September 24, 2019
Blake Horstmann Says He Received 'Lots of Death Threats' After 'Bachelor in Paradise'
Blake Horstmann, Rachel Lindsay and Ali Fedotowsky-Manno aren’t shying away from talking about one darker aspect of being a member of Bachelor Nation: the hate and negativity they face online.
In Part 2 of his “Bachelor Happy Hour” interview, Blake opened up about receiving death threats and other hate-filled direct messages. Much of it was likely related to his decision to release text messages from Caelynn Miller-Keyes, an action he addresses on the podcast.
Rachel initially brought up the point that being on a television show does not make anyone immune from feeling animosity sent by people online. She said, “What I need people to understand is the attacks aren’t ‘I don’t like what you said and I’m going to give you a low rating on your podcast. I don’t like what you said, Blake, and I’m going to unfollow you.’ The way people talk to us, it is ripping our character apart. It is questioning who we are as people. It is death threats. It’s talking about our family at times.”
Blake wholeheartedly agreed and told the two hosts that even his family started receiving DMs. “When your family gets involved, it changed everything for me,” he said. “Lots of death threats.”
Apparently, even Blake’s grandma started getting messages. His grandma!
Rachel responded, “Isn’t that sad? People forget we are real. We’re real people, this is our real life, and these are real stories. You may not agree with every single thing that you do, but just because we’ve put our lives for the public to see and we decided to be vulnerable and open, it doesn’t give you the excuse to rip us apart.”
She added, “It doesn’t give you the excuse to have a community online that has a whole identity to rip us apart and create hypotheticals and spoilers to talk about us. It blows my mind the time and effort people put into us ‘Bachelor’ contestants.”
Ali agreed and said, “We didn’t sign up for death threats.”
On Part 1 of Blake’s interview with Ali and Rachel, he opened up about the “deep hole” of sadness he went into after the show started airing. He said, “Right when I got back from the show, before it even started, I was already starting to go into that deep hole of where I just didn’t want to leave my apartment because there were so many people out there that I had disappointed.”
Be sure to subscribe to “Bachelor Happy Hour” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
