Let's Get You Caught Up On The 'Bachelor In Paradise' 'Slut Shaming' Text Message Drama Between Blake & Caelynn!

During the summer offseason from The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, spin-off fave Bachelor in Paradise has made for a flirty, light reality TV show!

A bunch of hot people on the beach in bathing suits make out, some fall in love, some fall hard, occasionally there’s a success story, things get goofy, blah blah blah… all fun and games! But this year, just one week into the mess, there’s already a HUGE drama crossing over into real life — and we are TOTALLY here for it!

Let’s see if we can (briefly) give you the back story… something quick and dirty! No pun intended!!

All of this started before this week’s opening two-part BiP premiere. Several months ago, actually, when contestant Blake Horstmann (from Becca Kufrin‘s season) got together with fellow contestant Caelynn Miller-Keyes (Colton Underwood‘s season).

To hear the two of them tell it, they either dated (Caelynn’s version), or kept things super casual (Blake’s story), but regardless, they split things off before BiP cameras rolled in Mexico. When each of ’em (naturally) showed up for the first episode on the beach, drama was sure to follow… only probably not quite the type producers were expecting!

From day one, Blake tried to keep things low key; after all, he didn’t want the rest of the women on the show to know he’d been involved with one of them so soon before coming on BiP to supposedly look for love. But Caelynn had a bomb to drop: Blake was not only a total playboy, stringing her along with hints of a serious relationship before ghosting her, but he separately hooked up with her and Christina (also on BiP) within 24 hours of each other at Stagecoach Music Festival in SoCal this spring! YIKES!!! (As Onyeka said when she heard this news, “did he even shower in between them?”)

Caelynn’s story quickly made the rounds down on the beach, and she eventually confronted Blake face-to-face about his intentions, and how she felt he strung her along and eventually played her during their relationship. Almost immediately, he broke down into a blubbering mess, trying to argue that what they had was casual while openly crying on camera. An interesting reaction, for sure.

But while this is being plastered on TV screens across the country, the real drama played out on social media, where in an attempt to vindicate himself, Blake chose to post screenshots of Caelynn’s text messages from the fateful night at the music festival! Blake, dude, not cool!!!

He very quickly deleted them after fans started attacking his costar, and he later issued a sorry excuse for an apology (note: he never actually says “I’m sorry”) on his Instagram page in an attempt to calm things down online (below):

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Blake Horstmann (@balockaye.h) on Aug 6, 2019 at 6:09pm PDT

Yeah… not great!!! It doesn’t address what he did to heighten the situation on IG, nor does it really say much specifically about him and Caelynn. It’s the most generalized, bland non-apology we’ve read in a while!

For her part, Miller-Keyes was clearly ashamed to have her private texts leaked out for the world to see — which is pretty understandable!

She wrote her own comment on IG in the aftermath, as well (below):

View this post on Instagram

Here we go… I am not here to deny those text messages or the conversations that took place. Things got taken out of context on the show, and a large part of the story is missing. The reality of the situation is that Blake was not a one night stand at a music festival and the ‪5 am‬ text exchange that Blake chose to share is not an accurate representation of our past relationship. I take ownership for what I said on the beach. I was upset and I let my emotions control my words. However, I did not go on a show to ruin someone’s character. I attempted to address my feelings and the situation with Blake face to face. It’s unfortunate that I didn't get the same respect in return, and I am absolutely mortified our private texts were put out there for the world to see and judge by someone who I trusted and consider a friend nonetheless. It’s clear to me that Blake and I had different ideas of what our “relationship” was. We started talking months before Stagecoach. We FaceTimed everyday and talked about potentially skipping paradise to be together. When I say he ghosted me, it was after those few months of us talking. It was my understanding there was no one else and I thought we were on the same page. What infuriates me the most is that I’m being trolled for having sex because of what I’ve been through. I want to be very clear that I am not looking for sympathy. I took the necessary steps to move on and heal, but I will not be abstinent for the rest of my life because of it. This is a complicated situation considering it’s not only on TV, but has taken a life of its own on the internet. This could’ve been over after last night’s episode, but since it’s now all over Instagram, I felt like it was imperative to share my truth. We all have our own perception of how different situations unfold and there are many sides to this story. I hope that we can all move forward and support one another, rather than tear each other down. I have moved on and I am excited to continue to share the rest of my journey with you all.

A post shared by Caelynn Miller-Keyes (@caelynnmillerkeyes) on Aug 7, 2019 at 6:42pm PDT

Whew. OK.

All caught up? We told you that was going to be the quick-and-dirty version of the story! LOLz!!!

Now, as the drama has unfolded over this week, those around the Bachelor franchise are reacting in real-time — and some have been VERY critical of Blake’s behavior.

Most notably is Dean Unglert, who spoke about the whole brouhaha on the Almost Famous podcast alongside fellow Bachelor alum Ben Higgins on Wednesday. Dean — who, BTW, is rumored to be dating Caelynn, so he’s got a proverbial dog in the fight — didn’t hold back in calling out Horstmann for sharing those text messages (below):

“He took private text messages between him and another girl who did not consent to him releasing these text messages and blasted them publicly for his 600,000 followers. Then it got picked up by news outlets, which then gets blasted out to millions more. Publishing and publicizing private text messages without the consent of the other person, as a public figure, is one of the most disgraceful things I think he could possibly do. You never enter into a text conversation with anyone ever expecting them to screenshot and advertise them.”

Wow!! Talk about not holding back!!! And he was far from finished, too…

According to Unglert, Blake’s choice to share texts between him and “a girl who he was romantically involved with when she was drunk and horny is a very obvious form of slut-shaming.” Dean’s not wrong about that, is he?!

And the reality TV alum had even more to say about it (below):

“That’s really what’s frustrating. Now Caelynn’s parents and her sisters and her friends are going to have to see these messages. Again, it’s nonconsensual from her part. I’m sure that they talked, but Blake just did it. … There are a million ways that Blake could have gone about sharing his side of the story and the worst way of those million is by sharing those text messages. He’s used to be being the beloved one from Becca’s season. He comes into it thinking everything’s going to go his way again, it doesn’t go his way, and now he’s on ice skates going downhill backwards because he doesn’t know what to do.”

Wow!

Tough talk for Blake — and a big defense for the woman Dean is supposedly involved with now. But dating rumors aside, is Dean on to something here?? Sharing screenshots of text messages is a party foul, isn’t it?! Can we all at least agree on that??

So much to dig through… and we’re sure we haven’t heard the last of this drama, either! Tell us what you think about this WHOLE situation in the comments (below), Perezcious readers! We’d love to hear from you!

[Image via Instagram]