During
Women Tell All episode, had it out with Lea Cayanan and
Sydney Gordon but after the altercation, she consoled the crying Lea with a hug and later hugged the two women in an attempt to make up. This came after the two feuded, with Lea claiming Maria told her to "shut the f**k up." Meanwhile, another contestant, Lauren, admitted she was the one who made that comment. Later on in the episode, Maria said she didn't want for Sydney and Lea to receive as much hate as they did. During her segment, she said she wanted to make up and got up to hug the two women. Viewers had mixed reactions to these moments, with some feeling like it may have been insincere, given the fight they had just had. They took to X, formerly known as
Twitter, to express their doubt over the moments. "Maria hugging Lea felt so fake," one wrote. "maria why r u hugging lea after just humiliating her...everything is so fake," another penned. "Maria girl why you hug her? Yall just dragged her for filth. Let her sit in her wrongness," a third wondered. While some wondered why Maria hugged Lea, others felt that the reason was because she has hopes of and wants to prove her character. "Maria hugging Lea is her ticket to the bachelorette lol," one wrote. "The only reason why Maria hugged Lea was her audition to be the next Bachelorette," another added. "Maria trying to snatch that Bachlorette title as hard as she can," a third said. "Maria is campaigning HARD for #TheBachelorette. I’m in love," another wrote. However, some viewers felt that Maria didn't have an ulterior motive and had decided to hug Lea out of the goodness of her heart. "Maria HUGGING Lea is the epitome of class," one wrote. "maria giving her a hug just shows you how much of a good girl she is fr," another penned. "maria HUGGING lea because she was crying. THIS is a girls girl," a third wrote. "Maria approaching Lea being kind once again proves who was in the right," another wrote, while another said, "Maria stands on business. But she doesn’t want to make ppl cry. I respect that." The drama between the two started when Madina had accused Maria of being a bully. Sydney made the same accusations. Eventually, the two were sent on a two-on-one date with him keeping Maria and sending Sydney home. When Maria returned home, Lea had hoped Madina would give Maria more pushback than she had.