Exclusive Interview
‘The Bachelorette’ Alum Ali Fedotowsky Reveals Her Advice for Future Leads
In 2010, Ali Fedotowsky-Manno graced the small screen with her stint as the star of The Bachelorette. Now, after almost 15 years of reflection, she has some sound advice.
While she didn’t get her happy ending as a result of her season, Fedotowsky-Manno told Swooon that she “owes her life” to the franchise. Breaking off her engagement to the winner of her season, Roberto Martinez, in 2011, she tied the knot to Kevin Manno in 2017. The couple has two kids: Molly and Riley.
When thinking back on that time in her life, the 40-year-old had some concrete steps to follow when taking over the previous role. “My advice for anyone going in is to sneak in a phone,” she said while discussing her Orgain partnership. “Cut a little hole in the side of your suitcase. I mean, they probably check for this now, sneak it in there.”
However, her plan didn’t exactly work out like she expected. “The funny thing is I did that on my season. I snuck in a phone, but I didn’t realize that we were going to be international for almost the whole season, and I didn’t think to get an international plan.”
This resulted in her inability to use the phone she snuck in. If she had, things could’ve gone badly. “I was going to have a gazillion-dollar cell phone bill,” she quipped.
The influencer explained, “When you’re on the show, you don’t realize the Bachelor/Bachelorette doesn’t know where they’re going. We don’t find out where we’re going next until five minutes before we tell all the other cast. So when I would announce to the guys we’re going to Portugal, I would literally find out five minutes before that.” She jokingly added, “So, yeah, sneak a phone in.”
Another piece of advice she brought up was to “find out who you like the first night.”
She explained, “If I put you in a bar, for lack of a better place, with 30 people, you would immediately know who you’re like drawn to, right? So I say: Figure out who you’re drawn to right away, and then ignore them for a little bit.”
You might be wondering why to use that tactic, but the former Bachelorette had a solid reason. “Not that you want to play a game with them, or make them feel bad but because I was so focused on the guys I liked right away that I don’t think I gave a lot of the other guys a chance that I kind of wish I had. So I just say, you know who you like, and they’re going to be around for a while, so try to focus on some of the other ones.”
