ABC/Craig Sjodin
Sarah Herron, a fellow contestant and the target of his mocking, isn't having it.
The Bachelorette viewers assumed that Chad Johnson couldn't get any worse, but Hurricane Chad hit Bachelor in Paradise even harder than when he first touched down on JoJo Fletcher's season of the recently wrapped ABC series.
On Monday night's premiere of the franchise's spinoff series — which ships past fan favorites off to Mexico in hopes that they shack up and find love — Chad lived up to his villainous reputation when his intoxicated and abusive behavior got him kicked off the show. Some of his worst offenses were calling Lace Morris (from Ben Higgins' season of The Bachelor) a "f—king bitch," telling the hotel bartenders to "suck a dick" and threatening to "murder everyone here." Adding, "I'll kill your children and murder your family. Dolla, dolla bills, yo."
But the moment that has taken social media by storm on Wednesday is his attack on fellow contestant Sarah Herron. He drunkenly ridiculed the 29-year-old, who is returning for her second time in a row to Paradise, telling her to "suck a dick" and calling her a "one-armed bitch," among other mocking rhetoric. Herron is missing half of her left arm and leads a nonprofit called SheLift, which serves to empower women with physical disabilities.
Host Chris Harrison ultimately intervened and found himself in an altercation with Chad after he gathered the contestants the morning after to announce that Chad was being kicked off the show. "You went to sleep last night with a mimosa and a robe on," Chad yelled at the host, a quote that was quickly picked up on social media. "F— you, dude."
As The Hollywood Reporter previously reported, Chad apologized to Harrison when the pair reunited during The Bachelorette: Men Tell All taping. But last night, Chad took to Twitter to post a video about his comments aimed at Sarah, admitting, "I'm disappointed in myself."
His sincerity, however, was quickly called into question when he continued to tweet on Wednesday afternoon, seemingly backtracking on any humility and calling the episode "hilarious." He also claimed that another disturbing moment on the episode was untrue (a contestant said he defecated in his shorts, though viewers thankfully never saw proof.)
Sarah, for her part, chose to take the high road. The former Bachelorette contestant from Sean Lowe's season turned the Chad incident into an opportunity to spread a positive message. Taking to Twitter, she encouraged Bachelor nation to "stop bullying" instead of getting angry, and shared a clever way for Chad to truly apologize. Despite her anticipation leading up to the episode, the Bachelor veteran called upon the 28-year-old Oklahoman to show a little heart: "I would love for you to say you're sorry by making a charitable donation to my nonprofit."
Chad only addressed her plea for a charitable deed with the below retweet.
When speaking to THR ahead of the premiere, Chad blamed his behavior on having a low tolerance.
“I don’t normally drink, I work," he said. "I go out maybe once, twice a month. So I show up to Bachelor in Paradise and I hadn’t drank probably in three months, since The Bachelorette. When you’re at that low of body fat percent — like 3 or 4 percent — drinks affect you way more."
Tuesday's episode of BIP ended on a "to be continued" note, with Chad refusing to leave the set. Previews for next week's episode show the luxury real estate agent returning to confront the rest of the cast. Will he continue to yell at the host and mock him for drinking mimosas?
Harrison says viewers will see remorse from Chad come next episode.
"When Chad was there, he was just a black cloud," the host told People about his decision to boot Chad. "He had really been verbally abusive to some of the staff, some of our crew and was rude to me."
Adding, "After he goes to a certain length, you see him get very sad and sorrowful and very apologetic. You can tell he doesn't like that and he doesn't want to be that person."
Watch Chad's epic bow out on Bachelor In Paradise Monday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
