‘Bachelorette’ Star Leo Dottavio to Take Legal Action Against Bekah Martinez Over Harassment Allegations

Bachelor in Paradise suitor Leo Dottavio is maintaining his innocence in the face of sexual harassment allegations.

Dottavio, who was a former contestant on ABC’s The Bachelorette, told The Blast that he is planning to take legal action against Bachelor alum Bekah Martinez after the 23-year-old Martinez took to Instagram with a number of screenshots appearing to show Dottavio’s alleged inappropriate behavior with women online.

“I’m in the process of proving loss of wages to go after Bekah Martinez,” Dottavio, 31, said, adding that the allegations against him are untrue and that he is in the early stages of putting together a lawsuit against Martinez.

Martinez, who posted several screenshots, including one that read “You need my big d—,” on Aug. 1, told the New York Post that she had discovered the concerning messages while browsing Bachelor and Bachelorette Reddit pages. She chose to post them on her Instagram account “because to me, it’s not a coincidence that multiple women would be saying similar things about the same person.”

Shortly after news of the accusations broke, it was reported that Dottavio was forced to take a leave of absence from his job as a stuntman at Universal Studios Hollywood’s “WaterWorld” show. Dottavio, however, claims that he has not been suspended and the company, which acknowledged the allegations in a statement after they were made, has not received any complaints regarding misconduct in the workplace.

“I took a leave because I didn’t want bad press coming to my public place of work,” Dottavio said. “I am still employed and as far as I know there are no allegations against me. I have never been accused of any sort of sexual harassment at work or anywhere else.”

This is not the first time that Dottavio has addressed the allegations, having taken to social media in the days after they were made to state his innocence.

“There have been some recent stories about me that have garnered attention and I want to address them. I want to start by saying no one has ever accused me of sexual harassment. No one has ever come to me in any way and told me I made them feel uncomfortable. However, I am not a perfect person nor have I ever claimed to be,” he said.

“Did I do things in college that I would be embarrassed about now? Absolutely. Was I a part of my culture, the times, movies? Yes. I have grown as a person since college. I am not the man I was two years ago, let alone 14 years ago,” he concluded.”

Neither ABC or Warner Bros., the company behind Bachelor in Paradise, has commented publicly on the allegations.

Bachelor in Paradise airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.