The Bachelorette’s Meredith Phillips is claiming a female masseuse drugged and sexually assaulted her during production of the ABC show in late 2003.
Phillips made the allegations for the first time in an episode of the Reality Steve podcast, which aired on Wednesday.
In the podcast episode, Phillips told host Steve Carbone that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by a woman brought in by a producer to give her a massage.
READ MORE: Morgan Freeman accused of sexual harassment, inappropriate behaviour by multiple women
“She was hired to give me a massage and she said, ‘I’m going to give you a pill,'” Phillips said. “I just assumed it was an aspirin or something to loosen up my back or a Tylenol or something, and it wasn’t that, that’s for sure.”
She continued, “The last thing I remember is she got naked and she was in the tub with me rubbing my back and rubbing areas that probably she shouldn’t have. Then I was put in bed. I woke up naked. Don’t remember much. I wasn’t even drinking.”
Phillips said that the incident occurred inside the “Bachelor Mansion,” where filming takes place.
“This is hard for me to talk about,” Philipps said, adding, “I think I’ve put it somewhere else in my brain so when you bring this up, it’s definitely right there in the forefront as we’re speaking.”
READ MORE: Gwyneth Paltrow says Brad Pitt threatened to ‘kill’ Harvey Weinstein over alleged assault
Phillips also claimed that another person, whom she did not identify, confided in her about a similar incident of being “roofied and in a hot tub and kind of accosted” during production.
She admitted that she considered leaving the show at the time but didn’t report the alleged assault out of fear of jeopardizing the show’s future. “I didn’t speak of it until later,” she explained, “because I felt weird about it and I felt violated, so I didn’t know what to say or how to say it. I mean, how do you bring that up? I have kind of held it in for a long time because in a weird way, I wanted to protect the franchise…”
“It is a huge deal. I have worked through it and thrown it in the back of my mind. I had no control. Zero,” Phillips said. “I think that was the hardest part for me, that I couldn’t even lift my arms to say no.”
ET Canada obtained a statement from ABC, the network behind The Bachelor and its spinoffs. “As we’re not the producing studio, we have no comment,” an ABC rep said.
READ MORE: Chad Johnson: ‘Bachelor In Paradise’ producers may have stopped production to ‘play it safe’
Phillips’ accusations come nearly a year after the Bachelor in Paradise scandal between contestants Corinne Olympios and DeMario Jackson.
Last June, production of Bachelor in Paradise was temporarily suspended after two show producers voiced their concerns after an encounter between Olympios and Jackson was caught on camera.
Warner Bros. initiated an investigation of the alleged misconduct – all the contestants were sent home.
Over a week later, Warner Bros. announced their investigation found no evidence of misconduct and production resumed.
Comments