The Bachelorette host Chris Harrison has explained why Jen Schefft and Meredith Phillips didn't participate in The Bachelorette's huge reunion special.
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RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
The reunion marked the first time all of the women were gathered at the famed The Bachelor mansion together to share their stories of romance and recall some memorable moments in their journeys on the show.
Besides Hannah Brown -- who was off filming The Bachelorette's upcoming fifteenth season -- Meredith from Season 2 and Jen from Season 3 were noticeably missing from the get-together.
"Unfortunately Jen and Meredith couldn't be there because we had to settle on a date. At the end of the day, we had to shoot this thing," Harrison explained to Entertainment Tonight, blaming the ladies' absence on scheduling conflicts.
"So, we just picked a day where we could get as many as we possibly could, but unfortunately schedules, vacations, was one of them, just couldn't be changed. And we just had to pull the trigger and do this thing."
The reunion special will star Trista Sutter from Season 1, DeAnna Pappas from Season 4, Jillian Harris from Season 5, Ali Fedotowsky from Season 6, Ashley Hebert from Season 7, Emily Maynard from Season 8, Desiree Hartsock from Season 9, Andi Dorfman from Season 10, Kaitlyn Bristowe from Season 11, JoJo Fletcher from Season 12, Rachel Lindsay from Season 13, and Becca Kufrin from Season 14.
"I was grateful that we had as many as we did, which was 12 of the 14. Obviously [new Bachelorette] Hannah is not a part of it, she's shooting the show," Harrison told ET.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Neither Meredith or Jen are still with the men whom they had picked at the end of their seasons, Ian McKee and Jerry Ferris, respectively.
Jen, who is married to Joe Waterman with two daughters, has largely stayed out of the limelight in recent years.
Meredith, however, made headlines in May 2018 when she did an interview in which she claimed she had been touched inappropriately and possibly drugged by masseuse while her season of The Bachelorette was in production in 2004.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWMeredith -- who is now married to her high school sweetheart Michael Broady -- claimed she had previously kept the incident to herself for sake of the show's producers and staff.
Both ABC and Warner Bros. declined comment at the time Meredith's allegation surfaced, according to ET.
But Harrison insisted Jen and Meredith won't be forgotten when the big reunion special airs on ABC.
"Jen and Meredith are represented, they're celebrated in this thing, we love them very much and they're a part of our family and this sisterhood, but they just couldn't join us," Harrison said.
The women seemed to have a great experience coming together based on recent comments, but the gathering was also apparently emotional for the franchise's longtime host.
"I just watched the whole thing last night, and I was like a five-year-old at Christmas, I really was. I had this weird sense of pride... It's my baby," Harrison expressed.
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"I really love these women, and I really liked that at the end of the day, we had all these Bachelorettes together for the first time, and we've never done anything like it."
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"They were just sitting around and talking, telling stories of motherhood and just being women today and being Bachelorettes and going through this show and I just thought, 'This is great,'" Harrison recalled.
"It's just celebrating these badass women doing their thing And there was no producing, no nothing. It was just raw them."
Harrison reiterated how it was just a remarkable experience and a trip down memory lane for everyone involved.
"And then having them lined up in the driveway later that night, like, looking from Trista to Becca like, 'Wow, we did this,'" Harrison said, referencing The Bachelorette's 15-year history on the air.
"Like, all these kickass women doing their thing. I thought it was pretty cool."
After The Bachelorette reunion unfolds on television, Hannah's edition of The Bachelorette will premiere the following week on Monday, May 13 at 8PM ET/PT on ABC.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
