'The Bachelorette': Charity Lawson Announced as Season 20 Lead

Charity Lawson
ABC/Ricky Middlesworth

The child and family therapist is getting another shot at love!

Charity Lawson is about to embark on her own journey for love. After the 26-year-old child and family therapist's shocking elimination from Zach Shallcross' season of The Bachelor, she was announced as the next Bachelorette during Tuesday night's "Women Tell All" episode.

Host Jesse Palmer dropped the exciting announcement after filming for "Women Tell All" wrapped, surprising Charity in her dressing room under the guise of playing a game for the show's social channels.

The "this or that" game ended with Jesse asking Charity to pick between The Bachelorette or Bachelor in Paradise. When Charity answered with the former, Jesse replied, "Well, I'm glad you said that because, Charity, I want you to be our next Bachelorette."

"No. Stop. Is this for real? No way. No way. Is this for real right now? I'm gonna cry. Are you kidding? No way," Charity marveled. "I'm gonna cry. It's a yes! Absolutely! One hundred percent. Absolutely."

After the reality of the situation set in, Charity gushed about the opportunity to lead her own season of the franchise.

"I've waited forever to find the love of my life and it blows my mind that I could meet my person and be engaged and literally have my happily ever after," she said. "I'm feeling so many emotions. I'm so happy, so grateful, and I'm so ready to get engaged to the right person."

"I can't wait to show little girls that look like me that being in a position like this is possible," Charity added. "I know that I'll be making a lot of people proud."

Charity's new role follows her heartbreaking split from Zach, which came after the pair seemed to have a perfect hometown date.

"Our hometown date was so much fun. Her family is very welcoming, very sweet, very loving, and it was a hell of a day," Zach told ET of his visit to Georgia. "We went line dancing. I really went home with the biggest smile on my face."

Charity was equally smitten, telling Zach at the conclusion of their date that she was falling in love with him. While Zach seemed thrilled by Charity's reveal at the time, that changed before he went into the rose ceremony.

"When I woke up the morning of the rose ceremony, I looked at all of my time. The other three women also equally as great with all different, unique, loving families," he explained. "I had to make an actual impossible decision, because at this point, I wouldn't be meeting their families if I didn't see a future with them. There's nothing wrong here."

Zach admitted he was "sick to my stomach all day" leading up to the rose ceremony.

"I didn't know what I was going to do, what I was going to say, how can I actually do this? This is the most messed up thing in the world," he said. "It's the show I'm in, and I made a decision and just hoped I didn't eff up. I just followed what my heart and gut was saying of, 'Rely on your intuition, rely on this.'"

Both Charity and Zach cried as she was driven away, but the tech executive is confident he'll find love with one of the "unique and awesome" women he has remaining. That love won't come easy, though, as previews of what's to come revealed that Zach will make, and ultimately break, a no sex rule during Fantasy Suite week.

"It's an emotional season, but it's very overwhelming at times," Zach confessed, before Jesse provided a further tease of the weeks ahead.

"Everything's about to turn onto its head. We're going to be involved in a situation that I don't think we've ever had on the show before," Jesse told ET. "This is not what Zach had planned and he is going to have to dig deep to try to pull himself out of this. This is going to be more dramatic and more emotional by leaps and bounds versus anything that we've seen this year."

The Bachelor airs Mondays on ABC. Stay up to date on all the drama with ET's coverage of Zach Shallcross' journey for love.

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