Us Weekly‘s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast is breaking down Joey Graziadei‘s The Bachelor: Women Tell All, sharing scoop from the contestants after they taped the special.
Kicking off with the drama between the women, things got tense as Madina rehashed her drama with Lea, Sydney and Maria. While Madina didn’t get a one-on-one with host Jesse Palmer, she reflected with Us on how things played out.
“I think I just feel like I was literally used as a prop,” she told Us. “There was one episode, I was laughing [watching]. I’m like, ‘My name, my name, my name,’ but I literally [am] nowhere to be found.”
Maria — who made an effort to hug Lea and Sydney on stage — got more closure from the moment, telling Us that she went into the evening knowing that she wanted to bury the hatchet after the women received a lot of hate on social media.
“[It’s] something I’ve been trying to convey through my social media with posts and videos, but people are still not getting the hint. These girls have been getting so much abuse, and it’s something I just don’t tolerate or condone in any way, shape or form,” she said. “And so having the chance to speak my mind on it at the Women Tell All while coming together with Sydney and Lea, it just felt so much better to do it in front of their face and woman to woman and to let the people know that I stand with them and I support them. Just because you love me, [that] doesn’t mean you need to hate on someone else, and it doesn’t look good when someone who is in support of me goes and brings someone else down. Just not something I like and I don’t like to see it.”
Rachel was the last contestant to join the ladies on stage after fans watched Joey eliminate her on the episode. In addition to telling Us that reliving the drama was “harder” than she thought it would be, she shed light on the social media chatter about her reaction to Maria pulling Joey at the final four rose ceremony earlier this month — a question the reunion failed to ask.
“We’re exhausted at these ceremonies and we all understand that we’re tired. So if you see the interaction, Maria and I, we’re fine,” Rachel told Us. “We kissed him, I left and it was all good. It was a valid question in my opinion. I think we’re all nervous going into the ceremony, and she was also valid to pull him. So you can do whatever you want in this world, and I do think it’s sad that I was getting some heat for that, but I said what I said and I’m not going to cower away from that. And Maria was fine with what I said.”
For more, listen to Us’ “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast.
The Bachelor finale airs on ABC Monday, March 25, at 8 p.m. ET.