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DeMario Jackson Talks About What Caused The 'Bachelor In Paradise' Shutdown

Just when you thought we finally put the BiP scandal to rest after Tuesday’s episode, think again. You may recall how every single person in the sit down/race discussion/sex ed class taught by guidance counselor Chris Harrison was stanning hard for DeMario. You may also recall that any time Corinne was mentioned, the cast basically gave a collective “Ooohh….who’s this?!” and moved on. Multiple cast members expressed concern for DeMario’s reputation, which undoubtedly took a hit during that week-long period where everybody and their drugged-out stepmom just assumed he was a sexual predator. Yeah, not the best thing to have pop up when someone Googles you. Well, DeMario is now speaking for himself, echoing sentiments that many cast members expressed during the Chris Harrison Wokeness Hour aka last week’s episode. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, DeMario says that he believes the accusations against him were “fueled by racism” and a “rush to judgement.”

Fucking duh.

As we all know, footage leading up to the “alleged misconduct” aired on BiP last week, but we didn’t see any of the encounter itself, which reportedly took place in the hot tub later that night. According to DeMario, nothing happened in that unaired footage that could have been misconstrued as wrongdoing. “You’re on a multi-million-dollar set with 50 to 100 plus-cameras, 300 workers and an entire production,” Demario said. “I love how Alex was giving the play-by-play with what was going on with me and Corinne when we were in the pool, because it showed all the production, all the people and the cast mates watching.” 

DeMario:

Right, so like, that all makes sense, but I think I speak for all of Bach Nation when I say: What the fuck did happen tho? Something must have happened. It’s not like they would just shut down production for shits and gigs. There’s tooth whitening cream sponsorships money to be made.

Live Footage Of Me Describing My BiP Conspiracy Theories To Strangers On The Train:

According to DeMario, this whole thing comes down to a producer who he describes as “Corinne’s best friend,” (Sidebar: Corinne’s best friend is her producer on Paradise? That is kind of sad…) and that he “remains baffled” by the incident, which he says was “100% consensual.”

“I think people wanted it to be something different. They wanted the angry black guy and this little, innocent white girl. But it wasn’t,” DeMario told the Reporter.

So yeah, all of that is definitely true, but it’s still totally unclear what prompted Corinne’s best friend this producer to pull the plug on the ENTIRE production. Is the implication that Corinne’s best friend this woman was so horrified at the idea of interracial hot tubbing that she shut the whole thing down? Who would be that racist?!? In 2017?!? No way!?!

*Remembers Donald Trump is president*

Oh…Right…

And what about Corinne (DeMario: Who?)? It seems like there is a lot of shade being thrown her way for her “I am a victim comment,” despite the fact that she basically always said she didn’t blame DeMario, and that her “victim” status was more directed at the show and its producers. I guess the only thing worse in BiP’s mind than being the victim of potential of sexual misconduct is saying anything bad about the show or its staff ever. Good to know.

Basically, we still don’t know what happened, and whatever it was probably had more to do with shady behavior on the part of the production staff than Corinne and DeMario. While I am very happy that DeMario gets the opportunity to save his rep from what were definitely race-based attacks, shouldn’t Corinne get a chance to do the same? As far as I can tell, homegirl woke up from a blackout to her best friend producer being like, “YOU WERE ASSAULTED ON CAMERA AND THE SHOW IS OVER!” And was just kind of like, left to figure out what that means. I can barely handle waking up from a blackout and looking at my bar tab, so I can only imagine how something like this would feel. Also, I just like Corinne and want her to stay in my life. Sue me. 

Ultimately, this entire scandal was just wayyyy too morally ambiguous for Bachelor Nation to handle. This is a group of people who mostly come together every week to watch hot people pretend they’re in love after two dates, so it’s hard to be surprised at their poor handling of a situation that included sexism, racism, and consent all wrapped up in one big ball of awful. If nothing bad happened, why not just tell us what the fuck did happen, rather than trying to pass all this vague BS off as answers? Who are they protecting? The producers? Are we really supposed to believe these people are never manipulated into doing things just because Taylor’s annoying ass doesn’t drink?

At this point, we should all probably get comfortable with the idea that we’ll never really know what happened that night, but that Corinne and DeMario are probably not to blame.

Now let’s get back to trying to figure out whether or not Dean is turning into a fuckboy

Alise Morales
Alise Morales
Alise Morales is a comedy writer and performer. She is the writer of the Betches Sup Newsletter and co-host of the Betches Sup Podcast.