Chris Harrison is busy promoting the upcoming summer schedule for The Bachelor, as the franchise is on a firm pause as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect production.
The Bachelorette was supposed to be filming right now with a premiere date this spring, but Clare Crawley has yet to meet her suitors.
But the drama has already begun for Clare’s season, partially thanks to Clare, who has scoped out her suitors.
It all blew up on social media after Clare tweeted about some of the guys on her season. Chris is dishing his thoughts about the man, who appeared to be the center of it all.
Chris Harrison says he doesn’t know anything about Matt James being out of the running
When Clare tweeted about guys using Cameo to get attention for being a constant on The Bachelorette, she asked them to respect her and respect the process.
She also said that she wanted guys who were in it for the right reasons.
Fans quickly guessed that she was talking about Matt James, as he uses Cameo to raise money for charity. He is also best friends with Tyler Cameron and has gotten attention on social media because of their quarantine activities.
But Harrison points out that Matt will still be on The Bachelorette as far as he knows.
“As far as I know, [he’ll still be a contestant]. I mean, I have not heard anything different,” Harrison told Entertainment Tonight. “I mean, I don’t know if he wants to do this after quarantine, who knows? But as far as I know, yes.”
Harrison also added that fans need to relax about the whole charity thing, adding that Clare didn’t mean anything bad about people working to raise money for charity.
“First of all, everyone relax about the whole charity thing. Clare’s not against charity, she’s not against Matt doing charity,” he explains. “That’s fantastic and Matt, good on you for doing something during this quarantine that’s positive.”
Then Chris defended Clare’s tweets.
“But with that said, she’s not specifically talking about Matt, she’s just saying she’s living under a certain set of guidelines and rules because she’s The Bachelorette. She’s kind of already in our family, and she’s been respecting that.”
The guys haven’t started filming anything yet and some of them can be replaced, so they aren’t under the same guidelines. They are free to live their life as they please at the moment, including doing Cameos and raising money for charity.
But Clare simply asked the guys to respect the rules she’s following and perhaps follow them too.
“She’s not mad at Matt, and it’s all good. And she’s not mad at anybody doing things for charity, first of all, don’t get mad at Clare,” Chris said.
Chris Harrison knows about Clare Crawley’s initial tweets
Harrison was aware of the tweets when Clare first shared them last weekend. At the time, Clare tweeted that the guys shouldn’t be using The Bachelorette platform to promote themselves and pointed out that some of the guys could be in it for the wrong reasons.
If you are doing interviews and creating Cameo accounts before you are even on my season… you are in it for the wrong reasons… #dontwasteyourtime
— Clare Crawley (@Clare_Crawley) April 25, 2020
Respect the opportunity you’ve been given. Respect the rules. Respect me. @BacheloretteABC ❤️
— Clare Crawley (@Clare_Crawley) April 25, 2020
She then asked the guys to please respect the opportunity and rules. She didn’t mention any names, and fans quickly assumed she was talking about Matt.
Clare later clarified her statement in a reply tweet, saying that she was talking about multiple guys.
You weren’t supposed to deduce babe, it was about MULTIPLE men and a general thought I was having while we sit here in a real life crisis where someone’s (everyone’s) time + sincerity hold so much weight and value. ??♀️?
— Clare Crawley (@Clare_Crawley) April 26, 2020
Matt hasn’t publicly revealed whether this whole thing has changed his mind about going on The Bachelorette. Her season is expected to start filming this summer with a premiere date in the fall.
The Bachelorette is currently on hiatus.