The Bachelor star Matt James is breaking his silence about his appearance in a controversial video from this weekend.
In the video, Matt is golfing with some of his friends, including Tyler Cameron.
He is about to put the golf ball in the final hole, when one of his friends tries to distract him by making comments about Victoria Larson.
His friend asks him about Victoria’s body, openly shaming her for the way she looks and points out that Matt was the one who made out with her.
At the time, all the guys kept laughing at the comments.
Matt James issues an apology for his friend’s comments
As it turns out, Matt decided to address the issue on The Real.
He didn’t say anything in the video, but Matt has received backlash for not addressing the issue immediately. Matt knew that the camera was recording because he had just looked into the camera moments before the comments were made.
But Matt revealed to The Real that he would not say such things.
“That is never something I condone or stand for,” Matt revealed. “It’s just a constant reminder that you need to be smart about the people you surround yourself with.”
“And those moments when you’re in sports and people are trying to say things to you to throw things off your game, it’s sad that someone would think saying something like that about a woman that I was dating would deter me from what I was trying to do.”
Matt didn’t share whether he would stop hanging out with his friend, who is called Jerry, but revealed that he did have a conversation with him after the fact.
“I said something to him off-camera about it. Something along the lines of, ‘Victoria wouldn’t have given him a second look,'” he shared, “That’s not my character and that’s not what I’m about. I apologize on his behalf. I don’t know if you’ll get it from him, but that’s not something I support or stand for.”
You can see the interview here.
Matt James didn’t react in the moment
While Matt is apologizing now for his friend’s behavior and comments, it’s clear that Bachelor Nation is not happy with the way things went down.
Matt had plenty of chances to say something in the comment. Instead, the group laughed and he simply asked for someone to remove the flag from the hole.
You can see the original clip here.
After the clip made headlines, Victoria broke her silence. She revealed that she loved her body and she didn’t really care what Matt’s friend thought about her.
Matt’s friend didn’t appear to want to take responsibility for his words and actions after the fact.
He has supposedly issued a statement, where he did not apologize for his actions.
The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.