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‘I was getting death threats’: Former ‘Bachelorette’ Kaitlyn Bristowe on cyberbullying

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Former bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe shares experience with cyber bullying
ABOVE: Kaitlyn Bristowe, former bachelorette and reality TV star, opens up about her experience with cyber bullying. Bristowe will be speaking about her experience at the Pink Shirt Day Ladies Luncheon on February 19, in support of anti-bullying – Feb 18, 2016

Former Bachelorette contestant and Vancouver resident Kaitlyn Bristowe says when she was on the popular reality TV show she was cyberbullied so badly that she was getting death threats.

“When there’s a girl [as the Bachelorette] there’s a lot more criticism,” she said on the Global BC Morning News. “Even me just kissing all the guys I got criticism for, when every bachelor in history does the exact same thing.”
“[It was] really bad to the point I couldn’t even read it. I was getting death threats, which is insane.”
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Bristowe, who is now engaged to contestant Shawn Booth, is in town for the CKNW Orphan’s Fund Pink Shirt Day luncheon where she is the special guest and will be talking about online bullying.

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She said she still gets the occasional message on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram attacking her.

“It was just shocking to me because I don’t feel like I ever had a problem in my life with bullying and growing up I got along with everybody,” she said.

“Now at the age of 30, people are hating me for who I am and just being myself. And so it was just shocking to me, I felt like I almost became numb because my brain couldn’t access [the] understanding that people didn’t like me for being myself.”

She said sometimes she would call people out and respond to them for sending those messages to her.

“I think sometimes people think I’m a character on a TV show, that I’m not an actual human being, so as soon as I respond or call them out they will delete their comment or apologize, which I think is a step in the right direction,” she said.

“It didn’t affect me in a way where I was really down on myself. I was like ‘this is ridiculous’ and I’m 30 years old so I’m comfortable with who I am. I think of young kids going through that and how fragile they are and I wouldn’t have been able to deal with this if it was 10 years ago.”

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Pink Shirt Day takes place next Wednesday, Feb. 24.

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