The Bachelor alum Ben Higgins takes offense to Jed Wyatt's scandal about allegedly having a girlfriend back home while filming The Bachelorette starring Hannah Brown.
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"Here's one scenario that I don't know if I'm not okay with: Jed had a girlfriend before the show. That's been shown. She's talked about it quite a bit," Ben told ET, referring to Nashville-based musician Haley Stevens.
According to Haley, Jed was dating her in March when he left to film The Bachelorette's fifteenth season to promote his music career.
Haley told People last month Jed had promised he would return home to her in Nashville after the show and they'd resume dating. Jed even allegedly texted her "I love you" before he boarded his flight to Los Angeles, CA, and then again after landing.
"[I'm] very frustrated [with Jed], because it gives a really bad look at the show," Ben admitted.
"I know that Hannah has invested her heart into this whole thing. I know there's hundreds of people that work on this show to make this thing happen. And you have guys like Jed coming on, making it super far towards the end, and it ends up discrediting the whole story that's happened through this whole season."
Jed is currently one of Hannah's Final 4 bachelors on the show, and he will be joining Hannah in Crete, Greece for overnight Fantasy Suite dates in the next episode.
"[Discrediting the whole The Bachelorette story], for me, I take offense to, because this show has been really good to me, and it's really good to a lot of people," Ben added.
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Haley claimed in multiple interviews last month she had stayed with Jed -- whom she allegedly met in October 2018 -- once he was cast on The Bachelorette because he had given her every reason to believe his heart belonged to her.
After Jed received the call in February 2019 he had been chosen to join The Bachelorette cast, Haley told People she and the country singer took a romantic trip to the Bahamas, where they said "I love you" to each other for the first time.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWHaley said Jed was always "so reassuring" when she'd express concern over the fact he might end up seriously dating another woman and falling in love. Jed allegedly told Haley he just wanted to make the Top 5 bachelors so he could make a name for himself.
"I wonder at what point Jed started to forget about the girl back home and started to really focus on Hannah, or if that was ever something that happened in his head," Ben told ET.
Jed was shown admitting to Hannah during a previous one-on-one date in Newport, RI, he had joined the show to boost his music career. Hannah appreciated his honesty and candor at the time, but Ben apparently views that conversation in a different light now.
"We've had Jed right away speaking at the beginning of the season about how he came on this show to be famous, to get known. And then all of a sudden, he's liking this girl. Well, that could be a product of your environment," Ben explained.
"And I also don't know now, looking back on that conversation, if I respected that conversation at all, because I think at some level, he was being a mastermind to protect what would ultimately come out at the end, which was that he wanted to play music a lot. So he's protecting himself."
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Monday night's episode of The Bachelorette featured Hannah visiting Jed's hometown and meeting his family, but Jed's loved ones didn't exactly come across warm and welcoming to Hannah.
Jed's mother Gina and sister Lily even shot down the idea of an engagement being a good idea.
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Rumor has it Jed's family was aware of the singer's intentions at the time -- and also his relationship with Haley, who says she had met Jed's family while they were dating -- and so they were confused about how to handle the situation.
"For the family, you have to understand that Jed literally went on a trip with this other girl right before this show started. They knew about it. They had seen it," Ben reasoned, referencing Jed's February vacation with Haley.
"They had probably talked to him about it! In their minds, he's still with this girl, then he goes on the show and comes back with a new girl."
Ben confessed, "I know my parents, they would not be thrilled with this scenario. It would not make sense to them. They would probably be super confused and really upset with me as a man if that's the behavior I was having."
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Ben noted that The Bachelor and The Bachelorette suitors don't get any personal time with their families before their hometown visits, so Jed probably didn't have a chance to try and give them an explanation what was going on.
"I bet if Jed would've gotten an off-camera moment [with his family], he'd say, 'Guys, just trust me, I've got a plan. This is all going to work out in the end.' [Well], it didn't," Ben said with a laugh.
Haley told People last month she was "baffled" when Jed returned home to Tennessee after filming and allegedly "ghosted" her. Haley said when she had bumped into Jed at a music venue in early June, he offered her no explanation.
"He loved me, but he didn't have enough respect for me to have that tough conversation," she told People.
Reality Steve spoiler blogger Steve Carbone also claimed during a podcast interview he did with Haley in June that Jed had allegedly slept with another woman while dating Haley.
"She showed me everything... this was I believe 10 days before you left for the Bahamas, he slept with another woman," Carbone told Haley on the podcast. "And I have the text messages to prove it."
The most recent The Bachelor star, Colton Underwood, seems to agree with what Ben has said, as Colton told ET recently the Jed allegations are "messed up" and he should just "go away" because Hannah doesn't deserve someone lying to her.
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"I ask that you please understand how much the actions being taken towards myself, my family, the men on the show, and above all, Hannah, are affecting all of our mental and physical health," Jed wrote.
"It goes beyond what is said online. Threatening letters and phone calls have been sent to our homes. My parents and sister are being verbally attacked in public. I beg you to remember what seems like a harmless action is damaging to real people."
In addition to Jed, the three men who are still in the running for Hannah's heart on The Bachelorette are Tyler Cameron, Luke Parker and Peter Weber.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
