'The Bachelorette' Season 14 Contestant Apologizes for Liking Memes
The 14th season of "The Bachelorette" just began earlier this week, but one of Becca Kufrin's suitors is already under fire for his activities in social media.
Garrett Yrigoyen, the medical sales rep who hailed from Nevada, reportedly liked posts on Instagram that made fun of undocumented immigrants, the trans community, as well as feminist ideologies.
After former "The Bachelor" contestant Ashley Spivey called out the franchise to reveal that Yrigoyen liked hate-inducing memes, the 29-year-old issued a statement on his Instagram to apologize for his past actions.
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"I am sorry to those who I offended, and I also take full responsibility for my 'like' on Instagram that were hurtful and offensive. garrett_yrigs12 was my former Instagram handle and I decided to take it down and start fresh because I have learned an extremely valuable lesson and am taking steps to grow, become more educated, and be a better version of myself. I am not perfect, and I will never be anywhere close, but now I will always be more informed and aware of what I am liking and supporting, not just on Instagram, but in life," the reality show contestant wrote in his post.
He also mentioned that he had no idea that liking something on the photo-sharing app could have an effect on other people's lives. He also said that liking something is not the real reflection of himself and his morals.
ABC's Senior Vice President of Alternative Series, Specials and Late-Night Programming Robert Mills also talked about his thoughts regarding the controversial Instagram activity of one of "The Bachelor" season 14 contestants in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
According to Mills, there are no rules that were set regarding the social media activity of the show's contestants. However, they were also conscious about it after the incident involving Lee Garrett in the previous season.
Mills mentioned that they cannot scrub the things that he liked on social media since he was not the one who posted them in the first place. But they are doing everything that they can to prevent controversies from happening.
He also mentioned that they are currently doing an investigation regarding the said social media activities.
The network executive also said that they already began their own investigation into the matter, but there are no concrete actions being implemented at the moment since they already filmed the episodes for the season. However, he believes that they will find a way to address the issue on the show as soon as they get all the facts needed.
Kufrin also shared her thoughts about the controversies surrounding the guy who earned her first impression rose.
"I want viewers to be open to everyone, and I want them to go through this season with me and watch my love story unfold with all these men ... because that's how I went into this journey," the 28-year-old reality star said. "I did things in the past that I'm sure wasn't the best thing, but I just want people to say open-minded to everyone," she added.
ABC airs the latest episodes of "The Bachelorette" season 14 every Monday at 8 p.m. EDT.
