Chris Harrison is talking out, greater than two weeks after briefly stepping except for The Bachelor.
In a sneak peek of his interview on Good Morning America, the embattled tv host says “it was a mistake” to defend contestant Rachael Kirkconnell’s previous racist conduct.
“I made a mistake,” Harrison tells Michael Strahan. “I’m an imperfect man. I made a mistake and I personal that.”
Harrison and The Bachelor franchise have been embroiled in controversy amid Matt James’s historic season. Shortly after the Jan. four premiere, Kirkconnell — the presumed winner — was accused of previous racist actions, which she has apologized for — twice. Among the allegations have been photographs of the 24-year-old graphic designer from 2018 at an “Old South” plantation-themed school formal.
In an interview on Extra with Rachel Lindsay, the franchise’s first Black lead, Harrison requested for folks to provide Kirkconnell some “grace” whereas excusing historic racism.
“Is it look in 2018 or is it not look in 2021?” Harrison stated of the images.
“It’s not look ever as a result of she’s celebrating the Old South,” Lindsay defined. “If I went to that celebration, what would I symbolize at that celebration?”
“I do not disagree with you,” Harrison replied. “You’re 100 % proper — in 2021. That was not the case in 2018. Again, I’m not defending Rachael. I simply know, I do not know, 50 million folks did that in 2018… that was a sort of celebration that lots of people went to.”
Harrison, 49, apologized after the interview went viral, eliciting outrage from most of Bachelor Nation.
“While I don’t communicate for Rachael Kirkconnell, my intentions have been merely to ask for grace in providing her a possibility to talk on her personal behalf,” he wrote. “What I now understand I’ve accomplished is trigger hurt by wrongly talking in a fashion that perpetuates racism, and for that I’m so deeply sorry.”
Shortly after his mea culpa, Harrison introduced he would “be stepping apart for a time period” and won’t host the normal After the Final Rose particular. Emmanuel Acho, a former NFL participant and best-selling writer of Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, has been tapped as his alternative. But Harrison’s future longterm is up within the air.
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