The Bachelorettecontestant Justin Glaze is apologizing for his prior offensive tweets that recently circulated online.
On Monday, Glaze addressed the posts during an appearance on theBachelor Happy Hourpodcast withBecca Kufrinand guest co-hostTayshia Adams.
“As I reflect on everything I just went through with this whole journey, oftentimes people ask me what I took from it,” he begins in PEOPLE’s exclusive sneak peek of the podcast which airs in full late Monday night. “And one of the biggest takeaways for me was just my personal growth, and one of those things is being able to hold myself accountable, which is something that historically I wasn’t able to do. So, I have no issue with owning up and apologizing from the bottom of my heart for the really hurtful words that I used.”
The Bachelor Happy Hour Podcast.
He continues, “The last thing that I want to do is run from it. That’s not who I am. I just want to speak from the heart, and hopefully, people will get an understanding of where I was then versus where I am now. When I look back at 14-year-old Justin, I was in high school and quite frankly I was the type of person who for whatever reason felt the need to fit in and say funny things and keep up with what my peers were doing and saying. The folks I had associated with would throw around really hurtful slurs that, at the time, I didn’t really think anything of.”
Craig Sjodin/abc
Glaze adds that he doesn’t want anyone to defend him because, even though the remarks are a decade old, “what I said was ignorant and hurtful then [and ] it’s ignorant and hurtful now.”
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“No matter how long it was, those words shouldn’t have come out of my mouth,” he says “I’m obviously in a much different place now, over a decade later as a 27-year-old and I can look back and be ashamed of the words that I used…I know as I’ve matured and evolved and grown as a person, I’m a totally different version of Justin than I was.”
“I know those words would never come out of my mouth, because I know the weight that they carry, no matter what context they’re used in. I understand how much allyship and support those groups that I offended need.”
Glaze tells Kufrin and Adams that the criticism he’s received is a “wake-up call to let me know that I need to continue to put that work in and continue to these groups that need allyship and need support.”
He concludes, “Unfortunately, [at that time], my underdeveloped brain wasn’t thinking, ‘How can these words hurt people later on in life if they were to ever resurface?’ I’m not making any excuses. I need to be fully held accountable for my actions and my words. I fully understand that, and I just want people to know that I’ve changed immensely since then and I’m fully aware of the weight that my words carry.”
Glaze is currently vying forKatie Thurston’s heart onseason 17ofThe Bachelorette. So far, Thurston has not publicly acknowledged Glaze’s past tweets.
The full episode of theBachelor HappyHouris available after Monday’sThe Bachelorette.
source: people.com
