‘Bachelorette’ Alum Josh Seiter Fakes His Death For Publicity

‘Bachelorette’ Alum Josh Seiter Fakes His Death For Publicity  

Josh Seiter raised eyebrows across Bachelor Nation when he confirmed that he was alive and kicking, after a flood of media reports announced his death.

He alleged on Tuesday that the rumor was the result of a hacker taking control of his Instagram account. 

Reports claimed that The Bachelorette contestant died after a longtime struggle with mental illness following a previous suicide attempt. The 36-year-old competed during Kaitlyn Bristowe’s stint on the ABC reality show, during Season 15. He was eliminated the first week. 

Josh Seiter’s family seemingly announced his death on Monday, via social media. 

The August 28 statement read — “It is with an extremely heavy heart that we share the tragic news of Joshua’s unexpected passing. As all who knew him can attest, Joshua was an incredibly bright light in an increasingly dim world.” 

The post went on to imply that a mental health crisis led to Josh Seiter’s demise. The message continued:

“His fearless voice and indomitable spirit helped thousands of people in their darkest moments feel just a little less alone. Although our heartache at Joshua’s passing pains us beyond measure, we find comfort knowing that he is finally at peace.”

“We hope and pray that his spirit can continue to live on in the pictures and words on this page, which we will leave up for the time being. While we do that, we would kindly ask for privacy as we grieve.”

The post concluded with a mental health crisis hotline phone number. 

Josh Seiter had referenced his mental health four days prior, writing alongside a smiling selfie—”Surviving depression and anxiety one day at a time with a smile.”

On Tuesday, Seiter posted a video to confirm that he was “alive and well.” He alleged that a hacker hijacked his Instagram account. 

“Hey guys as you can see I’m alive and well, my account was hacked, I’ve been desperately trying to get into it for the past 24 hours,” he said.

“Somebody was playing a cruel joke and mocking my mental illness and the struggles I’ve gone through with depression and suicide attempts,” Seiter claimed. “And I’m sorry for all the pain they caused when they made that post. I just got back into my account.”

Seiter later spoke to People, via a phone call, about the death hoax and how the incident pushed him to “find the meaning in life.”

“If you’re not open and honest, it precludes a connection to other people that are going through something similar,” Seiter told the outlet. “I feel like silence is going to lead inevitably to more suffering and more pain. I feel like when you’re open about something, it opens up connections to other people who might be going through the same thing, and through those connections, I feel like you can find mores strength — it’s kind of like strength in numbers.”

“I feel like anything that’s tough, it’s going to be even tougher if you do it in silence,” he went on. “Being open and honest allows me to connect with others going through something similar, but it’s also a cathartic. It allows me to get something off my chest. If I’m just dealing with obsessive compulsive thoughts and depression and anxiety in silence, it tends to build on itself. If I can speak to somebody about it, it allows me to get it off my chest. I think it just makes finding a solution a little bit easier.”

Seiter shared that he uses cognitive behavioral therapy and exercise to keep his mental health in check. 

“It allows me to restructure lots of the anxiety that I feel is from faulty thinking,” he said of the therapy. “The thinking is usually, ‘I must be liked by others, I must have others approval, I must do well. I must be great. I must got embarrass myself.’ And then we don’t live up to those impossible standards of perfection, we denigrate ourselves and we make ourselves miserable.”

Josh Seiter’s ex Monica Beverly Hillz, spoke out and claims he staged his own demise for media attention.

“Finding out supposedly my ex died, he’s dead on a Monday and alive on a Tuesday, I don’t have the words. I’m baffled. I’m angry. I’m happy he’s alive, I’m happy he’s here, but this is so infuriating to me,” Hillz — real name Monica Dejesus-Anaya — told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published on Tuesday, August 29. “Being involved and being a trans woman of color, speaking about certain situations, not letting men use us for our glamour and spotlight, and here’s this guy doing all of this stuff. It makes me look like I’m involved and that I’m crazy.”

The former Drag Race star said there’s “no way in hell” that his social media was hacked.

“I got my page hacked, it took me months to get my damn Instagram back,” she recalled. “I was devastated.”

 

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