Opening up.

Bachelor Nation fans are getting to know Katherine on Zach Shallcross’ season of “The Bachelor.”

This week, she received the Group Date Rose for the very first date of the season, and now she’s stopping by the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast to talk about her journey.

Co-hosts Michelle Young and Becca Kufrin asked Katherine how she was cast on the show and what the process for her was like leading up to “The Bachelor.”

Katherine said, “I was one of the people that came in really last minute. Dating is hard these days and I was over the dating pool in Tampa, so I wanted to do something different. My friends have always recommended I go on ‘The Bachelor’ because they watch the show. So I wanted to try it out and I applied. They had nominated for previous seasons and then I applied, so I don’t know if the combination had anything to do with me getting on.”

She went on, saying, “They called me 10 days later and they told me they start filming in a month and wanted to get the ball rolling. From then on, it was one thing after another, and throughout the whole process I thought there was no way I could do this. I couldn’t give up my life and stop everything to go on. I just kept going through the process to see if I wanted to do it and they said yes two weeks before I flew out. I was on a plane within six weeks of the whole process starting, which is crazy because there’s a lot that goes into it. It ended up being a blessing, so I am happy I decided to do that.”

Michelle and Becca asked the Bachelor Nation star if she’d watched any of the other seasons to prepare.

Katherine said, “I watched a few seasons like Hannah Brown’s and Peter Weber’s, then I stopped for a while and I have watched a few episodes of ‘Paradise.’ I also checked out a few episodes of Gabby and Rachel’s but didn’t have the time to keep up with everything. I had an idea of kind of what I was getting into. I binged Clayton’s season when I started the application process. I wanted to watch the most recent season so I could get a better idea of what was going on. So I watched his from start to finish.”

Katherine shared the part of watching the Bachelor franchise shows that made her the most nervous for her time on “The Bachelor.”

“Every first night episode, I would watch and say I couldn’t do it. You can never prepare for those nerves or that moment. Every night one episode I would watch and say that’s too crazy,” she said.

But she is grateful she took the leap of faith because she and Zach had a connection right off the bat.

Katherine discussed her initial connection with Zach, saying, “I got out of the limo and it wasn’t real until I saw him standing there. I did my sunscreen thing and I also accidentally sprayed him in the eyes. They didn’t show that, though. When we sat down, it was nerve-wracking because I was still getting used to the cameras and stuff. I felt this initial comfortability with him. Overall I could tell he was just as nervous as I was and that made me feel comfortable too.”

Make sure to tune in to “The Bachelor” each week to see how Katherine and Zach’s love story unfolds.

And check out the full episode of “Bachelor Happy Hour” below!

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