Who is Carly Waddell? Bachelor Nation alum says she was "not a fan" of Lady Gaga at NYU

Bachelor in Paradise star Carly Waddell recently appeared on Jason Tartick's Trading Secrets podcast on Monday, November 6, and stated that her classmate, Lady Gaga drove her "crazy." The 38-year-old attended the same college as Gaga, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and said that she would sing "Wicked at the top of her lungs" every single day.

When asked what she was like in class, Waddel replied:

"I was not a fan."

Carly Ann Waddell is famous for her stints in two Bachelor Nation shows, The Bachelor, and Bachelor in Paradise, the third season of which she won and ended up getting married to Evan Bass. The duo share two children together and announced their separation in 2020.

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Carly Waddell and her Bachelor Nation journey

Cruise ship singer, Carly Waddell, first rose to fame after appearing in The Bachelor season 19, which aired in 2015. The then-29-year-old Arlington, Texas native managed to capture the hearts of Bachelor fans but eventually ended up in fifth place, as Whitney Bischoff won the season and stole the heart of the bachelor, Chris Soules.

Carly, the sister of The Bachelorette season 9 contestant, Zak Waddell, then returned to Bachelor Nation for the second season of Bachelor in Paradise. She was given a rose by Kirk DeWindt in the final week, only for him to split up with her before the date had even begun.

Carly then appeared in the very next season of Bachelor in Paradise, which she ended up winning. She got engaged to Erectile Dysfunction specialist, Evan Bass and the couple tied the knot in 2017 in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico.

Carly and Evan then became parents to a daughter named Isabella, who was born in 2018, and a son named Charles, whom they welcomed into the world in 2019. However, the couple decided to call it quits in 2020.

Carly Waddell has since gone on to revive her singing career with the 2023 release of her EP My Kind of Woman. She is also popular for her track Your Friends Like Me More, which she released in May on her YouTube channel, where she has over 22,000 subscribers.

Apart from sharing her music, she also posts several vlogs online. She has an impressive 949K followers on Instagram.

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Carly Waddell reveals that her classmate Lady Gaga drove her "crazy"

Waddel made an appearance on Monday's episode of Jason Tartick's Trading Secrets podcast, where she revealed that she went to Tisch and was one of the 60 people who was let into the institute's musical theater training program. Another one of those 60 was Lady Gaga.

She went on to explain that her dislike for Stefani Germanotta at the time stemmed from her experiences with her during lunchtime in college when all the students used to eat in the studio, which had a piano.

"She (Gaga) would sit at the piano every single day and just play and sing Wicked at the top of her lungs every day. And we were all just trying to eat lunch. It was break time, and we were all forced to listen to her," she said.

She continued:

"And yes, was she good? Of course! She was great, but I just wanted to eat my sandwich. And so I used to just eat in the hallway because she was driving me crazy."

Carly Waddell remarked that back then, Gaga was not noticeably better than everybody. However, she said that she was "really good" and mentioned:

"She started doing her own music way before she was doing musical theater stuff, and when she played at the NYU talent show, she was singing her own stuff, and I was like, 'You can't argue, that girl is really good."

She added:

"She was good at everything, but she was better at her own stuff. She was down at the piano, wailing her own tunes."

Carly Waddell called Lady Gaga a "genius" and stated that she was not a fan of hers when she was in college. However, she said that she was not at her best at that time either. Both of them dropped out of the course as they "didn't love the program" and Waddell has not spoken to Gaga since their time together in college.