As more news of what exactly happened on the beaches of Sayulita, Mexico, while filming Bachelor franchise spinoff Bachelor in Paradise comes to light, an anonymous Paradise contestant gave People what is reportedly a firsthand account of how the cast heard about the alleged “misconduct†that occurred on set. Paradise was just days into filming when production was suspended indefinitely pending an investigation over allegations — reportedly made by a producer — of “misconduct†on set. Multiple outlets have reported that the alleged misconduct centers around a potentially nonconsensual encounter between two contestants, DeMario Jackson and Corinne Olympios. The contestant says that while at least two other contestants may have seen the incident when it occurred, many others weren’t aware that anything had happened until producers put them on “lockdown,†sequestering them in a specific part of the resort with producers shadowing them and forbidding them to talk to one another:
“They stopped taping anything, and we were just kind of there, waiting in limbo,†the contestant continues. “We couldn’t talk to each other about what we knew. On Thursday, one of the camera guys told me that they were probably going to shut down production. I didn’t realize that it was that serious until then. I was like, ‘wait, they’re thinking of canceling the show?’ It hadn’t even crossed my mind that they’d do that.â€
While ABC hasn’t yet spoken about the future of the show, which is so far still set to premiere on August 8, the contestant said that crew members were acting as if it were game over, at least for this season of Paradise: “[The producer] was like, ‘I don’t think that’s realistic’ [to resume filming]. She said that there was an investigation going on, and that could take days, weeks or even months. And by that time, we all have lives and jobs and things to go back to, so it just wasn’t going to work out. They told us that we’d be considered for future seasons and opportunities in the franchise, but that this adventure was probably over.â€