'The Bachelorette': Logan Palmer Directly Addresses 'Conspiracy' Claims Over His Exit
The Bachelorette contestant Logan Palmer addressed the conspiracies floating among Bachelor Nation about his sudden exit from the ABC series. Palmer, 26, made it to Week 6 before he was disqualified because he tested positive for COVID-19. During a stop on the Talking It Out with Bachelor Nation podcast Thursday, Palmer insisted there was nothing more salacious about his exit.
"This is not something I expected to get this reaction it has. There's, like, these very creative, very artistic theories about what actually happened to me," the Phoenix resident told podcast hosts Mike Johnson and Bryan Abasolo, via Us Weekly. "I did indeed get a positive COVID test."
Palmer became a controversial contestant after he accepted a rose from Rachel Recchia, but decided to pursue her co-star Gabby Windey partway through the season. During a tense group date in Amsterdam, host Jesse Palmer announced Palmer was being sent home because of his positive COVID test. That inspired some conspiracies that this was a cover story, but Palmer said it was the truth.
"I [was] back on the ship ... and I'm getting my suit ready and [the producers] were like, 'Logan, step away. Go to your room right now," Palmer recalled, adding that everyone else on the date was fine. Palmer went on to say that he was "just as bummed out and underwhelmed" by his anticlimactic exit as viewers at home. "After all that, after the emotional roller-coaster that I put other people through, after the emotional roller-coaster that I was on, for it to end that was like an absolute dart to my heart," Palmer said. "It was terrible."
One of the conspiracies Palmer found particularly silly was the idea that he was a contestant planted by producers. "People think I'm like Nicolas Cage from National Treasure with some massive plan. [Or] some massive conspiracy," Palmer said.
During the "Men Tell All" episode on Monday, Palmer admitted that he wished he handled his decision to switch from Team Rachel to Team Gabby in a different manner. "Looking back, after Rachel gave me the rose, I would've liked to pull them both aside and said, 'I am very open to exploring things with Rachel, but I have to be honest, the connection that moved me was with Gabby,'" he said, notes Entertainment Tonight. He tried to give dating Recchia a shot, but it didn't work out. He still accepted a rose from her in the hopes of staying on the show to date Windey. Unfortunately, that move didn't pan out as he was disqualified over the positive test.
Bachelor Nation has not seen the last of Palmer. He will star in the upcoming season of Bachelor in Paradise, which debuts on Tuesday, Sept. 27 at 8 p.m. ET. The Bachelorette Season 19 continues on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.