The Bachelor fan-favourite Maria Georgas has finally explained why she turned down the offer to lead the next season of its spin-off series, The Bachelorette.

Georgas, 29, was among the record-breaking 32 women to compete for Joey Graziadei’s heart on the latest season of ABC’s popular dating series. After she was eliminated following the hometown dates, it was expected that she would be named the next Bachelorette.

While the season’s runner-up is typically the next Bachelorette, Georgas’s extreme popularity among viewers made her the projected lead.

“I was offered the role,” Georgas confirmed on the latest episode of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast. “I mean, it was mine until I said it wasn’t. And yeah, it became very overwhelming to the point where I had to decline.”

In a surprise turn of events, fifth-place finisher Jenn Tran was announced as the first Asian woman to become the next Bachelorette.

“[Tran] was one of my closest girls in the house, and she was always verbalising how badly she wanted this,” Georgas said.

“And when everyone around me was so supportive of me being in this position and everyone wanted this for me, I kind of took a second and was like, ‘Why am I not happy? Why am I not excited about this?’” the executive assistant from Canada continued.

“And it took me realising that it’s just not my time, where I was like, ‘Guys, respectfully, I need to decline. I need to take a step back.’

“I was not in the right headspace for this,” she admitted. “Because I know the extensive process it was to be on the show, right? So having a bunch of guys do the exact same thing and they’re there for me, I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time. It was hard for me to jump right back into it, honestly.”

Georgas praised Tran as “the most perfect Bachelorette”. “I couldn’t think of anyone better to do this. And she was so ready for it and that was enough for me to say, ‘Yeah, it’s not my time.’ It was a hard time because, again, everyone was so wanting this for me. I just needed to be home with my family and friends and take that time off, to be honest.”

Runner-up Daisy Kent previously shared that she, too, had been offered the role, but turned down the opportunity.

“There’s a few reasons,” Kent said on an April episode of Nick Viall’s The Viall Files podcast. “So one, my health is an aspect of it. I knew as the lead, it’s a lot on you – like not only emotionally but also physically, too.”

During the Bachelor, she had opened up about living with Meniere’s disease and Lyme disease, which had led to her hearing loss.

The Bachelorette season 21 premieres on 1 June on ABC.