Update 3/31/23 at 11 p.m. ET:
Fleiss spoke out within the wake of a Variety report that claimed his exit from the franchise got here on the heels of an investigation into alleged racial discrimination and his on-set conduct.
“Since its premiere 21 years ago, times have certainly changed, and I’d have to say we didn’t keep up with the pace of those changes,” Fleiss advised The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, March 31, two days after his announcement that he was leaving the sequence. “I am proud of the work we’ve done over the past five years to make the show substantially more diverse, but I do believe I could have done more. Hopefully, the franchise will continue to move in the right direction.”
Ultimately, the franchise creator advised THR, he believed he left his put up with “more good days than bad, lifted more spirits than hurt feelings” and with “more friends than foe.”
Original story continues under:
His closing rose! Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss introduced he’s leaving the franchise after greater than 20 years.
“First and foremost, congratulations are in order for Zach [Shallcross] and Kaity [Biggar],” Fleiss, 58, advised Variety in an announcement on Tuesday, March 28, referring to the season 27 lead, 26, and his fiancée, 27, after their engagement aired on the Monday, March 27, finale. “I wish them a long and happy life together.”
Fleiss, who launched the ABC sequence in 2002, went on to verify his departure as the pinnacle of the relationship present.
“I want to thank WBTV and ABC for 21 extraordinary years,” he continued. “They’ve found the perfect creative team for me to entrust The Bachelor franchise and keep this lightening in a bottle bold and moving forward. Let the journey continue.”
The California native, who created The Bachelorette in 2003 following the Bachelor’s success, beforehand stepped again as govt producer and showrunner of the female-led sequence in 2021. (Season 20 of the Bachelorette premieres later this summer time with lead Charity Lawson.)
Moving ahead, The Bachelor will probably be helmed by showrunners Claire Freeland, Jason Ehrlich and Bennett Graebner, in accordance with Variety.
Ahead of his departure, Fleiss made headlines in 2019 for his rocky marriage to Laura Kaeppeler. The Bachelor Winter Games producer raised eyebrows in July of that yr when Kaeppler, who was pregnant with the couple’s second youngster on the time, claimed her husband attacked her at their house in Hawaii and demanded that she get an abortion.
While Fleiss denied the allegations, the twosome known as it quits that very same month. Kaeppler ultimately dropped the assault claims she made in opposition to her partner, and their authorized separation was finalized in July 2019.
Four months later, the pair introduced that they made amends and had been again collectively. “Happy to report that @FleissLaura and I have reconciled. I love my wife and am grateful for this opportunity to work on our marriage,” Fleiss wrote through Twitter in November 2019. “Thanks for the support, #BachelorNation!”
Fleiss’ marital woes, nonetheless, weren’t his solely actions known as into query that yr. In October 2019, former Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe slammed the present’s creator for allegedly blocking her from having the ability to compete on Dancing With the Stars after her 2015 seek for love.
“I’ll tell you exactly why I can’t go on Dancing With the Stars. Anybody that listens to this podcast knows why I cannot go on Dancing With the Stars,” Bristowe, 37, stated throughout an look on the “Talkhouse” podcast. “I will say this with a mic in my hand and a smile on my face, that Mike Fleiss is a piece of s—t! He is the creator of The Bachelor, and he hates women.”
The “Off the Vine” podcast host claimed that Fleiss allowed “all the Bachelors” to compete on the dance sequence however didn’t encourage her to do the identical.
“I was bitter for a long time because dancing was, like, a passion of mine. Being told no, just because someone wants to say no to you,” Bristowe solely advised Us Weekly in October 2019. “If you have the option to crush somebody’s dreams or make it happen and you choose to crush their dreams just ‘cause you have, like, a bitterness towards them and I’m just like, ‘What kind of person are you?’”
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Fleiss, for his half, beforehand claimed that he had no situation with the Dew Edit designer occurring DWTS. “@kaitlynbristowe has my total support if she wants to appear on DWTS,” he wrote through Twitter in March 2017. Bristowe ultimately competed on season 29 of DWTS and gained the coveted mirrorball trophy in November 2020.
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