Bachelor Nation Has 1 Question About Chris Harrison’s ‘Bachelor’ Hiatus
Big changes are happening in Bachelor Nation. After a week of controversy, Chris Harrison made a bold statement on Saturday, Feb. 13 about his future with the reality dating franchise. With the host stepping aside for an unspecified amount of time, these tweets about Chris Harrison exiting The Bachelor are all wondering just how long his break is going to last. Elite Daily reached out to an ABC rep for specifics about Harrison's break from the show, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
On Tuesday, Feb. 9, Harrison became a hot topic among The Bachelor fans after he defended current contestant Rachael Kirkconnell during an interview with former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay. Kirkconnell had been accused of racist transgressions since the beginning of Matt James' Bachelor season, culminating in photos of her attending an "Old South" plantation-themed fraternity dance in 2018 surfaced online. When Lindsay asked Harrison about the photos in their Extra interview, Harrison defended Kirkconnell, decrying the "woke police" for coming for her and insinuating that the photos only look bad in 2021, but would have been acceptable in 2018.
A couple days after the interview, Harrison posted an apology on Instagram, promising to do better in the future. It was unclear if anything else was going to come from the ordeal until Saturday, Feb. 13, when Harrison posted a longer statement announcing he would be "stepping aside for a period of time" as the host of The Bachelor.
"By excusing historical racism, I defended it," Harrison wrote. "I invoked the term 'woke police,' which is unacceptable. I am ashamed over how uninformed I was ... This historic season of The Bachelor should not be marred or overshadowed by my mistakes or diminished by my actions. To that end, I have consulted with Warner Bros. and ABC and will be stepping aside for a period of time and will not join for the After the Final Rose special."
While Harrison specified that he would not appear in Matt James' After the Final Rose special, he did not clarify how long this hiatus will last. Since his statement said he'd only be gone for "a period of time," it sounds like he plans to return as host at some point in the future. Due to the vagueness of the statement, a lot of fans were left confused as to how long Harrison will be away.
For the time being, Bachelor fans will just have to wait to see how long Harrison remains absent from the franchise. Since James' season was filmed in advance, he will obviously still appear from the remainder of the recorded episodes, but his break will start with the After the Final Rose special at the end of Season 25.
