LOS ANGELES — Bachelor host Chris Harrison is firing back after ousted contestant Rozlyn Papa accused him of cheating on his wife during Monday night's "Women Tell All" episode.
The fiery accusation came about after Harrison spent two segments drilling the 29-year-old model/make-up artist, who was famously booted off the show for allegedly having an "inappropriate relationship" with one of the show's producers. Papa repeatedly denied that she did anything wrong despite several fellow contestants claiming otherwise, even swearing on her child's life at one point. She then took a shot at Harrison when he brought up how the fired producer was a "dear friend to many" on the show.
"That's news to him, especially when you were hitting on his wife in New Zealand," claimed Papa. "He thought that was crazy."
"I won't dignify that with a response," responded Harrison.
In his weekly blog for Entertainment Weekly, Harrison explained his reasoning for not engaging in a war of words.
"The reason I didn't respond immediately is that's exactly what she would have wanted from me," he explained. "It was a desperate attempt by a very desperate woman to create a diversion and deflect the spotlight from herself as she had done several times throughout the interview when she felt backed into a corner by the overwhelming truth."
"I was extremely disappointed that Rozlyn would stoop to that level and bring my family and me into this already sad and unfortunate situation," he continued. "Beyond the fact that it's just flat out not true, that comment was well beyond the line of decency and speaks volumes to the kind of person Rozlyn is. My wife, who I've been with since I was 18 and have been married to for over 16 years, was in the audience that night and got as big a laugh out of Rozlyn's comment as I did."
Harrison went on to say that Papa's behavior on the special "put everything in an alarming new light."
"She's used her son as a human shield several times before in attempts to distract from the real reason she was asked to leave our show," wrote Harrison, who said "the entire audience gasped" when she swore on her child's life. "If you're a parent as I am, you know exactly what I'm talking about. That's when I knew the interview was essentially over."
As for next week's finale when Bachelor hunk Jake Pavelka chooses between finalists Tenley Molzahn and Vienna Girardi, Harrison said viewers won't be disappointed.
"I will tell you now that Jake is extremely happy and very much in love," he said.
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