While it’s been a rather eventful year, it comes as no surprise that this year’s Bachelor In Paradise feels like it took place two years ago.
But as we remember, the last season was like no other. Fans will surely remember former contestants Niranga Amarasinghe‘s immense lack of air time on the series, causing fans to call for producers to give Niranga more time in front of the camera.
Since then, Niranga has revealed that the show’s producers had ‘threatened’ him with ‘no air time’ and a ‘bad edit’ if he didn’t offer his rose to Abbie Chatfield over Mary Viturino, despite admitting that he felt closer to Mary and that he wanted to give his rose to her instead.
Appearing on the So Dramatic! podcast for a special summer series episode, Niranga spilled secrets about the show, particularly about what went down behind-the-scenes.“It was fate and it’s all thanks to you,” said Meghan.
On a different podcast, Friendship Rose, Niranga spoke to host Rose Callaghan back in September, about how Mary and Conor were close to not getting together.
“At the start when I gave Mary a rose, before that happened—throughout that night I was pushed to save Abbie, and give Abbie the rose because producers realised nobody was going to give her a rose,” he explained.
He went onto mention how he felt producers might use his friendship rose for Mary to claim that he was the reason she and Conor are together. But since they verbally threatened him with no screen time, it doesn’t seem likely that producers had Niranga’s best interests in mind.
“They didn’t even play that storyline—everybody thought they were going to play me giving Mary the rose, and one thing led to another and there’s Mary finding love but they didn’t even show Mary talking about me giving her a friendship rose—nothing,” he said on the podcast.
Niranga has always been outspoken about his controversial experiences on the show. Back in July, he also claimed that he experienced racist remarks made toward him by another contestant during filming.
On his Instagram Stories, he wrote: “When one particular [person] comes out saying they got a bad edit, it infuriated me. There were so many more nasty comments to me and other people. One particular moment telling several people they wouldn’t take me back to the parents because of where I was from.”
“Can’t pronounce my name and doesn’t even know where I’m from,” Niranga added. “I accept rejection it’s life, but this I don’t…not once have they ever apologised. You know the one.”
