Exclusive

Bachelorette Alum Ivan Hall "Wouldn't Feel Comfortable" Doing BIP With Chris Harrison

By Allison Crist Feb 23, 2021 6:29 PMTags

Another member of Bachelor Nation is speaking out against Chris Harrison.

Ivan Hall, who competed for Tayshia Adams' heart on season 16 of The Bachelorette, discussed the controversy—namely, Chris' questionable defense of The Bachelor contestant Rachael Kirkconnell's self-described "offensive and racist" actions—on Tuesday, Feb. 23's Daily Pop, explaining that he's glad the ABC host is "stepping aside for a period of time," as Chris put it in a recent announcement

"I definitely think that was the right step for Chris to take a step back for now," Ivan told Daily Pop guest host Kym Whitley and E! News' Justin Sylvester and Carissa Culiner during the exclusive chat. "And even going forward, I honestly don't know how this will all shake out, but for myself for example, if they have future shows and if they were to ask me to be on like Bachelor in Paradise or something like that—and I'm sure a lot of other contestants feel this way as well—I wouldn't feel comfortable if Chris is there, to be quite frank."

The 28-year-old engineer from Texas continued, "[I'm] not saying he can't make a recovery, can't learn from all of this, but, you know...it would just be too soon, really."

photos
Bachelor Nation Reacts to Chris Harrison Controversy

"I think he needs to take some time really look into himself and really just have a lot of tough conversations and understand why he believes the things he believes at this point in his life," Ivan added.

ABC/Craig Sjodin

Chris first announced he'd be stepping away from The Bachelor on Saturday, Feb. 13, when he took to Instagram to apologize and address the backlash he'd received after defending Rachael—the contestant on Matt James' season whose controversial past choices surfaced while she was on the show—in an interview with former Bachelorette and current Extra correspondent Rachel Lindsay

More specifically, Chris informed Bachelor Nation that he would not be joining The Bachelor's "After the Final Rose" special. It's unclear how long his exit will last, though.

For Ivan, it's disheartening that scandals of this sort have dominated what was supposed to be a groundbreaking season of The Bachelor.

"It's just a very unfortunate situation that out of the 35 whatever women he had there, it happens to be the one person who has kind of that racist history past, and this is the first Black Bachelor ever," Ivan explained. "It's just—you can't really make this stuff up."

photos
The Bachelor 2021: Meet the Women of Matt James' Season

Later on Daily Pop, Ivan opened up about his own experiences with the franchise.

"For myself going into it, I know, like, I mean, the show kind of shows like what white privilege is in America," he began. "For example, I made it to the final three in my season, but I definitely have the least amount of Instagram followers out of a lot of the guys on my show just because of the color of my skin, when, on paper, comparatively speaking, I stack up pretty well."

Regardless, Ivan said his time on The Bachelorette "was great."

"The producers took care of me," he explained. "They showed my BLM talk. They showed my brother who is a felon with teardrops. And they made my family and my story look amazing for America. So I'm very appreciative of all that."

read
What It's Really Like to Speak Out as a Black Person in Bachelor Nation

Ivan continued, "But I must say I can't ignore what people who have gone on the show in the past have experienced and what the girls of Matt's season are experiencing now where they feel like they are being wronged and aren't getting a fair amount of screen time compared to their white counterparts."

Hear more from Ivan—including his thoughts on ABC's vetting process—in the above Daily Pop interview.

Get the latest bachelor headlines & top stories. Sign up for Bachelor Beat!