Chris Harrison: Why We Told the 'Bachelorette' Stars About Eric Hill's Death
"It was unbelievably tragic," said host Chris Harrison.
April 30, 2014 -- During filming of "The Bachelorette," the stars do not typically interact much with the outside world.
However, when one contestant from the current season, Eric Hill died in a paragliding accident last Wednesday, host Chris Harrison said producers felt compelled to tell star Andi Dorfman and the men still on the show.
"We never would have kept it from them," Harrison told ABC News. "He was a good friend of theirs. Absolutely, they know."
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Harrison, 42, is on a quick break from filming the last few weeks of this season's "Bachelorette," and he's using his downtime to work with the American Academy of Periodontology to promote gum disease awareness. However, he said, he's still constantly thinking of Hill, whose death rocked everybody on the show.
"We’re not sure 100 percent of how we’re going to deal with it. We're doing our best and we made the best decisions we could at the time. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out," Harrison said, adding that at the time, the crew was spread around the country for hometown dates. "We did the best we could trying to be as honorable and decent to the family and to him. It was really something we'd never dealt with before but we did it as delicately and respectfully as we could."
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"They're still dealing with it, still making decisions and trying to come to terms with it because his funeral was a few days ago we all decided, 'Let’s deal with this and get past it and heal ourselves," he continued. "Everybody’s very emotional right now and that’ never a good time to make a final decision."
However, Harrison said that everybody associated with the show remembers Hill fondly. Hill, he said, "shined so bright."
"When this guy left the show, it was a great experience for him. I guarantee this brilliant, bright guy didn't know he would be dead in three weeks so it really puts things in perspective for all of us," he said. "It was horrifying. It was unbelievably tragic and sad. He was a great guy who sucked every ounce of life out of every day and really lived it to the fullest."
