in search of a husband?
“I’m flattered, but that in no way furthers my objective of being a great real estate developer,” Ivanka Trump said.
Instead, Trump met Kushner in 2007 during a business lunch set up by a commercial real estate broker. Two years later they were married and now the couple has three children. She currently serves as an advisor to the president.
‘The Bachelor’ and ‘The Bachelorette’ Used to Target Celebrities
A well-known celebrity like Ivanka Trump parachuting in to host The Bachelorette may sound like a bizarre concept now, but it was ABC’s goal in the early years of the franchise.
Former New York Giants quarterback and current ESPN analyst Jesse Palmer was recruited to lead season five of The Bachelor, and two years later ABC nabbed actor Charlie O’Connell to lead season seven. But beginning in 2009, the franchise began to cycle through its own homegrown talent, picking former contestants to be their show leads.
Before making that switch, though, Trump wasn’t the only big fish the network tried to land. Even more recently, it appears ABC hasn’t ruled out the possibility of a celebrity serving as the lead.
Jonathan Scott of the Property Brothers was asked to be The Bachelor “four times,” his brother told Us Weekly. There was also Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte as well as Chrishell Stause of All My Children and Dancing With The Stars.
Chris Harrison once told Us Weekly that Big Bang Theory star Kaley Cuoco would be great as lead of The Bachelorette.
It’s anyone’s guess just how ambitious the Bachelor/Bachelorette producers got with their celebrity offers in the early years.
The Trumps Are No Strangers to Reality TV
When Donald Trump was first approached by TV producer Mark Burnett about the idea of The Apprentice, he reportedly didn’t love the idea, saying reality TV “was for the bottom-feeders of society,” according to the Washington Post.
The show was a huge success, though, averaging over 20 million viewers per episode in its first season and launching Trump into the reality TV spotlight. Along with him came his children Ivanka, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump who all made frequent appearances beginning in season five of the show.
The Apprentice eventually evolved into The Celebrity Apprentice and even spawned a dating show spinoff called The Ultimate Merger.
While The Bachelorette is firmly in the rearview mirror for Ivanka Trump now that she’s a married mother of three, a return to reality TV isn’t out of the question after her time in Washington is through. According to OK Magazine, she’s getting “more offers than she has ever received in her life,” including interest from Dancing With The Stars.
“The real question isn’t if the show wants her, it is if Ivanka will want to hit the ballroom floor now that she is one of the most famous daughters in the world,” OK Magazine wrote.
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