Paradise lost. Jasmine Goode opened up about the Bachelor in Paradise filming scandal and how it affected the cast.
As previously reported, the ABC spinoff series halted filming in June after a producer filed an allegation of sexual misconduct on set involving cast members Corinne Olympios and DeMario Jackson. Warner Bros. immediately shut down production and launched an investigation. Filming resumed two weeks later after the investigation revealed no evidence to support the claims, but neither Olympios nor Jackson returned to finish filming the season.
“When we got back [home], I reached out to Corinne and I hadn’t heard anything from her and I just thought maybe that was her legal team telling her she couldn’t talk to me, I don’t know,” Goode, 30, told Us Weekly exclusively at the TV brand TCL’s Bachelor in Paradise viewing party in Hollywood on Monday, August 21. “But I was so hurt because me and her were close. We were really close and I was confused on why she’s not answering my phone calls.”
The professional dancer, who competed on Nick Viall’s season of The Bachelor, explained why she has publicly defended DeMario amid the scandal. “The reason why I was taking DeMario’s — not necessary taking DeMario’s side, but just wanting to speak out on what was being said about him was because those were lies, like that’s not OK,” she continued. “This person’s getting trashed. His character’s getting trashed. His character’s getting dragged through the mud and none of that stuff is true. So I just wanted people to know that this is not true. I don’t care, like that’s not OK. And I have a brother, and if it was my brother, I would hope somebody would stand up for him or speak out. So I just thought, ‘I have to do this right.’ And that’s not to take sides, it just wasn’t right.”
The former NFL cheerleader also revealed that cast members who entered the show after the production shutdown weren’t on the same page as everyone else. “A lot of people who came in didn’t really understand what was going on. I mean, we were the original cast and we got so close. W all bonded, we were a family,” she told Us. “We became like a family and people don’t realize, on the shutdown, we stayed in Mexico for a week. We just weren’t filming. There was just like the resort in Paradise, just no phones, no cameras. So the relationships were solid, but then we went home. We just really became like a family.”
The reality personality, who entertained a short-lived romance on the show with Bachelorette alum Matt Munson, also said that she wish she had more time to explore her BIP love interests. “Me and Matt just hit it off. It was so easy and that’s what I wanted, something that was comfortable where I didn’t feel pressure. And so I was going towards Matt the whole time,” she confessed. “When we came back from break he was getting a little distant I could tell. But I never was told anything directly about how he was really feeling, so I just took it as him being uncomfortable with the whole situation that had happened with DeMario and him being upset about other things. But never once did I question our relationship.”
Bachelor in Paradise airs on ABC Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
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