'The Bachelor' Season 24: Cosmo magazine pulls Victoria F's cover after her 'White Lives Matter' scandal
On Monday night's episode of 'The Bachelor' Season 24, Peter Weber's women took part in a photo shoot for the March issue of Cosmopolitan magazine.
Victoria Fuller won the challenge, which meant the photoshoot of her and Peter was supposed to be the cover of their March issue. However, after tonight's episode, the editor of Cosmopolitan Jessica Pels recently put out a letter revealing that she will not be in the cover and explained why.
In a letter titled 'Why We're Not Publishing the Cosmo Bachelor Cover', Jessica explained how a controversy involving Victoria made them decide to remove her from the cover.
"If you’re watching 'The Bachelor' tonight, you just saw me and a few key members of the Cosmo team put the contestants through a challenge that, for us, is basically another day at the office: a fashion shoot in extreme conditions under lots of pressure to beat the clock and get the shots we need for the magazine."
"Of course, this time, there were eight TV cameras, dozens of producers, and a bunch of extremely eager single people in the mix. The stakes were high all around!" she started her letter.
Jessica went on to add that when she and her team flew to Costa Rica they weren't informed about the women and only met them when they were on set ready for the shoot.
"As you probably know, the details about the upcoming plot points on 'The Bachelor' are as closely guarded as nuclear codes. When my team and I flew down to Costa Rica for our challenge, we weren't told who our models were going to be," she detailed.
"We didn't even meet them until we were all on camera on-set, ready to start our shoot. So when it came time for me to choose the winner of the challenge — whose prize was a digital cover of Cosmo — all I knew about the contestants were their first names and the energy they conveyed through the camera lens."
She added, "It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I found out that the woman I'd chosen had, in her past, modeled in an ad campaign wearing White Lives Matter attire."
"It’s been reported that what she modeled for was actually a Marlin Lives Matter organization focused on preventing white and blue marlin from being overfished, which used 'white lives matter' and 'blue lives matter' messaging on its promotional shirts and hats."
"In my view, the nature of the organization is neither here nor there—both phrases and the belief systems they represent are rooted in racism and therefore problematic," Jessica shared.
Earlier in January, when 'The Bachelor' Season 24 had recently premiered, Victoria F faced a lot of backlash from fans after they found out she had advertised for an apparent marlin conservation group and used the branding and phrase of the White Lives Matter efforts.
Jessica continued, "Unequivocally, the White Lives Matter movement does not reflect the values of the Cosmo brand. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and any cause that fights to end injustices for people of color."
She concluded her post saying, "My team and I had many long discussions about how we wanted to address this issue. We’d already printed the fashion shoot in our March issue, complete with an inset of the cover, and of course, the episode had already been filmed."
"Ultimately what felt right was choosing not to publish the digital cover on our website or social feeds, and simply being honest with you, the audience we respect, about what happened and where we stand," she added.
Now that we know Victoria F's picture will not appear on the cover of Cosmopolitan's March issue, the magazine revealed that the March cover will feature Katy Keene actress Lucy Hale.
'The Bachelor' Season 24 airs every Monday night only on ABC. Check your local listings for more information.