Former Bachelorette Meredith Philips alleges she was sexually abused by a masseuse on the show
Former 'Bachelorette' Meredith Phillips has alleged that she was sexually abused by a masseuse while the show was in production in the year 2003.
The reality TV star was the season two Bachelorette in the year 2004. She made the allegations on Reality Steve's latest podcast.
During the podcast, Steve Carbone asked her, "What's the hardest thing you had to deal with being the Bachelorette?"
Meredith gives a long pause before sharing that she was roofied by a masseuse who was hired by a producer to come to her room and give her a massage.
"Well, besides being always really tired and some of the producers were, how do I say this, helpful but not helpful. In terms of trying to make me relax. Normally, I wouldn't really talk about this, but I'm going to tell you because it's bothered me for years," she said. "[I was roofied] by a masseuse that a producer hired, to come into my room and give me a massage," she continued.
"And she said, 'OK, I'm going to give you a pill.' And I'm like, 'OK.' I just assumed it was like an aspirin or something to loosen my back or Tylenol, or something. And it definitely wasn't that, that's for sure."
"She got naked and she was in the tub with me and rubbing my back and rubbing areas that probably she shouldn't have. And then I was put in bed. I woke up naked. I don't remember much. I wasn't even drinking so, yeah," she revealed.
Meredith shares that she remembered everything up to a certain point.
"When the pill kicked in, I literally couldn't even move my body, so I have no idea what the pill was at all. But all I know was, I was told, 'This will make you feel better.' I had no control, zero. I think that was the hardest part for me. That I couldn't even lift my arms to say no," she claimed.
Phillips also spoke of how she did not tell the producer or anyone about what had happened at the time because it felt "weird".
"I didn't speak of it until later, because I felt that it was really weird at the time and I felt violated. So, I didn't know what to say or how to say it. I mean, how do you bring that up?"
"That's just weird. And the other crew didn't know that this masseuse was coming in to give me a massage, you know? So most people didn't know," she shared.
Phillips also revealed to Carbone that she had held all of the allegations in for a long time and had chosen not to speak about it until now.
"I have kinda held it in for a long time because, in a weird way, I wanted to protect the franchise, which is f**ked up. Because of all the people that I got along with, the producers, for the most part. This one producer that -- I mean, I can't stand up to that. I'm just the talent at this point, so," she continued.
Phillips did not reveal the name of her perpetrator. Carbone noted that around "50 seconds to a minute" of the podcast had to be edited in order to remove people's names to protect their privacy.