Part of the fun of watching any Bachelor Nation series is watching as the contestants hop on Twitter to respond to all the drama in real time. Tyler Cameron spent most of the last Bachelorette season defending Hannah Brown from Luke Parker; Demi Burnett has been roasting and toasting her Bachelor in Paradise compadres on Twitter since the first minute of the premiere; and now, Blake Horstmann has responded to his Bachelor In Paradise drama on Instagram.
While much of his statement includes apologetic language, Blake also said he planned to share text messages from Caelynn Miller-Keyes on his Instagram stories, as a matter of clearing his name after Tuesday night's Part 2 of the Bachelor in Paradise premiere. UPDATE: Blake has since deleted the text messages, stating that he did not intend for anyone to attack Caelynn.
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UPDATE 2: Caelynn responded with an Instagram of a rose emoji and the following lengthy caption on August 7. In it, she confirms that the texts are real but claims there are other communications they do not account for.
Original story:
Caelynn, for her part, is the person who started up most of the Blake-centric drama on BIP. She told multiple members of the cast that she and Blake had a relationship while Blake was talking to other Bachelor nation women, that he told her she was a mistake, that he asked her to lie about their hookups, and that they had once talked about skipping Paradise to be together. When Caelynn confronted Blake on the second episode of BIP season 6, Blake seemed to be shocked, but his reaction amounted to, "If she says I said it, I guess I said it." This is especially in reference to the mistake comment.
After Blake apologized to Caelynn, he spent the rest of the episode attempting to do damage control with the other contestants. Namely Tayshia Adams and Hannah Godwin, in whom he began showing interest when Tayshia made it clear she was no longer hoping to date him. It was a lot.
Out in the real world, here's what Blake had to say, about midway through Tuesday's night's episode (and a good 20 minutes before Bachelor Nation saw him switch directions towards Hannah G. onscreen). He posted the following as Notes app screenshots on his Instagram feed:
"With all of that said, I want to get the truth out. I was not able to defend myself down in Paradise, because me and most of the beach had no idea the things Caelynn was saying in her interviews. I NEVER “sweet talked” her at Stagecoach. Caelynn and I were NEVER in a relationship. I NEVER ghosted Caelynn, I NEVER called her a mistake and I absolutely NEVER EVER EVER silenced Caelynn. I never expected to have to do something like this, but after finally seeing the episodes I feel like I have no other choice but to release the text exchanges between her and myself.
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This is the last thing I wanted to do, but my name and character are being attacked. My name is all I really have. Most of all, it is the only real way to prove that what is being said by Caelynn and the story that is being show is far from the truth. I’m deeply sorry for my actions at Stagecoach but telling the world that I silenced a woman among many other harmful accusations was just too much.
I have genuine compassion for the trauma Caelynn has experienced in the past. To make her question my intention in any way devastates me beyond anything I’ve ever felt. Something I’ve learned is to be completely clear because I never want to make anyone to not clearly understand my intentions again. I was under the impression it was “just sex” to her. Which you will see in her texts.
I understand that I will probably get a lot of backlash for posting these personal text messages in my stories but unfortunately this is the only way to have a voice, since I very much feel backed into a corner."
Blake then released text messages via his Instagram stories, which he claims to be between himself and Caelynn, along with a video message. Because the texts have not been confirmed to be Caelynn's, we won't post them here. Nevertheless, the content of Blake's six screengrabs of texts that he claims were between him and Caelynn amounts to Caelynn supposedly asking Blake to hook up with her at Stagecoach music festival "strictly for sex." The later texts, labeled as "one week before Paradise" appear to depict Caelynn sorting out a game plan with Blake for how to cover up their hookup, including what both parties will "tell Hannah." Hannah here presumably being Hannah Godwin, who Blake is very much pursuing on Paradise.
He ended the series of texts with a video message in which he says he knows it was problematic to release the texts but, "I feel like I have no other choice. And maybe some of that was edited from Caelynn, and maybe they spliced together some of her conversations, I don’t know. Maybe Caelynn can address that," he continued, "I’m not trying to attack Caelynn, I hope none of you go and attack Caelynn. I just wanted to get my truth out there."
Caelynn, Blake, and ABC could not immediately be reached for comment.