To say Hannah Brown’s season of The Bachelorette has been eventful would be an understatement. Besides the rumors that several of her suitors had girlfriends before joining the show—including current front-runner Jed—Brown’s been slut-shamed not once, but twice by Luke Parker. No one knows what the future holds for Hannah—not even Bachelor maestro Chris Harrison, who tells Glamour magazine, “the rollercoaster ride isn’t over.”
We caught up with the long-running host during the taping of the “Men Tell All” episode, which aired tonight (July 22). Here’s what he had to say about what’s to come.
Glamour: Kaitlyn Bristowe dealt with a lot of shaming on her season, but have we reached new heights on Hannah’s?
Chris Harrison: Look, I don’t think it’s out of control or any different for us than it is for anybody else. It was interesting combining religion, shaming, how everyone is so quick to jump on their soapbox—especially the proverbial soapbox behind your phone or computer, where you’re sitting there on Twitter or Instagram and anonymously just rip someone’s life apart. I’ve always thought that’s chicken shit. It’s cowardly. It’s horrible. If I could give my children a gift in life, it would be to eradicate social media from the face of the earth. I would get rid of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. I would get rid of all of it. I think it’s terrible. I think it’s done a lot more harm than it’s done good in this world. I feel bad that my kids have to grow up with that bullshit. But it’s not going to change.
With that said, I’m wise enough to know there are some good things that have come from it, but I don’t think it’s any different [for the show]. I think we’re just a mirror image of what’s happening in the world. I’m sorry Hannah had to go through it, and I’m sorry Luke probably has to go through it. He’s probably being unnecessarily really bashed more than he has to be. Jed’s going through it right now with all the rumors and innuendos. He’s getting crushed right now. It’s just so easy for everybody in the court of public opinion to run to either that victim hill or accusatory hill and point a finger. It’s just so easy in this day and age. It’s so much harder to have a debate, look someone in the eye, and have a gosh-darn debate.
You brought up Jed—rumors of a girlfriend aside, he said earlier in the season that he originally wanted to go on the show to establish a platform for his career. And then of course we saw the hometown date where his family wasn’t so endorsing of him getting engaged. We hear all about Luke P., but should we be a little bit more worried about Jed right now from what we’ve seen this season?
C.H.: There are enough red flags surrounding Jed to have a parade. Yeah, of course [we should be concerned]. There are a million red flags, and he raised 20 of them himself at the beginning of the show, like you said. He’s the one that said, “I came here for some other reason”…country music, whatever. I don’t know if I’ve seen the guy without a guitar in his hand. So buyer beware with that, and the family said as much too. I mean, when the sister literally looks Hannah in the eye and says, “I don’t think this is a good idea”—if that’s not a red flag, I don’t know what is. So, yeah, those are things Hannah better pay heed to.
