The former 'Bachelorette' suitor says it was the 'right step' for the host to take time away from the franchise.
Amid host Chris Harrison's hiatus from The Bachelor, other members of Bachelor Nation are speaking out about how they'd feel about returning to the franchise.
Harrison recently announced that he'd be taking time off and would not be hosting the upcoming After the Final Rose special with Matt James and his final pick. The news came in Harrison's second apology for defending contestant Rachael Kirkconnell's racist actions in an interview with former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay on Feb. 9. Kirkconnell has also issued an apology.
Former Bachelorette finalist Ivan Hall said in an interview with E!'s Daily Pop on Tuesday that he thought it was the right move for Harrison to "take a step back for now."
However, the 28-year-old engineer admitted that the controversy has left him with mixed feelings about returning to the franchise, whether on Bachelor in Paradise or future seasons of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette.
"Going forward, I honestly don't know how this will all shake out," he noted, "but for myself for example, if they have future shows and if they were to ask me to be on like Bachelor in Paradise or something like that—and I'm sure a lot of other contestants feel this way as well—I wouldn't feel comfortable if Chris is there, to be quite frank."
"[I'm] not saying he can't make a recovery, can't learn from all of this," Hall added, "but, you know...it would just be too soon, really. I think he needs to take some time to really look into himself and really just have a lot of tough conversations and understand why he believes the things he believes at this point in his life."
Just after The Bachelor premiered in January -- starring James as the franchise's first Black male lead -- a TikTok user accused early frontrunner Kirkconnell of bullying her in the past for dating Black men. Then, another user accused Kirkconnell of liking racist photos. Pics have also surfaced of Kirkconnell at an Old South plantation-themed party while in college.
In a statement on Instagram on Feb. 11, Kirkconnell apologized, and said she hoped to "earn your forgiveness through my future actions."
That apology came one day after Harrison issued his own statement, apologizing for "wrongly speaking in a manner that perpetuates racism" by defending Kirkconnell's racist actions and asking people to offer her "grace."
Many fans continued to speak out against Harrison, while nearly all the contestants on James' season -- including Kirkconnell -- shared a post condemning "any defense of racism."
In a follow-up statement on Feb. 13, Harrison revealed he'd be stepping away for a "period of time."
"By excusing historical racism, I defended it. I invoked the term 'woke police,' which is unacceptable. I am ashamed over how uninformed I was. I was so wrong," he continued in part, before sending a message to the Black and BIPOC communities.
"The historic season of The Bachelor should not be marred or overshadowed by my mistakes or diminished by my actions. To that end, I have consulted with Warner Bros. and ABC and will be stepping aside for a period of time," Harrison wrote.
James, meanwhile, issued a statement on Instagram on Monday, calling the information that has surfaced "troubling."
"The reality is that I'm learning about these situations in real time, and it has been devastating and heartbreaking to put it bluntly," he wrote, in part. "Chris's failure to receive and understand the emotional labor that my friend Rachel Lindsay was taking on by graciously and patiently explaining the racist history of the Antebellum South, a painful history that every American should understand immediately, was troubling and painful to watch. As Black people and allies immediately knew and understood, it was a clear reflection of a much larger issue that The Bachelor franchise has fallen short on addressing adequately for years."
See more in the video below.
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