Nick Viall is weighing in on Maria Georgas’ “bizarre conspiracy” about his involvement in The Bachelor season 28 — and her feud with fellow contestant Sydney Gordon.
“She said what was true, that we were friends and that friendship was mostly me giving her relationship advice,” Nick, 43, said during the Tuesday, May 7, episode of “The Viall Files” podcast, before taking issue with a different part of Maria’s claim.
During her appearance on “Call Her Daddy” earlier this month, Maria alleged that Nick’s friendship with fellow Bachelor alum Ashley Iaconetti — who is close with Sydney, 28 — led to her edit on the ABC series. Maria also noted that Nick theorized she would become a “villain” if she were to join the franchise.
“That is true, long ago I did tell Maria — because Maria used to always ask me to get her on the show — and I did tell her that I could see her being the villain,” Nick said. “And somehow that turned into Maria thinking that in my zero free time and not knowing that she was on the show that somehow I made it my mission to [take her down].”
Nick pointed out that Maria wasn’t the “villain” during her time on The Bachelor — and instead called her a “fan-favorite” among Bachelor Nation.
“It’s just giving delusional, honestly, at the end of the day,” Nick’s wife, Natalie Joy, added.
During season 28, where 32 women vied for the love of Joey Graziadei, Sydney accused Maria of downplaying fellow contestant Madina Alam’s insecurities about her age. Despite Maria’s apology, Sydney accused her of bullying and creating tension within the group.
Nick noted that it was “kind of funny” during Maria’s appearance on “Call Her Daddy” that she suggested she “could have gone farther” on the show. (Maria claimed during the podcast that she planned to use fellow contestant Jenn Tran’s kiss with Joey, 28, as an “excuse” to leave the competition prior to hometowns. Joey ultimately gave Maria a rose, but sent her home before the fantasy suite episode.)
“Maria, if you’re wondering why I thought way back when if you could be the villain, you saying, ‘I could have gone farther if I wanted to,’ is the type of energy that would put a target on your back in that type of environment,” Nick explained. “That’s all it takes. It’s not that complicated.”
Maria also admitted on “Call Her Daddy” that the next Bachelorette role was “mine until I said it wasn’t,” claiming she backed out of the gig because she was “not in the right headspace.” (Instead, Jenn, 26, was announced as the season 21 lead.)
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“I just think there’s another version to this story. I think that’s definitely Maria’s truth,” Nick claimed. “In my experience with the show — I don’t know anything specific about what happened with Maria and the show and why she turned it down — but in my experience, the few instances where someone was meant to be the lead and in the last minute there was a switch, I only know that experience from when the show decided that the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.”
Nick noted that it’s “entirely believable” Maria turned down the opportunity to be The Bachelorette, but he said he hadn’t “heard of that version” before.
“Imagine how difficult it might be to work with someone who — instead of thinking it was possible that they could rub anyone the wrong way — that it was more believable to this person that their own friend, who they hadn’t spoken with in several years, for no other reason than to prove himself right, decided to come up with this elaborate conspiracy theory as to why she might have rubbed some women in the house the wrong way,” he noted. “That person might, you know, be challenging.”
