Emily Maynard's televised search for love on The Bachelorette will begin airing in two months.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
The network had officially announced Maynard -- the former fifteenth-season The Bachelor bachelorette who got engaged to Brad Womack during last March's broadcast of the show's season finale but split with him several months later -- would serve as the star of the eighth season of The Bachelorette in January, however rumors of her casting had swirled for months.
While Maynard, a 26-year-old single mom from Charlotte, NC, was billed as a children's hospital event planner during her stint on The Bachelor, she is now a "full-time mommy" to her six-year-old daughter Josephine Riddick "Ricki" Hendrick, according to ABC.
Like prior Bachelorettes, Maynard -- who lost her fiance and former NASCAR driver Ricky Hendrick in an October 2004 plane crash -- will choose amongst 25 suitors and be "looking for someone who makes her laugh, doesn't take himself too seriously and can be her best friend."
However, given she wishes to remain close to Ricki, Maynard's edition of The Bachelorette will kickoff at a mansion in Charlotte instead of the reality franchise's usual Malibu, CA location. Maynard's season will begin production this week, according to local reports.
Maynard will be the first single mom to serve as the star of The Bachelorette and the first Bachelorette who did not participate in The Bachelor season which immediately proceeded her The Bachelorette edition.
Reports that Maynard could serve as the star of The Bachelorette's eighth season have circulated since shortly after she and Womack confirmed their split last year, however The Bachelor and The Bachelorette host Chris Harrison had initially dismissed them as premature and speculative.
"Rumors of Emily being the Bachelorette are greatly exaggerated," Harrison told Access Hollywood Live in July.
"It's obviously been bantered about. We're not idiots, we talked about it, of course, but it hadn't even been broached to her. It is way too soon. They just broke up and they've barely even broken up."
About The Author: Steven Rogers
