‘Bachelor’ star Matt James apologizes for allowing friend to shame Victoria Larson’s body

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(LOS ANGELES) — The highly dramatic season of The Bachelor continues Monday but series’ star Matt James found himself in hot water after a friend was recorded disparaging contestant Victoria Larson’s body at a recent golf outing.

Posted to the account BachelorNation.Scoop, the clip shows one of the Bachelor’s friends, Jerry, teasing Matt as he tees up a shot, “Now how was Victoria’s body? Cause when I look at her, it doesn’t look very nice.”

While Matt doesn’t laugh at the low blow, he doesn’t reprimand Jerry, either, which enraged fans and demanded he apologize to the controversial contestant.

In addition, Victoria slid into the comment section and cracked with a smiley face, “Cute… I love my body.”

Matt addressed the controversy Wednesday on The Real and apologized for not immediately correcting his friend’s behavior.

“That is never something I condone or stand for,” explained Matt, 29. “It’s just a constant reminder that you need to be smart about the people you surround yourself with.”

He continued, “And those moments when you’re in sports and people are trying to say things to you to throw things off your game, it’s sad that someone would think saying something like that about a woman that I was dating would deter me from what I was trying to do.”

He also said the clip left out an important interaction that he had with Jerry after those derogatory comments were made.

“I said something to him off-camera about it. Something along the lines of, ‘Victoria wouldn’t have given him a second look,"” he revealed.

“That’s not my character and that’s not what I’m about,” continued Matt. “I apologize on his behalf. I don’t know if you’ll get it from him, but that’s not something I support or stand for.”

The Bachelor returns Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

By Megan StoneCopyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.