Let’s be clear: Blake Colman should not be a contestant on Bachelor In Paradise. Just last year, he pleaded guilty to physical assault that left his victim “unconscious, paralysed and bleeding from the head”, then an ex (coincidentally, fellow Bachelor contestant Jen Hawke) accused him of peddling revenge porn.
But none of that very recent, damning history stopped a beaming Colman from swanning into the Bachelor In Paradise premiere wearing watermelon-printed pyjamas.
In response to the outrage his casting has sparked across Australia, Bachelor in Paradise production company Warner Brothers has issued a statement, Pedestrian reports.
“Background checks, including police checks, are done on all contestants in reality shows, and these checks are conducted by the relevant production company,” it states. “In Blake’s case, his police check was clear.”
Colman has addressed his assault charges to The West Australian, saying, “A lot happened to me after [The Bachelorette] and there are some things I can’t change and I made some mistakes.”
“I just sort of took that time away from social media and I didn’t actually leave the house really for two months. I was invited to all of these events and I couldn’t go because I was just thinking how… I can’t change the past but how I can make the future better.”
He then justifies his willingness to go on another reality dating show. “I spent the two months just thinking about how can I always create a positive influence on people and that’s one of the reasons for going into the show – I needed to be more careful of how I treated people on the show.”
In other words, it’s a PR exercise we are not buying into.
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