Chrishell Stause says she was about to be announced as the 'Bachelorette' until Ellen DeGeneres advocated for DeAnna Pappas

• Chrishell Stause was slotted to become the season four Bachelorette, per her memoir.
• However, Ellen DeGeneres pushed for "Bachelor" finalist DeAnna Pappas to be the next Bachelorette.

Long before Chrishell Stause sold luxury homes on Netflix's "Selling Sunset," she was lined up to become the season four Bachelorette.

In the 40-year-old's memoir, "Under Construction: Because Living My Best Life Took a Little Work," published Tuesday, she writes that ABC had prepared to announce her as the season four lead.

The news was set to follow a dramatic 11th season of "The Bachelor," during which Brad Womack decided against giving a rose to either of his finalists, DeAnna Pappas and Jenni Croft.

"DeAnna Pappas went on 'Ellen' and talked about getting rejected by Brad, and Ellen declared that DeAnna should be the next 'Bachelorette,'" Stause writes in her book.

She continues, "Fans rallied around, the network listened, and my announcement was pulled. I never got the chance to hand out that fateful rose. I was in my mid-twenties at the time, and I was definitely bummed."

Pappas went on to star as the Bachelorette on the show's fourth season, which aired in 2008.

ABC executive Robert Mills discussed the network's decision to replace Stause with Pappas on a 2020 episode of "The Viall Files," a podcast hosted by season 21 Bachelor Nick Viall.

Mills recalled having lunch with Stause, who was at the time known for her role as Amanda Dillon on the soap opera "All My Children," to see if she was a fit for the reality show.

"We didn't know who it was going to be, so we were looking for people and our casting director said, 'Oh, you should meet with this girl Chrishell Stause, she's amazing.' And we had this incredible lunch, I think it was at the Beverly Hills Hotel and just, she was awesome," Mills said.

He added: "I was convinced, I'm like, this is the Bachelorette."

Plans changed, however, when the president of ABC received a call from Ellen DeGeneres, who had become an advocate for Pappas after the heartbroken "Bachelor" contestant visited her talk show.

"I remember Ellen DeGeneres actually calling the president of ABC at the time, saying, 'This woman needs to be the Bachelorette," Mills said.

He continued, "This was before we even said we were going to do a 'Bachelorette.' At that point, it was like, how do we not do that?"

Pappas visited "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" again after her season wrapped. Pressing her guest for spoilers, the host shouted: "I'm responsible for you being the Bachelorette! Tell me."

Pappas got engaged to Jesse Csincsak on the show, but several months later the couple called off their nuptials.

Years later, in 2011, Pappas married Stephen Stagliano, whose brother Michael Stagliano was a contestant on season five of "The Bachelorette."

Stause never crossed over into the popular franchise, but she did marry her "The Young and the Restless" co-star Justin Harley in 2017. Two years later, the "This Is Us" actor filed for divorce from Stause.

She's since dated a "Dancing With the Stars" professional dancer, Keo Motsepe, and her "Selling Sunset" co-star Jason Oppenheim.