Members of Bachelor Nation may remember James McCoy Taylor, a contestant for the memorable Season 12 of The Bachelorette who was eliminated in Week 7 of that series when it aired in 2016. Since then, the Texas native has built up a considerable fanbase on social media and launched a music career. More recently, he’s signed on with another member of Bachelor Nation to kickstart a defamation lawsuit.
Reports from James McCoy Taylor himself indicate that he has signed on with Erica Rose, who appeared on The Bachelor and Bachelor Pad, to file a defamation lawsuit against several media outlets. According to the reality personality himself, Rose's firm, the Rose Sanders Law firm, is going to help James McCoy Taylor, “save my reputation and prove I’m not a traitor / insurrectionist.”
But first, how did we get here? In order to figure out why a defamation lawsuit is even being filed, we really need to hop back to January to figure out what this defamation lawsuit is even about. On January 5th, James McCoy Taylor sent a Tweet out to his followers online which seemingly indicated he was planning to attend the most famous of the Trump rallies in recent months with a “see y’all there." This is the same rally which later turned to rioting in the Capital. You can see the tweet below.
A separate tweet from the former Bachelorette star also mentioned, “See y’all at the #MarchForTrump rally in DC.” Only, according to James McCoy Taylor, he did not go to the Capital on January 6 when the riots occurred. Yet, outlets reported he had allegedly attended, particularly after a second set of tweets from the Bachelorette contestant went out on January 11.
Then, these reports about this alleged attendance after the riots then came to higher prominence after another major Bachelor name, Ben Higgins, also commented on the matter, seemingly having believed that Taylor had, in fact, been a part of what happened at the Capital in January. Higgens spoke to Insider about what had been alleged, reportedly telling that outlet:
It was a dark day in American history and he was there for it and it's still being promoted through him. I can't say he and I have anything in common. However, he is representing The Bachelor and I think he went as far as saying that The Bachelor supported his efforts to do this — that is wrong! And he's lying.
By March, James McCoy Taylor opted to return to Twitter to give his side of the story. He noted he did not attend the riots and also claimed on Instagram that journalists “did zero research” when they were writing on the story. Here’s part of what he had to say online as the story spread.
James McCoy Taylor also released a statement on why he decided to sue. He has hired representation, though at the time of this writing it is unclear which outlets will be target in the defamation lawsuit. He did explain why he feels the need to sue in a statement, revealing:
You made me lose followers. Lose fans of my music / my livelihood. I received THOUSANDS of hate messages / threats... and I’m now publicly asking you to take down these disgustingly inaccurate articles and issue an apology.
In addition, he mentioned Ben Higgins on an Instagram post and said the other star could have reached out and texted instead of commenting on the matter. We’ll have to wait and see if and when a lawsuit is filed and what the next steps will be for the former Bachelor Nation stars. Meanwhile, it’s been revealed that former Bachelor host Chris Harrison also reportedly lawyered up recently after leaving the franchise following his exit for an undetermined period of time. We’ll have to wait and see if that leads to specific legal action as well.
