Being part of a hit reality competition and coming out the winner hasn't done much to change Jessica "
Jes" Rickleff, the woman Poison frontman Bret Michaels ultimately chose at the end of VH1's
Rock of Love. In her post-win interview with the network, Jes said that after 11 weeks of competing with a highly diverse group of women and wooing a rock star, she is essentially the same person.
“My personal life hasn't changed a whole lot. I'm still me,” Jes told VH1. “I just have a ton of strangers coming up to me thinking that they know me. I know someone called me a snot because he approached me while I was eating. I asked if he could wait till I was done and he said, ‘That's pretty snotty of you.' I said, ‘No offense, but I'm still a real person. If I want to eat my food in peace, that's what I'm going to do.' It's weird.”
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I am so happy that Jes won. You have brains and looks other than some people that were in the competition ...
Staying true to herself is important to Jes, which is why on
Rock of Love, she made it a point not to present herself salaciously, unlike some of other women on the show.
“I stuck to my morals from day one. I refused to portray myself in that manner. I'm not going to sit there and show affection to a man who's showing affection to 20 other women,” she told VH1. “I wouldn't do that in front of chicks to make them jealous. I don't play that game in my life and I refuse to play that game on TV.”
That said, Jes did make a number of friends from the show, despite the difficulty she experiences with interacting well with other women.
“I think sometimes that I'm too blunt and people can't stand it. On the show, that was my biggest fear: I don't get along with chicks and I have to live with 20 of them,” Jes said. “Today, I'm friends with every single girl from Chicago… It's surprising to me that when it's all said and done, I've made a lot of girlfriends that I'm still friends with. I'm grateful for that. I think becoming friends with girls made me more sensitive instead of the wannabe badass that I think I am.”
Funnily enough, Jes claims that, aside from
Brandi M., she also has a good relationship with
Heather, the runner-up of
Rock of Love.
“Heather and I are friends. We just got booked a gig together in October, and I'm really excited for her because I think she's an awesome chick,” she said.
Of course, with friends comes enemies, and, not surprisingly, one of the women Jes had a hard time dealing with was
Lacey. The riff between the two began when Lacey, having been brushed off by Jes, grabbed Jes and pushed her into the pool. This, understandably, infuriated Jes, although she has now taken responsibility for her snobbish treatment of Lacey.
“It all goes back to the fact that I don't associate with people like that, meaning people who take their clothes off for guys. When she was sitting there talking to me and trying to be nice to me, I could already see through her,” Jes said. “I'm going to be me. I'm not going to give you the time of day and I'm not going to fake and be nice to you for the sake of being nice. I'm sure it came off snotty, but that was me being me.”
Catch the
Rock of Love reunion special on Sunday, October 7.
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: VH1
(Image Courtesy of VH1)