Meredith Phillips: Former Bachelorette Star Claims She Was Drugged & Sexually Assaulted During Filming

Meredith Phillips: Former Bachelorette Star Claims She Was Drugged & Sexually Assaulted During Filming

So shocking! Former ‘Bachelorette’ Meredith Phillips has alleged that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by a female masseuse during the taping of her season.

Meredith Phillips was just the second woman to become The Bachelorette. She’s now alleging that during her season in 2004 she was the victim of sexual assault by a female masseuse hired by the show. The woman was brought to the program’s mansion to give her a rub down. Now 43-years-old, she’s had the courage to come forward with her story to blogger “Reality Steve“ Steve Carbone‘s podcast. Meredith told him “She was hired to give me a massage and she said, ‘I’m going to give you a pill. I just assumed it was an aspirin or something to loosen up my back or a Tylenol or something, and it wasn’t that, that’s for sure.”

She continued, “The last thing I remember is she got naked and she was in the tub with me rubbing my back and rubbing areas that probably she shouldn’t have. Then I was put in bed. I woke up naked. Don’t remember much. I wasn’t even drinking.” OMG, that sounds terrifying. “This is hard for me to talk about,” Meredith added, revealing “I think I’ve put it somewhere else in my brain so when you bring this up, it’s definitely right there in the forefront as we’re speaking.”

The brunette beauty said she thought about quitting as The Bachelorette after the alleged incident took place, but didn’t report the alleged assault because she was concerned for the show’s future. Remember, she was just the second woman to be on the Bachelorette franchise 14 years ago, before it went on to become the massive sensation it is today. That responsibility had to have been daunting. “I didn’t speak of it until later,” she explained, “because I felt weird about it and I felt violated, so I didn’t know what to say or how to say it. I mean, how do you bring that up? I have kind of held it in for a long time, because in a weird way, I wanted to protect the franchise…”

Meredith was a runner-up in the fourth season of The Bachelor, getting rejected by Bob Guiney. She ended up staying on The Bachelorette and giving her final rose to Ian McKee and accepted his marriage proposal. They didn’t last though, breaking up in Feb. of 2005. In 2011 she ended up marrying her high school sweetheart Michael Broady and today works as a professional chef.

ABC and production company Warner Bros. Television have not commented on Meredith’s accusations.