Chris Harrison’s girlfriend took a stand against him.
Lauren Zima, who has been dating “Bachelor” for two years, posted a statement for Instagram Story after Harrison left her show this week to “excuse” a competitor’s past racist behavior.
“What Chris said was wrong and disappointing,” Zima, a correspondent for Entertainment Tonight, wrote on Saturday. “Defending racism can never happen.”
“Responsibility comes first, learning and growing follow.”
On Saturday, 49-year-old Harrison announced that he will move away from the show he has hosted since its inception and will not be part of the “After the Rose” special at the end of this season’s “The Burlac.”
“Excusing historical racism, I defended it. I invoked the term “woke up the police”, which is unacceptable. I’m ashamed of how uninformed I was. I was wrong, “he said.
The commotion surrounded Harrison this week after he gave an interview asking fans to give current contestant Rachael Kirkconnell “a little grace, a little understanding” after it was revealed that he once attended a plantation-themed college party. in 2018 and would be “pleasantly” insensitive from a racial point of view. posts on social networks.
Harrison made the comments during an interview for “Extra” with Rachel Lindsay, who was the first black “Bachelorette” to turn into a hot back and forth about race.
Following the controversy, Lindsay, who still works for the Bachelor franchise, said she would cut ties with the show.
“I can’t stand it anymore,” Lindsay, who was outspoken about the show’s lack of diversity on her “Higher Education” podcast, said on Friday. “I am contractually bound in certain respects. But when it’s over, so am I. I can not do this anymore. ”
Kirkconnell, 24, apologized this week, saying: “At one point, I didn’t recognize how offensive and racist my actions were, but that doesn’t excuse them. My age or when it happened doesn’t excuse anything. They are not acceptable or good in any way. I was ignorant, but my ignorance was racist. “
But her fellow contestants came out with their own statement saying they “denounce any defense of racism.”
The current season of the long-running ABC show features Matt James, the first black “Bachelor.”