Bachelor’s Maria Georgas Suggests Nick Viall Conspired To Make Her the Villain During Sydney Feud

The Bachelor fans can agree that Sydney Gordon’s one-sided feud with Maria Georgas was strange and now the Canada native revealed that she believes the drama was set up. Maria gave her first interview after Joey Graziadei’s season 28 of The Bachelor aired and suggested that Nick Viall may have conspired in trying to make her the season villain.

“So, when [season 28] first started, like, airing, I remember someone sent me a photo of Nick and Sydney together,” Maria, 29, told Alex Copper on the Wednesday, May 1, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “They were all friends because Sydney's friends with Ashley [Iaconetti], Nick's close with Ashley and Ashley's close with Sydney and they were all in a photo together.”

After making the connection, the executive assistant questioned if Sydney’s ongoing claims of calling Maria a bully were “planned.”

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Alex broke down the timeline for non-Bachelor Nation stans, saying, “You're basically saying, you're seeing Nick Viall, like, tell you you're gonna potentially be the villain, then you're seeing Nick Viall, be friends with the girl that attacked you the whole season.”

Maria confirmed the statement and went as far as to tell Alex to “keep” the portion of the interview in for her side of the story to be heard.

“I was like, ‘There's something weird about all this.’ Because it was too close, like it was too close to home. I was like – this was said and now this! Guys, if there was a moment in the house where I can say, ‘OK, I deserve that,’ I would say I would not even begin to think about this, but I was so innocent.”

During Joey’s season of The Bachelor, Sydney, 28, accused Maria of being a “bully” while trying to defend fellow contestant Madina Alam after she expressed her insecurities about being the oldest woman in the house. Maria reacted to Madina’s struggle in a separate conversation with other ladies in the Bachelor mansion.

“Madina, you are 31. Own it. Joey probably loves it … I’m old too,” Maria said.

Sydney overheard the conversation from the opposite side of the pool area and accused Maria of talking about Madina, 31, in a “condescending” way. Though Maria tried making amends and clearing the air multiple times, the boutique shop owner didn’t let the tiff go and even told Joey, 28, that Maria was a problem in the house.

The drama got so bad that ?The women were asked on a two-on-one date with Joey, resulting in Syndey packing her bags and taking the next flight back to Rhode Island ?when he sent her home.

Though their time on the show was less than amicable, Maria and Sydney squashed their beef and hugged it out during the Women Tell All episode in March.