Every Monday night, fans are getting to know Marlena on Clayton Echard’s season of “The Bachelor.”

And while we’ve gotten to know parts of Marlena’s story on the show, there’s still so much more to her than what we’ve seen so far.

This week, she stopped by the “Talking It Out with Bachelor Nation” podcast, where she opened up more about her discussion with Clayton on race from last week’s group date.

Bachelor Nation fans saw Marlena get candid with Clayton about how she wasn’t sure if she wanted to dive into a discussion about race with him, but he was glad she did.

Marlena told co-hosts Mike Johnson and Bryan Abasolo, “That was a very tough conversation to have. Prior to going on this show, my biggest question was about me being Black and he’s white. For me, I hate when people say, ‘I don’t see color.’ It’s blatant, right in front of your face. I see color, but I’m able to see past that and see your personality, because that’s what matters to me, your heart. I want to see your heart and who you are.”

And when she was considering going on “The Bachelor,” some of the people in Marlena’s life warned her against discussing race, but Marlena wanted to be authentically herself.

She explained, “When I was thinking about going on ‘The Bachelor,’ other people would tell me not to mention race because you don’t want to make the viewers mad. But then I thought, why am I having to compromise who I am and what I would normally do in a relationship for a show, just because it’s a show? I’m not going to put on a façade or a fake appearance just because people might get mad.”

Marlena continued, “I told myself going into the show that I was just going to be Marlena regardless. I wasn’t going to be this person that I wasn’t, because if the world hates me, they’re gonna hate Marlena, not a fake person that I put on in order for everyone to love me, but they end up hating me.”

Marlena also spoke to Mike and Bryan about why it was so important to her to have conversations about race with Clayton.

She said, “I wanted to talk to him about my struggles being an African American woman. When I was working in corporate America, I was the only African American in that executive level. It was hard for me, and I just wanted to express to Clayton that something I struggle with is walking into a room and being as respected as someone that doesn’t look like me. I always feel like I have to enunciate, elaborate, and have to be more professional than the average person just because of the color of my skin.”

Marlena explained, “I date outside of my race. I don’t discriminate. I think my friends were more concerned because yeah, I date outside my race, but people don’t really see that. The entire world, 5 million viewers per episode, don’t typically watch you date whoever you date. That’s where they were coming from, but at the end of the day do you really go into interracial relationships and not talk about race? It would make no sense.”

She said that she wanted to make her relationship with Clayton as natural as it would be in the real world, despite being on “The Bachelor.”

To hear more of her conversation on the “Talking It Out with Bachelor Nation” podcast, check out the full episode below.