EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW: Cheating, Stealing Claims Not True Says Best Friend Of Bachelor Villain Vienna
Feb. 10 2010, Published 1:30 p.m. ET
As season 14 of The Bachelor winds down, the drama continues to heat up among the contenders for the final rose!
Monday night’s episode began with hometown dates and ended with the shocking and teary-eyed departure of Ali, who was forced to choose between her job and finishing the competition.
Now, in an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com, other frontrunner Vienna Garardi’s best friend and Miss Florida 2009, Rachael Todd, is jumping to her defense over scandalous accusations that have landed the blond beauty in hot water.
When it comes to reports that Garardi cheated on her then Marine Corps husband, Josh Riley, while he was deployed to Iraq and cleaned out their bank account to pay for breast augmentation--- Todd says absolutely not true.
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“I don’t believe that any of it was portrayed correctly,” she said. “I do know that Vienna came home when her husband was in Iraq. She was working in a bank and living at home, so I find it hard to believe that she would have had time to be dishonest. She used her own money to pay for her self-enhancements. I know because she told me.”
Riley’s claims did “surprise” Todd. “I’m always surprised when human beings hurt other human beings,” she said. Still, she admits that learning of Vienna’s past was a bit of a “culture shock.”
“She’s had a lot of experiences and she’s so young. She’s only 23,” Todd told RadarOnline.com. “It was a culture shock to me. I was like, you ran away and got married and got divorced and you were engaged before that!’ But she learned from that. She goes for things when she feels it’s right.”
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On the bachelor, Vienna has become the resident villain among the other women, but Todd says the show is edited to make her look that way.
“Vienna is the most giving person. When you meet her, you meet 110% of her,” Todd said. “She can be intimidating and I think that’s awesome. She’s honest and sometimes that can be intimidating to other women.”
So would she want to see her friend end up with the final rose?
“I think if she did, he Bachelor Jake Pavelka would be lucky to have her,” Todd said.