“Bachelorette” castoff Leandro “Leo” Dottavio is taking a leave of absence from his job as a stuntman at the “WaterWorld” show at Universal Studios Hollywood amid recent sexual harassment allegations lobbied against him by “Bachelor” alum Bekah Martinez.
Dottavio, 31, who vied for Becca Kufrin’s affections on the most recent season of “The Bachelorette,” which wrapped Monday night, was accused by Martinez, 23, a contestant on Season 22 of “The Bachelor” of inappropriate behavior towards women. She took to Instagram last week, posting a series of screenshots collected by fans, including an alleged post from Dottavio from four years ago, writing, “you need my big d–k.”
In a statement to USA Today, office manager Gaby Davis of Action Horizons, which produces “WaterWorld”, said: “We recently became aware of the situation concerning Mr. Dottavio. We are allowing him the time he needs to handle the matter privately as the allegations did not arise from conduct in the workplace.”
Dottavio denied the accusations Friday, writing on his Instagram story: “There have been some recent stories about me that have garnered attention and I want to address them. I want to start by saying no one has ever accused me of sexual harassment. No one has ever come to me in any way and told me I made them feel uncomfortable. However, I am not a perfect person nor have I ever claimed to be.”
He added, “Did I do things in college that I would be embarrassed about now? Absolutely. Was I a part of my culture, the times, movies? Yes. I have grown as a person since college. I am not the man I was two years ago, let alone 14 years ago.”
Martinez came upon the screenshot, said to be online since May, while browsing “Bachelor” and “Bachelorette” Reddit pages. Dottavio previously told The Post the screenshot of his comment had been Photoshopped.
“I started posting the screenshots [of their messages] because to me, it’s not a coincidence that multiple women would be saying similar things about the same person. There’s no way these women happen to be lying about the same thing before seeing what other women are saying,” Martinez told The Post last week.
Dottavio, who was eliminated in Week 7 during Season 14 of “The Bachelorette,” was recently featured in the trailer for the new season of “Bachelor in Paradise,” which entered its fifth season Tuesday night. Both ABC and Warner Bros. declined to comment.
When reached for comment, Dottavio did not immediately respond.
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