The Small Business Administration‘s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans sent out during the coronavirus pandemic were supposed to ensure that small business owners could continue to pay their employees even during pandemic-related shutdowns.
However, while many actual small businesses shut down, we learned pretty quickly that a lot of very rich people seemed to have gotten first bite at that apple, including Khloé Kardashian, Reese Witherspoon, and Kanye West — who reportedly got over $2 million for Yeezy. What a mess.
And now it turns out a bunch of Bachelor stars received loan money from the program over the last 12 months — and it’s not entirely clear what some of them did with it!
According to E! News, which confirmed a report that first popped up on Reddit this week, several reality TV stars associated with the Bachelor franchise applied for and received PPP loans of at least $10,000 in the last year.
Related: Rachel Lindsay Blasts ‘Bachelor Nation,’ Calls Them Out As Making Her ‘Their Token’
Those involved include Tayshia Adams, Colton Underwood, Evan Bass, Arie Luyendyk Jr. and his wife Lauren Burnham, and Dale Moss.
OMG!!!
In January, Tayshia — who is currently co-hosting Katie Thurston‘s season of The Bachelorette airing on ABC — received a loan of $20,833 through her company, Tayshia Adams Media. In a statement to E! News, the SoCal resident’s rep tried to explain that Tayshia used the money as it was to be intended, for an employee (below):
“As a business owner, television and podcast host, and brand ambassador, Tayshia obtained a PPP Loan that enabled her to hire an employee (someone who was previously unemployed), to whom she offers market-based pay and benefits. Since exhausting the PPP Loan funds, but in light of the growing economy, Tayshia has committed to retaining her employee for the foreseeable future.”
Inneresting!
Other Bachelor Nation cases are not quite as clear, though.
Arie and Lauren received a PPP loan of $20,830 last June through their company — appropriately called Instagram Husband, LLC (ugh) — but declined to comment about how the loan was used. Of course, the couple recently welcomed twins and bought a vacation home in Hawaii earlier this year. Must be nice to struggle like that!
Evan Bass also secured a $20,830 loan for his physician’s practice last April. And Dale Moss applied for and was granted a loan of that size, too, though ProPublica databases indicate that his funds were never disbursed. As with Arie and Lauren, neither Moss nor Bass chose to comment on the situation.
Finally, we come to Colton Underwood.
The former NFL football player and Bachelor leading man received $11,355 in PPP loans for his non-profit organization last April. However, the reality TV star’s rep explained how that money was used:
“Colton’s nonprofit filed for the PPP loan after their annual fundraising events were cancelled due to COVID. None of the PPP went directly to Colton. In fact, Colton has never received any form of payment from the foundation, all of the proceeds go directly to people living cystic fibrosis.”
OK. That’d be fine if the story ended there. But it didn’t!
Frustrated by the news leaking about the loan and doubly worried about how headlines might portray him, the openly gay former Bachelor lead SLAMMED “clickbait” and called out a major rift between him and the reality show that made him famous in an Instagram Stories post on Monday.
Related: ‘Bachelor’ Alum Lauren Bushnell Welcomes A Baby Boy With Her Husband Chris Lane!
Colton shared (below):
“Let me save you the clickbait headline. My nonprofit filed for a PPP because we cancelled our charity events for this year. We help people living with CF. I don’t make a dime from my nonprofit… please stop lumping me in with the bachelor. I don’t f**k with them anymore, they don’t f**k with me. Point blank. Thanks.”
WHOA!!!
That’s wild! After all that support over his coming out, too?! Damn…
As for where we stand on this whole PPP loan thing — right or wrong, taking advantage or using a safety net — we’ll just leave this tweet from Bachelor vet Nick Viall (below):
What’s legal isn’t always right. What’s illegal isn’t always wrong. Don’t know everyone’s situation, but my gut tells any alum applying for a PPP is both savvy and shitty. Interesting debate. https://t.co/D8adFojo41
— Nick Viall (@viallnicholas28) June 28, 2021
Sums up the debate pretty well, we’d say!
What do U think, Perezcious readers??
Where do U stand on Bachelor Nation alums getting PPP loans?! Many of them are small business owners, after all, so shouldn’t they be entitled like everyone else? Or is there something more fishy going on here??
Sound OFF about all this Bachelor news with your take down in the comments (below)…
[Image via Judy Eddy/Adriana M. Barraza/WENN/Avalon]
The post Tayshia Adams, Colton Underwood & Other <i>Bachelor</i> Stars Received $20K COVID Pandemic Loans! WTF?! appeared first on Perez Hilton.