The Bachelor is back with yet another exciting season, Season 27. The season is filled with love, passion, and romance. Besides all these, audiences will also get to see heartbreaks, pain, and conspiracies. This adventurous season started airing on January 23, 2023, and is hosted by Jesse Palmer; before becoming the host, he was also the bachelor of the fifth season of this reality tv show. He started hosting this show in the twenty-sixth season; before him, this was done by Chris Harrison.
Chris Harrison’s departure was very noticeable and made some headlines for the show. His quitting the show was very prominent and is not left unseen by the show’s fans. He left the hosting duty after defending a contestant on the show and said goodbye to the franchise. Now the question arises here, why’d he leave the show? What happened to Chris Harrison? Before directly going into it. Let’s take the first step and know about him.
Christopher Bryan Harrison was born on July 26, 1971. He’s an American native and was born in Dallas, Texas. He’s now 51 years old and earlier was linked with Mall Masters, The GSN game show, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. In 2015 he decided to try something new and published his first novel, a romantic novel titled The Perfect Letter.
Chris Harrison was the Bachelor’s host for quite some time, and to be more precise, he hosted it from 2002 to 2021. He hosted other shows of this franchisee, like The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise.
As mentioned above, he left the show after defending someone. The contestant was charged with racism. Following this, he decided to leave The Bachelor franchise for good. When the news reached the ears of the public, they were shocked. Some were not ready to believe that he was ending his decades-long association with the show.
If you are interested in knowing what happened to Chris Harrison, then you are definitely at the right place. So let’s get started.
Why Chris Harrison left The Bachelor? Reason Behind His Exit
After getting an idea, of why Chris Harrison left the show, you must wonder about the contestant whom he defended. The contestant is none other than Rachel Kirkconnell, and she participated in season 25 of the show. Rachel Kirkconnell was seen attending an antebellum plantation-themed fraternity formal in the year 2018.
That time show’s host, Chris Harrison, voiced out his sympathy towards her and also mentioned that the charge was very much unfair.
Chris later confessed that he made a mistake and called himself ”imperfect” but was willing for his commitment to progress. Chris just didn’t want progress for himself but also for the show’s franchise. Aside from all this, he was also looking for enlightenment from race educators and strategists.
This entire issue of defending someone became the reason for him quitting The Bachelor franchise. He parted from the show after 19 years, almost 2 decades of him hosting the reality tv show. In June 2021, he said bye to the show. However, it was not the endgame for him. Chris said that there is much work to be done on his note.
While hosting the left episode and announcing his departure from the show, he thanked everyone for their support. He mentioned that he was grateful for all the memories he had created and would be cherishing them forever. He also added that even though his two-decade journey is wrapping up, the friendships he has made will last a lifetime.
He also thanked Lauren Zima, his fiancee, who helped him to take this decision. On 2nd March 2022, he made a post that stated that moving back to Texas to his home would be blissful.
After Chris left The Bachelor, new news came to light. Chris Harrison was mentally devastated after leaving and was not mentally as well as physically healthy. Everyone has their own opinions. Some supported him, while some said that his hosting did nothing but create a toxic and racist atmosphere on the set. Chris was heartbroken and embarrassed after knowing this.
The Bachelor’s former host knew that his apologies wouldn’t change anything and were hopeless, and it eventually turned out to be true. Chris shared that they all were at zero, and that feeling was scary. Chris left the without any regrets. He left it without any ill thoughts. He was glad to get an opportunity to host the show.