Sam McKinney Addresses ‘Daisy or Maria’ Backlash

Sam McKinney was put in the hot seat, specifically regarding that comment about who he thought the lead of The Bachelorette would be when he joined the show. During the Men Tell All special, Sam addressed what he said in front of Jenn Tran that shocked Bachelor Nation.

The discussion started during Sam’s one-on-one with Jesse Palmer. “He’s talking about eyes a lot — about Jenn’s eyes — he might have had eyes for Maria [Georgas] or Daisy [Kent] before,” Jeremy Simon quipped, referring to The Bachelor Season 28 fan favorites. In Episode 6, Sam shocked everyone, including Jenn, when he said, “I thought the Bachelorette was going to be Daisy or Maria.”

Sam immediately responded to Jeremy, “I’m really glad you brought that up. Truthfully. Whenever we all came out here, we had no idea who the Bachelorette was going to be,” Sam said. “But if anybody’s going to sit up here and say they didn’t think it was going to be Daisy or Maria, you guys are liars.”

He added, “What I want to say with all of that thought is I remember telling my parents — I was like, ‘I don’t see it working out with either of them.’ Truthfully.” The Bachelorette Season 20 couple Charity Lawson and Dotun Olubeko could be seen looking confused by Sam’s response.

On the Men Tell All, Sam stressed that he meant “no disrespect” toward Jenn. “If it came across like that, then once again, I continue to apologize for my delivery because I know it needs work,” he said. Ricky Marinez told Sam what he said was “disrespectful.” John Mitchell believed Sam was coming from a “place of humility.”

When Jenn joined the Men Tell All, she didn’t mince words about how she felt about Sam. She said they were on “different emotional and intellectual levels” and called out his “blatant disrespect” toward the guys. She blasted him for blaming the producers and the “edit” he got for his behavior. “The man that I saw on TV was exactly the man that I sat across from the entire journey,” Jenn said.

She continued, “If you don’t take a step back and look at what you saw and take accountability for your actions and grow and learn, then I feel very, very sorry for whoever you end up with because this delusion of world that you’re living in right now and this denial is not going to work for anybody.”

The Bachelorette, Season 21 Finale, September 3, 8/7c, ABC