What 'Bachelorette' Tayshia Adams really thinks about the 'toxicity' on Matt James' season of 'The Bachelor': 'It's sad to me'

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It’s hard to imagine a better star of The Bachelorette than the series’ most recent lead, Tayshia Adams.

When Adams stepped into the role after Clare Crawley dropped out, she did so with a completely open heart and mind, making for one of the most memorable seasons of The Bachelorette in recent memory. In addition to giving all of her suitors a chance, she took it a step further and made an effort to get to know them on a deeper level. Her approach resulted in deep, emotional and impactful conversations, the likes of which the show had never seen before.

Tayshia Adams opened up about her historic season of The Bachelorette in the most recent episode of In The Know’s pop culture interview series, We Should Talk. She also detailed her exciting new life in New York with fiancé Zac Clark, shared her plans for her professionally life after the show and got candid about what she thinks about Matt James’ season, the controversy surrounding it and what Bachelor Nation needs to do better in the future.

“I felt an insane amount of outpour and love. I will tell you, before these conversations did air, I was always worried. You can never do anything right — someone’s always going to say something, and they definitely did,” Adams told In The Know. “But I’ve also learned to listen to the 99 percent of people that are speaking highly, as opposed to the 1 percent that are not. I feel like everyone was looking for more last year; we all just kind of needed it.”

Listen to In The Know’s full episode with Tayshia Adams below, and keep scrolling for highlights from the interview:

Tayshia Adams on life with Zac Clark in NYC: “I still felt like I was on this high and [was thinking] ‘what is reality?’ at first, just because I was just recently engaged! I was going into this new year with a guy, so I had a New Year’s kiss, which I hadn’t had in a long time. It’s just so many adjustments. I was kind of on go, go, go mode, that I don’t really [think] that I realized the transition that I had made with how heavy 2020 had started and how hot my 2021 started. It’s going really well, and I’m still kind of up there on cloud nine, which is kind of nice. […] It’s been so much fun. We definitely are a real couple, so we have ups and downs, but it’s been so fun to get to see his line of work out here. I’ve been visiting the houses that he has to help people in recovery. I’ve been seeing different sides to him that you’re not able to see on the show, and it’s been so fun being able to integrate with his friends and family and having him come down to Orange County to meet my friends and family. There are so many things for us to still learn about each other, but we’re having a fun time doing it. It doesn’t feel rushed.”

Tayshia Adams on the reaction to her having difficult conversations on her season of The Bachelorette: “I felt an insane amount of outpour and love. I will tell you, before these conversations did air, I was always worried. You can never do anything right someone’s always going to say something, and they definitely did. But I’ve also learned to listen to the 99 percent of people that are speaking highly as opposed to the 1 percent that are not. I feel like everyone was looking for more last year; we all just kind of needed it. It was so heavy, and I feel like the appreciation and love that I got was just insane. It was amazing. I was so happy we were able to have those real conversations. I think that 2020 really allowed us to be more vulnerable with each other. The absence of being in the same room as other people, and the absence of physical touch and all of that kind of stuff really allowed these guys to also be able to open up and long for something real. It was kind of a perfect storm for that to happen. People were just looking for more.”

Tayshia Adams on receiving the “Bachelorette Bible”: “It is a sorority! We have a little Bachelorette group chat, which is quite nice. When I first became the Bachelorette, Becca [Kufrin] actually sent me this book — it’s called the Bachelorette Book — that past Bachelorettes have actually written down little words of advice in. It’s like the opposite of the Mean Girls Burn Book. It’s more like, How to get through this crazy fricken’ time. It’s hush-hush. [Laughs]”

Tayshia Adams on receiving messages from fans thanking her for breaking down barriers as the first biracial Bachelorette: “I started screen-shotting these messages, because it’s insane the amount of outpour and love and appreciation and people feeling like they’ve been seen and heard and able to identity [with me]. Even when I didn’t have the right words to say, they know that feeling of not having those right words. So, that motivates me to be like, ‘How can I try to help you?’ It’s always a fine line, though, because I always get in my head.”

Watch In The Know’s full interview with Tayshia Adams below, and listen to her podcast, Clickbait with Bachelor Nation, here:

If you enjoyed this interview, check out In The Know’s recent interview with Bachelor expert Lauren Zima here.

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