In a podcast interview with Reality Steve published on Wednesday, Bachelorette season two star Meredith Phillips says she was drugged and sexually assaulted by a masseuse while filming the hit ABC show.
According to the former Bachelor contestant, a producer allegedly hired a female masseuse to give her a massage, and that woman allegedly gave her a pill that she thought was Tylenol.
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The reality TV starlet explained:
“She was hired to give me a massage and she said, ‘I’m going to give you a pill.’ I just assumed it was an aspirin or something to loosen up my back or a Tylenol or something and it wasn’t that, that’s for sure. The last thing I remember is she got naked and she was in the tub with me rubbing my back and rubbing areas that probably she shouldn’t have. Then I was put in bed. I woke up naked. Don’t remember a lot. I wasn’t even drinking.”
Although she kept quiet in hopes of protecting the franchise, Meredith couldn’t stay mum any longer.
“Normally I wouldn’t really talk about this but I’m going to tell you because it’s bothered me for years.”
Phillips added:
“This is hard for me to talk about… I think I’ve put it somewhere else in my brain so when you bring this up, it’s definitely right there in the forefront as we’re speaking. I remember everything until a certain point and when the pill kicked in I literally couldn’t even move my body, so I have no idea what the pill was at all.”
The former TV personality said she tried to deal with the situation, but didn’t speak about it until later (though she didn’t specify when.)
“I felt violated so I didn’t know what to say or how to say it. I mean, how do you bring that up?”
She contends that most of the crew didn’t know a masseuse was hired to give her a treatment.
At the end of her 2004 season, she picked Ian McKee, though they called off their engagement the next year.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, ABC and franchise producers Warner Bros. Television did not comment on the allegations when reached.
[Image via Craig Sjodin/ABC.]