InstagramBachelorette contestant Eric Hill's tragic death sent ripples through the reality TV community. Hill, who competed for Andi Dorfman's affections in the season of Bachelorette currently filming, died after a paragliding accident. He was already eliminated from the show.
Typically, Bachelorette contestants still filming the show are cut off from the outside world, but Chris Harrison revealed producers broke that rule to let Dorfman and the remaining contestants know about Hill's passing.
"We never would have kept it from them," Harrison told ABC News. "He was a good friend of theirs. Absolutely, they know."
Harrison said Hill's shocking death affected everybody on the show.
"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," Harrison said. "Everybody's very emotional right now and that's never a good time to make a final decision."
Still, Harrison said the show is doing its best and made "the the best decisions we could at the time." "It'll be interesting to see how it plays out," he said.
Hill's death happened while the contestants and Dorfman were doing the hometown dates. "It was really something we'd never dealt with before but we did it as delicately and respectfully as we could," Harrison told ABC.
Bachelorette creator Mike Fleiss told E! News Hill was a "vibrant" young man. "He was such a young guy who lived life to the fullest. I couldn't believe it when I heard. I'm still in shock. We're all in shock. This transcends everything, certainly a television show," Fleiss said.
"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," Harrison 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."