MAFS EXCLUSIVE: Why Janelle Han turned down The Bachelor

She quickly became a fan favourite bride on this year’s season of Married At First Sight, but it turns out Janelle Han almost appeared on a completely different reality TV show.

The 28-year-old beauty influencer tells Yahoo Lifestyle she applied for season ten of The Bachelor and made it all the way through the casting process but pulled out at the last minute.

“So what happened was The Bachelor reached out to my social media agency, and I had been single for about four months at this point,” she shares.

“And I was like, you know what? I'm ready to meet someone new. I was over that relationship for a long time and I just wanted to do something crazy. I do crazy s**t all the time.

“So I was going to apply for The Bachelor and then I thought to myself if I'm going to be looking for love and if I'm going to be going through a crazy experience where I can learn something about myself, I might as well apply for the show that I actually watch. So I applied for MAFS the same night I applied for The Bachelor, and I actually got into both of the shows.”

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Janelle went on to explain that she ultimately decided not to go on The Bachelor because of the show’s format and the way previous seasons have unfolded.

“I didn’t choose The Bachelor because historically speaking, the Bachelor never really picks the Asian girls,” she details. “Asians aren’t the beauty standard in Australia, and I'm very aware of that.

“I also just didn't want to compete with women for a man, and I also just don't think that I was going to get anything out of it in terms of learning about myself. And with MAFS, you’re stuck with someone who you might click with or you might not click with but regardless, you’re going to learn something.”

'Subliminal messages'

Janelle, who is the daughter of Singaporean-Chinese immigrants, admits she had a few worries going into MAFS relating to how her husband would react to her ethnicity.

“I was concerned that I was going to get paired with someone who had yellow fever and only liked Asians, or someone who had never dated an Asian before or wasn't culturally aware of different cultures,” she says.

However, her biggest motivation on the show was to represent and celebrate her culture the best way she possibly could.

“If I could do any subliminal messages by doing that I tried,” she laughs. “Like the chopsticks in the hair, playing mahjong in my backstory, my Buddha ‘J’ necklace I wore throughout the whole experiment.

“I wanted to show how proud I was of my culture and I really hope that it showed.”

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