Tayshia, Tayshia, Tayshia!
It's a name that Bachelor Nation officially has on the tip of their tongues because 30-year-old phlebotomist (yep, it's a thing) Tayshia Adams has now replaced Clare Crawley as the season 16 star of The Bachelorette. Following months of anticipation and the many times that Chris Harrison called this season "explosive," Clare waved goodbye to her lineup of men and walked off engaged to Dale Moss during the Thursday, Nov. 5 episode.
As Clare and Dale rode off into the sunset, Chris broke the news to the remaining men that their journey would not be ending then and there. Tayshia then pulled up in a limo, where she was greeted by Chris.
Was Tayshia concerned about blindsiding Clare's former suitors? "I just know that this process moves very quickly, and you start to invest a lot of feelings really early on," she explained. "I don't know if that's the case for some of them, and if so, I am more than happy to have that conversation with them if they don't feel like this is the right time for them, or I'm not right for them."
Understandably so, the guys' walls were up as they braced for her entrance. The episode wrapped up with a "to be continued," and next week's teaser promised possible cases of cold feet from a few of the guys, plus more answers from Clare and Dale.
As for how the rest of the season will play out, that's to be determined. In early August, multiple sources told E! News that Tayshia would swoop in as Clare's replacement, prompting immediate rumors and theories about why Clare would leave and whether Tayshia would be introduced to an entirely new cast of suitors. So we definitely saw this coming.
In August, Tayshia was photographed filming in Palm Springs while wearing a teal bikini, and an early teaser for tonight's episode found her in orange swimwear. Should we expect Tayshia to host a scantily-clad competition for the guys, one similar to Clare's strip dodgeball tournament? If so, hopefully no one will whine about losing this time around.
Of course, Bachelor Nation fanatics already know Tayshia from Colton Underwood's 2019 season of The Bachelor. And she also appeared on Bachelor in Paradise, where she and John Paul Jones started dating before calling it quits in Oct. 2019. Since then, social media sleuths have been following her Instagram account closely for any signs of behind-the-scenes Bachelorette footage—and hints at whether or not she's found the one.
So what else is there to know about the franchise's new Bachelorette? Below, the full rundown.
Yep, Tayshia Adams is already familiar with the Bachelor Nation universe.
Tayshia first appeared on TV during season 23 of The Bachelor starring Colton Underwood. Yes, the two had an instant connection and even kissed early on in the season. However, he eventually decided to pursue Cassie Randolph after having already developed a bond with Tayshia and Hannah Godwin. Tayshia is remembered for comforting him, even though he broke up with her. (In September 2020, Cassie filed a restraining order against Colton).
Soon after, Tayshia continued her search for true love on Bachelor in Paradise, where she went googly-eyed for former Bachelorette contestant John Paul Jones. She memorably broke up with him on the show, but they began dating after their time on camera came to an end. And just like so many relationships born out of Bachelor Nation, they split up again after the Bachelor in Paradise reunion.
In October 2019, she took to Instagram to clarify why, exactly, it didn't work between them, noting they planned to remain friends.
"John and I had something incredibly special. We fell for each other in Paradise, and everything was a whirlwind after that. When the show ended, I truly went back to Maryland to see if what we had was something we could build on without cameras, a production crew, and without feeling any pressure: to simply figure things out on our own terms," she wrote. "But the reality was, we were living on opposite coasts, and working insane schedules that made it impossible to see each other and build a life with each other."
She's been married—and divorced.
During Colton's season of The Bachelor, Tayshia got candid about her previous relationship to Josh Bourelle. "This past year and a half has been kind of hard for me and it's actually because I was married and I got divorced," she said on the show, according to Parade. She also revealed Josh was her first boyfriend.
According to Us Weekly, the couple began dating when she was in college and became engaged after she graduated. He reportedly filed for divorce in October 2017 and the case was finalized one month later.
During an October 2020 episode of her Click Bait With Bachelor Nation podcast, Tayshia reflected on that marriage and shared that she and Josh tried therapy before officially parting ways. "My opinion is you try to work it out as much as you possibly can," she said. "When things were getting really bad, we were like, ‘Okay, we need to go see a counselor."
Tayshia added that in her opinion, marriage is "forever," which is why she tried so hard to keep hers intact. Eventually, she realized the relationship wasn't working, even with help from a third party. She said, "That's why I was so happy and content to go look for love when I went on The Bachelor, because I knew I did everything."
She's vocal about the Black Lives Matter movement.
Posing with a sign that read, "We're not trying to start a racial war we're ending one," Adams opened up about race in a June 2019 Instagram post.
"I have never been one to talk about my race because I have always been the minority. I never knew any different but also never wanted to bring attention to something that would make people see me differently/ not as an equal," she wrote. "My parents sacrificed so much in order for my siblings and I to be surrounded by people that encouraged me to embrace my uniqueness."
In a separate post, she wrote, "Black lives has ALWAYS mattered."
During a September appearance on The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons — Ever!, Tayshia shared that Rachel Lindsay, the first Black star of The Bachelorette, gave her a sense of optimism about the future.
"I'm from Orange County, California, so this is my world. And what I mean by that is I am very used to being the minority," she said, according to People. "And so seeing someone on TV have such a strong role and identify with me meant so much."
Tayshia also shared that she admired all that Rachel went through before she decided to pick and eventually marry Bryan Abasolo. "I feel like she was so true and authentic to herself, and at the end of the day, she got her person," she said. "She is happily married now, and she got her fairy tale ending, and that's what I wanted. So she gave us hope."
She's super family oriented.
Her parents are Rosario and Desmond Adams and she has three siblings: Desmond Jr., Brice and Dominique. She'll frequently share family photos on Instagram.
She was a phlebotomist.
A phle-what? Yes, we also had to Google that. According to her 2018 Bachelor intro video, she was a phlebotomist, which is basically someone who knows how to draw your blood. "I actually love to poke people's veins and draw their blood," she said, "so I'm probably looking at your veins when I first meet you." But uh, according to Vulture, she gave up that bloody life and worked at an interior design firm in 2019.
She hails from the West Coast.
As she confirmed in the video above, Tayshia is from Orange, Calif. A LinkedIn profile with her photo states she attended Concordia University Irvine and studied biology. And if that profile is accurate, she also worked at Abercrombie & Fitch at one point. Oh, and she was also a Girl Scout for 12 years, according to Marie Claire.
Tayshia had to learn to walk again after a terrifying accident.
As a college student, Tayshia was run over by a truck, an accident that led to a fractured pelvis. She shared details about the traumatic experience on Click Bait, telling Hannah Ann Sluss and Joe Amabile that the incident happened after she grabbed Skittles from a vending machine and walked up to a friend's car to say hello.
According to People, she said she suffered "tire tracks on my legs for two weeks" and that it "took me out of my running career." She continued, "I had to move my college dorm room. I had a walker in college. I didn't have a boyfriend my first year, I'll tell you that much."
Of course she watched Clare's debut as The Bachelorette.
Wouldn't you? During another October 2020 episode of her Click Bait podcast, Tayshia reacted to the season 16 premiere—but she remained pretty tight-lipped. Rather than offer her opinion on Clare or the men, she focused on the way ABC, production and the cast tackled the coronavirus pandemic.
"I thought it was so interesting how many people and how many times they referenced like, ‘This is the first time I hugged somebody in, like, six months, or, like, holding hands even,' you know what I mean?" she said. "That's just the way of the world lately, and I couldn't imagine having that much freedom because we've been having to put masks on every single day. So to be able to, like, walk around and date and kiss and hold and do all that stuff without a mask is kind of bizarre."
Also bizarre? Her talking about that experience as if it were a totally foreign concept. But we get it, we get it: She's gotta get people to watch her run on the show.
She—and her Instagram—are thriving.
As we mentioned earlier, fans have poured through all of her social media photos and captions for clues at whether or not she's walking out of The Bachelorette with an engagement ring. In September 2020, Bachelor Nation was abuzz after she returned from a social media hiatus with a selfie, making some fans believe that filming for season 16 came to a close.
After turning 30 in September, she let us know she's absolutely "flirty, And I'm fkn THRIVING!!!" And with over 865,000 followers, we'd certainly agree.
Now that she's officially the star of The Bachelorette, we'll keep an eye out for signs of a ring on that finger.