Chris Harrison is ready to speak.
“For my part, I felt sick to my stomach. I’ve lost 20 pounds. I have not slept. I have not eaten. I was scared to death, not for my job, but for my family – my fiancé, my children. I’m a bit empathetic and I’m very loyal to the point of failure and I’m a team player,” Harrison said on his new podcast, The Most Dramatic Podcast…Ever. “When that happened I had a stomach ache and was so disappointed that the interview went the way it did and it was on me to control what I had to say. And while the point I was trying to get across is I stand by, the way I did it was messy and disappointing, and that’s just not me.
The former host of ABC’s lucrative reality shows Bachelor and Bachelorette (and several of its related spin-offs) resigned from the franchise in early 2021 after defending contestant Rachael Kirkconnell, who died after attending a ” Old South Balls faced criticism in 2018. Harrison spoke with Rachel Lindsay, who was the show’s “Bachelorette” during the show’s 13th season, on the entertainment show Extra. Following the media reaction that followed (including comments from Lindsay on how she felt interacting), Harrison announced that he was stepping down from the show. And then, in June, it was announced that he had left the franchise entirely.
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And that was it. Until now. Harrison has a new podcast on the iHeartRadio network called “The Most Dramatic Podcast…Ever”. Apparently, it will be about romantic relationships and not his former reality show specifically (although the podcast’s title is a play on the often over-the-top marketing for the series).
“When it comes to relationships here, the most important part of it is communication,” Harrison began. “We haven’t spoken in a long time and I think it’s about time we finally talked. And I’m sorry it took so long.”
The story goes on
Harrison noted that this was the first time he’d spoken since leaving the show (he gave an interview to Michael Strahan on “Bachelor” network ABC after the “Extra” interview), but says it only added to the cacophony of the discussion would have contributed to his misstep and outcome. “If there was that much noise, my talking would have just been more noise,” Harrison said. “One point I tried to make and didn’t make eloquently was that people need time to think and time to process. We must have mercy and patience for people, otherwise you will only get nonsensical, reactive emotions. I wanted to step back and learn and change and go through everything I went through before I had this talk.”
He said the show’s producers and the wider “Bachelor” community thought the controversy would die down after he publicly apologized. “People didn’t think it would mean much. If I apologized, we could move on,” Harrison said. But his very public blunder came at an electrifying point in culture. “There was a lot of confusion, anger, resentment. It was a very explosive moment. My timing, being sloppy, wrong, inappropriate in this moment. I was just as frustrated and blind and pissed off as the rest of the world. But that doesn’t mean it was okay. The timing of this was very relevant. When I apologized I felt like I needed this and it was owed. And I was okay with that. But there was so much noise at the time that it just didn’t matter,” Harrison said. (For her part, Lindsay has said she never got an apology from Harrison.)
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Harrison wasn’t entirely self-reflective and zen. At one point, he referred to “people in Hollywood” who might be nervous about his return. “If you’re nervous, maybe you should be. Because you probably know I know,” Harrison growled. Um OK? He also hinted that there were “certain cast members” vying for his job as host of the Legacy franchise, but that others (including Ben Higgins and Catherine and Sean Lowe) stood by him and offered their support. Harrison also said he hasn’t seen the show since leaving.
Both the right and left claimed Harrison as one of their own in the moments after the riot, according to Harrison. “My name became synonymous with that political blitz-in-the-bottle moment and suddenly someone on CNN is talking about me in a left-leaning sense,” Harrison said. “And then Ben Shapiro and whoever else talks about me … so I was used by the right.” (If you follow Harrison on social media, you’d probably assume his politics were right-of-center.)
We’ll see how his podcast gets reception and if Harrison continues to talk about what he calls “ordeal.”
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