'The Golden Bachelorette' Gil Restraining Order ABC Statement (original) (raw)

The Golden Bachelorette Contestant to Have Screen Time Reduced After Past Restraining Order Revealed

Another show in the Bachelor franchise is dealing with a contestant’s unsavory past.

The Golden Bachelorette contestant Gil Ramirez, who received a rose in this week’s season premiere, had a temporary restraining order filed against him three months ago by an ex-girlfriend, People magazine reports. In a June court filing, the ex-girlfriend accused Ramirez of stalking and harassment, claiming he made “25 attempts daily via phone, texts, video” to contact her and “showed up at places I frequent to confront me on a daily basis.” The temporary restraining order was granted and then extended before being dropped when the case was dismissed.

So how did this fall through the cracks? A source close to production tells TVLine that the court filing “occurred in the brief period between completion of our thorough background investigation and exhaustive vetting process, and the beginning of production.” The source adds that now that producers are aware of the allegations, they have “further edited [Martinez’s] already limited screen time and minimized him in promotional assets moving forward.”

Martinez was one of 24 senior men chosen to vie for the heart of 61-year-old Joan Vassos in the inaugural season of The Golden Bachelorette. Billed as an educator from Mission Viejo, California, Martinez tossed Joan a baseball when they first met, telling her he heard she was “a great catch.” She later hit a baseball off a tee with Martinez and gave him a rose at the season’s first rose ceremony, along with 17 other men. (Read our full premiere recap here.)

The news comes as The Bachelorette contestant Devin Strader’s previous arrest recently came to light amid accusations of burglarizing an ex-girlfriend’s home and repeatedly violating a restraining order. Strader, though, contends that the reports about his past have been “severely misconstrued.”