Maria Kanellis Reveals Only Regret From Donald Trump's 'Celebrity Apprentice'

More than a decade later, Maria Kanellis still has no regrets about the reason she was fired from "The Celebrity Apprentice." Kanellis, who now works for AEW after previous stints with WWE, ROH, and Impact Wrestling, was fired by host Donald Trump in Season 3 of the reality game show for talking about a fellow contestant using her team's bathroom. She opened up about the experience on NBC's "Ten Count" podcast this week.

"He called it locker room talk," Kanellis said, laughing at the ironic phrasing from the former U.S. president who would later use those words to downplay his own controversial "Access Hollywood" comments. "I was like, hm, interesting. That's an interesting phrase to use." Kanellis said she was later "pressured" into apologizing during the season finale.

"I think the only thing I regret about the experience is apologizing for the way that I talked, because I don't regret it at all," Kanellis told host Steve Fall. "I don't regret bringing something up that was supposed to be funny and it wasn't taken that way. But why, as a woman, am I not allowed to talk that way? The only thing I regret is apologizing for it after the fact. They wanted me to apologize on the finale and I was pressured to apologize and so I did, but ever since then I'm like, why? Why did I apologize? I didn't do anything wrong." The longtime WWE star said she was happy about the experience overall, raising more than $1 million for charity. "I won every single challenge that I was the head of," Kanellis said. "Every time I was a part of some project we were doing, it was successful. So, there was no reason for him to fire me other than I wasn't the most famous person on the show."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Ten Count" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.