After portraying herself as a “victim,” the “Bachelor and Paradise” star, whose tryst with her co-star led the show to temporarily halt production to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct, has issued an apology.
In June, a producer for “Bachelor in Paradise” reportedly filed a claim against the show after witnessing contestant Corinne Olympios and DeMario Jackson being sexually active together on set. According to the complaint, Olympios had appeared to be drinking before the sexual incident. As the accusations became public, Olympios portrayed herself as a “victim.” In a statement to BuzzFeed, she said:
I am a victim and have spent the last week trying to make sense of what happened on June 4. Although I have little memory of that night, something bad obviously took place, which I understand is why production on the show has now been suspended and a producer on the show has filed a complaint against the production. As a woman, this is my worst nightmare and it has now become my reality. As I pursue the details and facts surrounding that night and the immediate days after, I have retained a group of professionals to ensure that what happened on June 4 comes to light and I can continue my life, including hiring an attorney to obtain justice and seeking therapy to begin dealing with the physical and emotional trauma stemming from that evening.
Warner Bros. subsequently found no evidence of sexual misconduct and continued filming the series.
Speaking to People magazine, now months later, Olympios blamed what happened that night on her mixing alcohol and medication.
“I drank a little too much when I was on medication,” she told People. “I shouldn’t have been drinking that much and mixing different alcohols.”
Olympios told people she had a “severe black-out” during her alleged sexual incident with Jackson.
“The only regret I have is letting myself drink too much — that’s it,” she said. “It was unfortunate. But you know what, I’m an adult and I have to move past it.”
Olympios also refused to blame Jackson for what happened that night.
“I strongly believe he had no bad intentions at all,” she said. “It was all good. It was unfortunate that no one really knew how intoxicated I actually was at the time — I believe that nobody knew that. It was nobody’s fault.”
Olympios explained to People what she allegedly meant by calling herself a “victim” at the time of the incident.
“At that point in time, I saw myself as a victim of having something this serious happen to you and have the media paint you a certain way that you know you aren’t and having all these people make their judgments and comments and they don’t even know what happened or went on," she said. “That’s what I’m a victim of. I never meant that I was a victim of DeMario. I strongly believe he had no bad intentions at all. It was all good. It was unfortunate that no one really knew how intoxicated I actually was at the time. I believe that nobody knew that. It was nobody’s fault. I was a victim of not really knowing what happened at the time. We were just really trying to get to bottom of everything.”
Speaking of DeMario on “Bachelor in Paradise” on Tuesday, Olympios gave him an apology and said she was “sorry” he had to go through the affair of dealing with sexual misconduct claims.
“I would want to tell him, ‘Listen, I respect you as a human,’” she said. “I have nothing against you. I’m so sorry you had to go through this. I know what it feels like. I’m sorry.”
In an interview with E! News at the time of the investigation, Jackson said his mother cried every day over the allegations.
On Wednesday, Olympios and Jackson were spotted together in Los Angeles.
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