In honor of tonight's finale of The Bachelor, we sat down with ousted contestant — and Nashville resident — Danielle Maltby to get a peek behind the curtain of the popular reality dating competition. The NICU nurse was every bit as pretty, sweet and, yes, normal as she came across on television but with an added sense of humor and self-awareness that was perhaps masked by the show’s producers and their flair for the dramatic. She was so charming, in fact, that one of us fell a little bit in love with her during the hour-long chat. (We'll leave you to guess which one.)
While being very careful not to violate the multimillion-dollar confidentiality contract she signed with ABC — which has the most bizarre limitations about what the contestants can't talk about including when exactly the show filmed and how the ladies passed their time in the house — Danielle opened up about her experience on the show, her thoughts on the other ladies (she's definitely Team Taylor, guys), how much booze was actually consumed in the house, the surprising reason her last date with Nick was so awkward and how she hopes to use her newfound fame (shocking spoiler alert: it's not to sell products on Instagram). Here are some of the most fascinating tidbits from our chat.  Â
On finding out Nick was the Bachelor:
I didn’t know anything about him. I just watched [Bachelor in] Paradise and was like, oh he seems kinda cool, he's from Wisconsin, we've got that in common. I was excited, because I wasn’t so sure about the other bachelors that they were thinking about. I was definitely more intrigued by Nick.
On lying to everyone about being on the show:
That was the hardest part. I had to lie to everybody … I am not a good liar. I can't do it. I hate doing it. It hurts my soul to lie to people.
On getting that much time off from work at Vandy's children's hospital:
My boss was really excited. Vanderbilt's been so good to me. My unit's been really, really good to me. I've been with them for over five years. I was supposed to move down, had a job already set and then my fiancé passed away. So they were like, 'If you're still gonna come down here, we're gonna hold your job. We already think the world of you so whenever you're ready, just take your time and come on down.'
So when I ended up coming down they welcomed me with open arms and took really good care of me. And you're not in the best state emotionally but I was trying to get back into a normal routine and Vanderbilt's always been so good to me. After [my fiancé] Nick — his name was Nick too, so that was kind of a weird coincidence — but after that happened, I was like life is so short ... and so I kinda went in this phase of hell I wanna try things. So I came down here and reached out to a couple modeling agencies and met with them and it's become this very tiny little side thing but Vanderbilt's been really excited. My unit is always excited if, like, a music video comes out. They’ve been really good to me. When they heard that this was an opportunity, my boss was like, 'Oh my goodness I don’t watch the show but this is so exciting for you.'
On being recognized at work:
I haven’t had any parents recognize me, which is great, because I just feel like that would be kind of interesting at the hospital. Like, oh yeah I'm taking care of your baby and yeah I was on your TV on Monday night … but at least I didn’t take my top off. [laughs] There'd be a few nurses from other units who would recognize me, but I'm there to work and do my job.
On being on The Bachelor "for the right reasons":
I know that there are people who go on that show for gain, to try and be famous, and it sounds so cliché but I really was like nothing else has worked for me, let’s see what happens. And that’s been one thing that probably has been the most frustrating after the show is that people are like, 'Oh, she was in these music videos and she wasn’t there for the right reasons clearly.' And I'm like, people, don’t put me in a box! There are so many things that you are capable of doing — why are you saying that I can't be a nurse and I can't model on the side? That was one thing that really actually helped me get my self-confidence back [after losing my fiancé]. I was very depressed. And that just was a way that if I felt like I looked beautiful on the outside, it slowly started to make me feel better on the inside. And I'm not that type of person that puts more value on outward beauty but it's something that helped me in that time. Modeling helped me get my self-confidence back.
On if she was portrayed accurately on the show:
I feel like I was. I didn’t wanna partake in all the drama. I think everyone had their own sort of game plan going in to that show. Mine was just [to] try and focus on [my] relationship with him and not on everyone else's relationships with him. And I just really tried not to engage in all that stuff. I may have come off as a little boring, but I was like, I'm not here to catfight with all of you.
On who wasn't portrayed accurately:
I felt like with Liz there was too much she wasn’t given enough credit for. I feel like that story may have been twisted around a bit, but at the Women Tell All she finally got to explain everything. And it wasn’t something where she was going around the house like, 'Oh yeah, I slept with him at Jade and Tanner's wedding.'
And I feel like Taylor was kinda asked to go and try to talk to Corrine [and] help kinda guide her a little bit and that’s not a position that she should have been put into because ultimately she was there to try and find a husband too and not there to try and counsel someone. Just like I wasn’t there to be everyone's nurse.
On Corinne:
Ugh, I'm so done talking about her. She does have a good heart in there. I think she's excited — maybe too excited — with all this fame. So I think she was portrayed accurately. That’s very much Corrine. She's funny and she's goofy but…
I reached out to her a couple times because she was getting bullied, a lot of hate mail and stuff, but then watching the show back, I was like, oh man, girl, you're talking a lot of shit in these interviews about everybody and I'm not feeling so great about sticking up for you.
On drinking in the house:
A lot of people pop Champagne right away in the morning. I feel like people think I'm boring, but no, I'm not gonna make a fool of myself on TV. I have a job to think about, I have my family to think about. I drank on the show but I know my limits. I know who I am.
On what she wishes would've been shown:
I wish they would've focused more on Kristina, less on Corrine and Taylor. And V — I love Vanessa, she's my girl. We had so many funny moments. Why don’t you show more funny things and not this other drama?!
With regards to Nick, we had a really good friendship. We really bonded [and] we ultimately didn’t have that spark [or] major chemistry, but we were good friends. There was a lot of off-camera stuff — sweet interactions — we had that weren’t shown but I care about him. He's a good guy. I hope he's happy, I hope whoever wins is happy.
On if she'd considering doing Bachelor in Paradise:
Yeah, I think I'd consider that, providing Vandy lets me take the time off. It seems like it is a very different experience. You can hang out with them all day long. More time to hang out and talk and get to know someone.
On Rachel as The Bachelorette:
I’m so excited for Rachel. She’s gonna kill it. She’s so smart and so well-spoken and just fun. She's really, really fun. I think ABC is gonna have a great time with her as The Bachelorette.
On sharing her heartbreaking story on national television:
I struggled with that a lot because I didn’t want that to be the sole focus of why I was cast. It is part of my story but it's something that I've really processed through and learned and grown from. And it's almost been this starting point, like a restart point for me, and I would rather be able to show people [that] yes, this did happen but it doesn’t have to be the end all for you because there's so much you can do with life. And when I knew I was going to be on the show, I was like I don’t wanna be the girl with the dead fiancé, I don’t wanna be typecast as that girl.
Having that convo [with Nick] was the hardest thing, because in the past it's been one of those things where if I start feeling close to someone and I open up about it, they get freaked out. It seems it’s a pattern. It was a very scary thing to open up about but ultimately I wanted to share that story because I know I'm not the only person that has ever gone through losing someone like that. And I have had a lot of people reach out and be like, 'Thank you for sharing that, I had a very similar situation happen to me and you’ve given me a lot of hope.' And ultimately, if that’s the biggest thing I've gained from the show, that’s pretty awesome.
On her awkward final date with Nick:
On the episode where I got sent home, we'd already had this whole conversation but there was something up with the mics so [the producers] were like, 'OK, redo this conversation.' So I was upset they aired that part because it looked like we had nothing to talk about.
On how she wants to use her newfound fame:
When I came home from the show I wanted to try to get back to my normal life, which is very abnormal. And I know that, but I love it. If something comes along and it fits in with my nursing career, that would be awesome. I'm meeting — and it's a very first initial meeting — with this company that built a community hospital in Africa, and that’s always been a dream of mine. They need more prenatal teaching down there. I'm like, oh my God please, please, please.
This is where I'm really thankful of the social media platform I've been given because I can hopefully raise funds a lot easier because I can reach more people and maybe bring more medical equipment they might be needing and teach them how to use it. I've always wanted to do mother/baby care over there and work with young women, 'cause so many women in these underprivileged countries have their periods and can't go to school, because they’re out for a week. [I'd love to bring] them sanitation products that they can reuse and wash and that’s the biggest thing I'm hoping for. I hope that doesn’t sound cliché because in my core I just want to help people and I'm trying to get more of those experiences.
On recovering from the show:
I was in a weird place for about two weeks. And thank God for [former contestants and friends] Wells and Evan. They were like, 'Honey, it's gonna be OK, let me break it down, here's some perspective.' Thank God for both of them. My mom came down and stayed with me for a week because I'm like I don’t know what just happened to me. Probably three weeks [after] I was home, I was like he is not my dude. I know that. I just always kinda felt like we’d be friends.
