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Bachelor Host: Scandal Was “Embarrassing for Us”

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Despite having hosted The Bachelor for eight years, Chris Harrison says the latest scandal — that a contestant of the upcoming season had an affair with a show producer — was one of the most "uncomfortable" he's ever seen.

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"It was embarrassing for us … incredibly unfortunate, [and] horrible decisions were made," he said on Valentine in the Morning on 104.3 MY FM Monday. "This is something that we took very seriously and it's something that we couldn't just sit by."

Harrison — who confirmed that the producer had been fired and the female finalist was kicked off the show — said that "they found time" to have "relations" while filming last fall.

"With things in the past, we've been like, 'Let's just let the Bachelor or Bachelorette find out for themselves.' We usually toe that line," Harrison said.

Related: Check out more breakdowns and scandals from last year

However, they decided not to let Bachelor Jake Pavelka stay in the dark.

"In fairness to Jake and for the other women, [we decided to] nip this in the bud and take care of it. And that's what we did," he said. "There's train wrecks in this show where I'm like, 'Oh, it's going to be great. Let's let them have it.' But … I felt bad for everybody, and it was an uncomfortable deal."

Although Harrison normally gets little direction from the control room in handling the show's wilder moments, he said The Bachelor producers were particularly careful.

"This was the rare time that before I had to go talk to the girl, Jake and then the women, I had lawyers, psychologists, producers, executives saying, 'Okay, these are the words you can say,'" he said. "It was intense. It was a wild night."

Related: See some of 2009's biggest star splits

So, did the unnamed producer get caught or come forward?

"It was a little bit of both — then he came forward," he said. "Eventually, stepped up to the plate, and we were like, 'Well, okay.' There was a barn storm. There was a fire!"

Harrison said he didn't know if the two were still together.

"Would that count on our tally as one of our couples?" he joked.

The two-hour season premiere of The Bachelor airs tonight on ABC.

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