Photo by ABC/Craig Sjodin
We’ll start by telling you this.
Michelle Money insisted in a recent conference call interview that when The Bachelor’s Brad Womack passed her
over for the final rose last week, she did not leave without speaking her mind.
According to she said a lot and that producers chose not to air her little chat
with Brad. And still, given the opportunity to let us know what they discussed,
all she would say was, “The conversation I had with Brad was a very personal
conversation and I’m glad I had it. It gave me the closure that I needed. And
it was something that was positive.” Hmm.
She also wanted to clear up the
reason that she stretched out in the limousine, Michelle explained, “Me lying
down was actually a result of me being incredibly carsick from talking to the
camera while driving down a bumpy road and lights in my face. And so the reason
I laid down is because I literally was going to throw up.” Interesting.
Money wasn’t feeling well then and
that was months before she would find out that she was going to be this
season’s crazy bachelorette villain. Who’da thunk it. Not Michelle, who said is
didn’t cross her mind that she might be portrayed that way. “Never, not even
once. Not even in one small sort of way.”
As so many great reality villains
have professed in the past, Michelle chalked it all up to crafty editing,
saying, “There is like 300 hours of footage for each episode and you’re seeing
like an hour and a half of that many hours… There is so many other
conversations I have had and interviews I have had and interactions with
people… But I think the reason I am an easy target for something like that is
because I am upfront and I am direct. And I am honest.”
Clearly, according to Money, that’s
the one-dimensional character that was created for her without her knowledge.
“When I left the show, I felt very confident and that I was true to who I was.
And all I can do is be me. I can't be anybody else but me. And, at the end of
the day, one very small side of me was shown and that's unfortunate, but I know
what my experience was like and I know what really happened and I know the
amazing friendships I have made and the amazing, opportunity I had to get to
know, Brad, who is a great guy. And so, I’m very glad I did it.”
She continued, “I do not regret going on the show in any way. I’m so glad I did it. And I had such an amazing experience. And I wish that all those experiences would have been able to be shown, but they weren’t, unfortunately.”
There are a number of moments that
Michelle wished had been shown on camera. “Oh there’s hundreds and hundreds of
stuff… As far as one specific thing, I wish more than anything that people
could have seen the things that I had to say and the nice things that I said
about the other girls and about Brad. And I wish people could have heard me
talk more about my love for my daughter and my family. And that my intentions
of going on the show were, very true to the fact that I just wanted to get to
know Brad.
When asked if producers kept her
around just to stir up a little drama, Money replied, “I think it was
definitely because I have a connection with Brad… I made it very, very clear to
Brad from the very beginning like, “Please, just if you do not feel like I’m
right for you, please let me go home. I need to go back to my daughter.”
Money, a single mother, was painted
as the polar opposite of this season’s Bachelor
good girl, Emily Maynard. The sweet, Southern contestant
lost her fiancée in a plan crash six years ago and is raising their daughter on
her own. Michelle had a pointed explanation for why producers set them up as
the ends of the bachelorette spectrum. “Because it’s a T.V. show. And the
viewers want to see some drama.”
And the very savvy Money, was aware
that was the risk going in to the whole experience. “That’s part of the risk
that you take in signing up for a show like The
Bachelor. You go into it knowing that’s what people want to see is the
drama. And it was funny because, we all got along so well and [I] kind of felt
like, ‘I don’t know what kind of drama they’re going to pull from this.’”
Money compared the show to a highly
strategic sport, drawing the analogy, “It’s like football for women. Women just
like to have their favorite, have their opinions about the different girls and,
their thoughts and feelings on them. And it’s kind of just like it’s football
for women.”
And yet, Michelle acknowledged that
a certain amount of what was shown on camera is undeniably true to her
personality. She admitted, “I have a very sarcastic, dry sense of humor. And if
you don’t get the full spectrum of who I am, and that’s not revealed to you and
you’re only getting that one side of me, I see how that can come off as very
intense. So for me I feel like when you just get a small chopped up version of
me being sarcastic, it comes across the wrong way.”
In real life, she said she believes
that people would be able to get a much better sense of who she is, “Once you
actually meet me face-to-face and have a conversation with me, it’s very clear
that I’m not a villain.”
As a result she’s not too concerned
about any future-relationship fall out from the show. “I’m not worried about
dating at all.” But she feared that she has other hurdles to jump before
finding Mr. Right, “More than anything I’ve just had a hard time finding people
to date in Utah. And being a single mom, it’s hard to get out and travel and
meet new people and have the opportunity to meet different men outside of where
I’m from.”
That doesn’t mean the hairdresser/actress has given up the dream of finding love. “I’m hopeful that I’ll meet somebody. And I definitely… still want the same thing. I want to get married. I want to have more kids. I want to be in like a committed, healthy relationship with somebody. And I’m very hopeful that I will find that.”
And even though it won’t be Brad,
Money seemed to know exactly what she wants in a man. “I’m looking for somebody
who is very confident, somebody that can make me laugh, somebody that’s funny
and someone that I can trust, to be a great example to my daughter.
Find out who Brad does pick as The Bachelor continues on Mondays at 8
p.m. EST/7 p.m. Central on ABC.
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