Emily Maynard shares her 'Bachelorette' approach

The Associated Press, Monday, May 28, 2012, 9:34am (PDT)

NEW YORK (AP) -- Emily Maynard's love affair with Brad Womack on "The Bachelor" might have ended with a broken engagement, but she's taking a different approach to being "The Bachelorette."

She said in a recent interview that this time around she's making sure to get to know her suitors.

"(With Womack) I don't know if I asked all the right questions that I should have, so you'll see me really getting to know the guys a lot better," Maynard said.

This season, the 26-year-old is grilling the guys competing for her affection over whether they're prepared to become a father.

Maynard is a single mom to 6-year-old Ricki, whose father, late NASCAR driver Ricky Hendrick, died in a plane crash in 2004. Maynard can't reveal whether she finds true love or gets engaged at the end of the season, but she does say she's happy she decided to take part in the show again.

"I hope that people can see how genuine I am in truly wanting to find somebody. I would never put myself through all this again if I didn't really believe in it," she said.

It was also important for Maynard to make sure the guys on the show were really interested in her and not just caught up in the competition.

"Every date I feel like I kind of repeated myself a lot because I wanted to make sure the guys were, you know, hopefully falling in love with me as a person and not with Emily `The Bachelorette' and I really wanted them to get to know me as me," she recalled.

ABC was definitely smitten with the idea of Maynard as its "Bachelorette." The network moved production of the show from Los Angeles to Charlotte, N.C., so Maynard could be with her daughter. It also made the experience a little more real.

"It was great because I could go out on these dates and also still do everyday mom stuff. I still had laundry to do and floors that needing vacuuming," she said.

Fast-forward 20 years and Maynard says she would hypothetically approve of her daughter one day being "The Bachelorette."

"I hope it never gets to this point for her, but I would because I had a great experience," Maynard said. "I want my daughter to be fearless and to follow her heart and her faith and do whatever that leads her to do, whether I approve or not."

"The Bachelorette" airs Mondays on ABC at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

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Online:

http://abc.go.com/shows/the-bachelorette

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Alicia Rancilio covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow her online at http://www.twitter.com/aliciar.