“The Bachelorette” Season 21 lead Jenn Tran addressed the backlash surrounding her awkward exchange with Kelly Ripa on the July 8 episode of “Live with Kelly and Mark.”
During the show Ripa, 53, questioned Tran’s decision to seek love on reality TV, prompting Tran to point out Ripa’s own on-set love story with husband Mark Consuelos.
“Honestly, I will say, Kelly and I, it was all in good fun,” Tran, 26, revealed during the July 15 episode of the “Trading Secrets” podcast.
“We have this sarcastic banter. I could tell the vibes, you know.”
“I didn’t take anything she said to heart,” she added. “I think it was all really in good fun.”
When Ripa questioned Tran’s choices of finding love on the show, Tran replied: “I have a question: When did you meet your husband? … On TV, no?” referring to Ripa’s marriage to Consuelos, whom she met on the set of the soap opera “All My Children.”
Ripa then argued that meeting on a TV set was “not the same” as going on a dating show like the ABC franchise.
“We were both professional. Are you acting on your show?” Ripa countered. “I didn’t marry [Mark’s All My Children character] Mateo Santos. I married Mark Consuelos.” The two share three children and have been married since 1996.
Podcast host Jason Tartick, who was on Season 14 of “The Bachelorette”, praised Tran for how she handled herself on live TV.
“We’ve known Kelly is not a fan of the show,” he said. “I think you handled it perfectly, especially from someone that you know has a history of being against the show.”
But the interview stirred discussions within Bachelor Nation. Former contestant Ashley Iaconetti criticized Ripa’s longstanding reservations about the show on an episode of her “Almost Famous” podcast.
“Every time we have a lead go on the show to promote it, she always seems to be so skeptical of — a little bit of the lead, and their decision to be the lead — and also just the process,” Iaconetti said.
Cohost and former Bachelor Ben Higgins chimed in, noting that Ripa “definitely doesn’t like the show,” joking, “I don’t know if they, like, denied her the ‘Bachelorette’ role at some point.”
The Season 20 lead said that Ripa’s dislike of the franchise “makes for an awkward interview.”
A similar sentiment was echoed by Arie Luyendyk Jr., who starred on Season 22 of the ABC reality dating show.
He wrote in the comments of Us Weekly’s Instagram on July 11: “Felt like I had my back against the wall whenever I was being interviewed by her.”
Ripa previously drilled Luyendyk Jr. about his decision to dump Becca Kufrin after proposing to her and dating the runner-up, Lauren Burnham, instead. The couple would go on to marry and are parents of three children.
“I wanna understand everything — your thought process,” Ripa during a March 2018 episode of “Live With Kelly and Ryan,” before asking Burnham, “What’s wrong with you?”
In May 2019, Ripa also told her viewers: “You guys know how I feel about the show. It disgusts me.”
“I can’t stand the idea of 25 exceptional women fighting over one ordinary fella, in my opinion. You know how I feel, ladies, we are too special to be arguing over a guy,” she added.
Ripa expressed those same concerns to Hannah Brown when she appeared on the show that month, promoting her journey as the Season 15 lead.
Brown argued Ripa’s claim, explaining that the series is not about “women fighting against each other.”
“Some of my best friends came from the show and were really supportive. When you have a group of 30 people together, there’s going to be people who don’t like each other. That’s just simple facts,” she emphasized at the time. “It was one of the most empowering things that I ever did because I had to grow as an individual. That is why I decided that I wanted to be the Bachelorette. That’s why I wanted that so bad.”
More recently, Ripa took a slight jab at “The Golden Bachelor’s” Gerry Turner in November 2023.
“You did this thing that we’ve watched so many Bachelors before you do, you dropped the L word on more than one woman,” she said, teasing him about telling two women he had feelings for them.
Despite Ripa and Tran’s recent discussion, a source told Entertainment Weekly that the women were both happy with the interview last week.
“Ripa and Tran were ribbing each other during the conversation,” the insider noted. “The interview was well received on both ends.”
