Emily Maynard Regrets One Thing About Her Time on ‘The Bachelorette’

Emily Maynard Johnson may have found a fiancé on her season of The Bachelorette, but she does have one regret from her time on the dating show.

Maynard Johnson, now a mother of four, was still adjusting to life as a single mom when she made her appearance on the show in 2012, revealing to PEOPLE on Wednesday that she regrets having daughter Ricki, now 12, appear on the show.

“I wish that I would’ve kept [the show] totally separate [from Ricki],” she told the publication. “At the time, I thought, ‘This is it,’ and I never would’ve brought her into it had I not thought that.”

“So I wish that I maybe would’ve taken a step back,” added the 31-year-old reality TV personality. “Maybe sheltered her from that a little bit more.”

Since breaking up with Bachelorette winner Jef Holm soon after their engagement, Maynard Johnson has had her hands full with not just Ricki but her three children with her new husband Tyler Johnson: 2-year-old Jennings Tyler, 15-month-old Gibson Kyle and 6-week-old Gatlin Avery.

But the former ABC star says it’s still her daughter who makes her the most emotional.

“Ricki is the one that makes me laugh the most [and] she’s probably the one that makes me cry the most,” she said. “Because I had her when I was 19 and we’ve really grown up together.”

She added, “So to see her becoming a grown-up … I cried like a baby at her lower-school graduation. People thought somebody had died. I was sobbing, ugly crying — it was horrible.”

However, the mother of four’s oldest son is the one she thinks takes after her the most.

“Jennings, my 2-year-old, he wants all of his race cars to be clean … I have to get him a water bottle,” she explained. “He wants them clean, dried off, in a line, in the cabinet, no one can touch it.”

“And that is, sad to say, totally me,” she admits.

Photo credit: ABC