Initially Appointed Bisexual Lead Contestant on The Bachelorette - Tomorrow, TV broadcasts will feature Stella in her search for romantic companionship.
Raining Roses Again: For over a decade, RTL has been guiding "The Bachelorette" on a journey of love. However, this new season, commencing on August 26th, is distinct. Initially, it won't air on free TV like before, but only on RTL+'s streaming platform. Secondly, the male contestants encounter an extraordinary challenge: female contestants.
The new "Bachelorette", Stella Stegmann, marks a historical first as the first bisexual woman to hand out the roses in this role. The 27-year-old resident of Munich had long contemplated joining the show, sharing her thoughts with the German Press Agency. "This is also the perfect time for me now as I recently experienced my first relationship with a woman. She was the first woman I ever fell in love with. So, I am now the first bisexual 'Bachelorette'. " "The first 'Bi-Bachelorette'" as referred to in RTL's online trailer.
Men or Women? - 50:50
And thus, she embarks on a journey to Thailand in search of her ideal partner - be it a woman or a man. "I was completely open to men or women - 50:50," she stated. Her primary focus was not on gender but on the individual themselves, she explained. She couldn't reveal the show's outcome, but from a numerical perspective, the odds aren't entirely balanced: there are 15 men and only five women in the contest.
"Women are a different kind of competition" remarks one of the contestants in the trailer. "Two entirely separate worlds collide here" and: "This was always quite different before."
Her predecessor, Sharon Battiste, recently announced on Instagram that she and her 2022 chosen one have reconciled - the only "Bachelorette" couple currently still together. Stegmann confessed her fears of not finding love.
Bachelorette: "I Was Afraid"
"I was afraid I wouldn't fall in love, that there wouldn't be anyone there for me to build a future with," she told dpa. But if RTL's trailer is to be believed, her apprehensions were misplaced. "I fell in love with both," Stegmann admits in the trailer.
"I was afraid that maybe I'd fall in love and the feelings wouldn't be reciprocated, and afraid that someone would leave voluntarily and hurt me, and also afraid that people would judge me for who I am and that I'm challenging the heteronormative structure. But hope and excitement surpassed everything," she told dpa.
Twenty hopefuls aspire to win the final rose - and possibly also the spotlight and new followers on Instagram and other platforms.
"You always read comments suggesting everyone's doing it for fame, and of course that thought crosses everyone's mind, but for each individual, the hope of finding love is incredibly real," Stegmann said. "And even though you might initially think you want to be on the show, the thought that you might find the love of your life is always there. I'm sure genuine feelings develop. Those accusations that everything is just for clicks are completely baseless."
I'm not going to let my fears hold me back from this journey. I'm not going to judge the contestants based on their gender, only on who they are as individuals.
