Former Bachelor star Brad Womack is looking back at his difficult appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

During an appearance this week on the Almost Famous podcast, Womack, 52, recalled ‘bomb[ing]’ when he appeared on the 66-year-old comedian’s since-ended talk show after he opted not to choose a woman to give a rose to at the end of The Bachelor season 11 in 2007.

‘She called me a jerk the first season because I didn’t pick anybody,’ he told the podcast’s hosts, Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti.

However, Womack added that DeGeneres — who was recently seen back in Southern California after moving to England ‘for good’ — had apologized to him when he later appeared on her show to promote his second stint on The Bachelor for 2011’s season 15, which ended with him choosing Emily Maynard, though they split up not long after the show wrapped.

DailyMail.com has reached out to a representative for DeGeneres.

‘I went on Ellen and I just bombed. I mean, I just bombed,’ Womack said emphatically on the podcast. ‘Even the publicist at the time kinda gave me the puppy eyes, like, “Oh, that didn’t go so well.”‘

Former Bachelor star Brad Womack, 52, looked back on Ellen DeGeneres, 66, calling him a ‘jerk’ on her eponymous talk show after he opted not to hand out a final rose on The Bachelor season 11 in 2007; seen in 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada

Womack said he ‘bombed’ on DeGeneres’ show, though he said she later apologized to him when he returned to promote his second time as The Bachelor on season 15; pictured in January 2020 in LA

‘She called me a jerk the first season because I didn’t pick anybody,’ he said of season 11.

Womack had been left to choose between the finalists DeAnna Pappas and Jenni Croft, but he ultimately decided not to choose either woman.

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That marked the end of Croft’s involvement with the franchise, but Pappas was a continuing fixture. 

Afterward, she was chosen to lead the fourth season of The Bachelorette, and it was DeGeneres who revealed the news to her when she appeared on her popular daytime talk show.

After Womack picked Emily Maynard and then they subsequently broke up, she got a chance to star on season eight of The Bachelorette, in which she accepted Jef Holm’s proposal.

However, as with many of the show’s romances, things didn’t work out, and the two ended their engagement later that year.

She went on to marry Tyler Johnson, with whom she shares five children, as well as her 19-year-old daughter Ricki from her relationship with the late NASCAR driver Ricky Hendrick, who died in a plane crash at age 24, shortly before she learned that she was pregnant with their child.

Looking back on DeGeneres’ tough reception of him during his first appearance on her show, Womack said, ‘Thank god, she asked me back for a little bit of redemption. But it was the third time I was on Ellen to announce the second season.’ 

Womack had been left to choose between the finalists DeAnna Pappas and Jenni Croft, but he ultimately decided not to choose either woman. In season 15 he chose Emily Maynard (pictured), but they broke up shortly afterward

‘[Ellen] didn’t cut me any slack, of course, and the audience wasn’t having it. It was a bad appearance,’ he recalled. ‘But yeah, she did call me a jerk, but thank god she apologized’; pictured in January 2020 in LA

The hosts asked Womack why he thought DeGeneres had apologized to him, and he suggested that she ‘got the other side of the story.’ He added that he ‘didn’t want to sell out’

He described himself as a ‘ball of nerves’ before sitting down with DeGeneres, and it ended up being as ‘nerve-wracking’ as he feared.

‘She didn’t cut me any slack, of course, and the audience wasn’t having it. It was a bad appearance,’ he recalled. ‘But yeah, she did call me a jerk, but thank god she apologized.’

The hosts asked Womack why he thought DeGeneres had apologized to him, and he suggested that she ‘got the other side of the story.’

He said the fallout from his first Bachelor season made him ‘public enemy number one.’

‘That was not my intent, I wanted to stay true,’ he clarified. ‘I said this so many times, I really do believe in the premise of the show. I just didn’t want to sell out.’

‘I think [Ellen] took her initial reaction and was thinking, “Who does this guy think he is?”‘ he suggested. ‘And then I guess through, I don’t know, some other channel she got the true story, and she invited me on. 

‘I was able to tell my side of the story and so it went a little bit better. I got a little bit of redemption, but not much,’ he added.

Womack’s latest romance is with a woman named Gabriella Nolen, who runs a brand strategy and creative consulting firm.

However, aside from some Instagram posts featuring the two looking cozy together, he has kept their relationship largely out of the public eye.