Hypocrites! Comment sections all over the Internet blew up following Kaitlyn Bristowe's shocking Bachelorette sex confession, but you might not have known just how badly the dancer was treated until a segment of the annual Men Tell All special was dedicated to the difficult topic.
"I'm glad [to bring the horrifying comments to the public's attention]," host Chris Harrison told Us Weekly following the Men Tell All taping. "I’m hoping people will jump on board and say, 'Enough. Enough.'"
He continued, "I always love when people get on their moral high horse, whether it’s religion or whatever you’re holding up as your moral tentpole and then you threaten someone’s life, call them names. They don’t see the hypocrisy of it all."
As a father, the comments are particularly troublesome to Harrison. "I have kids myself so maybe I’m just more passionate about this than others, but this just made me so angry," he confessed. "I’ve been dealing with this for a while with Kaitlyn and we’ve been talking. It really started in earnest after the Nick thing, honestly."
It was important to Harrison, 43, to produce the cyberbullying segment to try to bring awareness to the issue on a large scale. "I’m glad we did it the way we did it. I know we’re doing an entertainment show and I know it can be silly at times, but at the end of the day we’ve always driven the social debate in this country about social issues, whether it was with rose ceremonies or The Bachelorette or Fantasy Suites," he said. "If people Tuesday morning after this airs get up and start talking about hate and cyberbullying and it makes a little ripple effect, great, so be it. At least we did some good."
Plus, it allowed Harrison to defend Bristowe, 30, whom he considers a friend. "She’s a friend of mine. I’ll say it. I love her to death," he said. "[Cyberbullying] was something we had to deal with for the first time on this show. But I really respected the fact that she owned it. Disagree with it all you want, debate it all you want, I’m not telling you you need to be happy about it. But as far as the hate, that’s not okay."
The Bachelorette finale airs Monday, July 27, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
