Channel 10
Contestants of The Bachelor spinoff show Bachelor in Paradise were shocked when they were put on lockdown just days after landing in Mexico.
Producers filmed DeMario Jackson in a sexual encounter with an unnamed female contestant who had been heavily intoxicated and may not have given consent as a result.
A source tells PEOPLE “at least two other contestants saw the event unfold, others did not — and weren’t entirely sure what happened.”
Following the event, producers stopped filming the show and sent the contestants home.
One of the contestants spoke to the US magazine about the incident and chose to remain anonymous.
“We were told to stay in a certain part of the [resort] while they figured out what the hell had happened,” the contestant says. “We knew something bad had happened; there was a dark energy that came around the house. You have to understand that we weren’t even there a week. The game hadn’t even really begun yet.”
“They stopped taping anything, and we were just kind of there, waiting in limbo,” the contestant continues. “We couldn’t talk to each other about what we knew. On Thursday, one of the camera guys told me that they were probably going to shut down production. I didn’t realize that it was that serious until then. I was like, ‘wait, they’re thinking of cancelling the show?’ It hadn’t even crossed my mind that they’d do that.”
Below is a snap of the cast who fled home.
While the incident is yet ti be addressed, “We all feel used,” said the contestant. “We’re pissed off. People had planned their lives around this. Contestants quit their jobs for this. We all had to step away from our real lives for three weeks.”
“I don’t know everything that happened,” the contestant tells PEOPLE. “Obviously I didn’t suffer like other people are suffering, but still. It just sucks.”
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