Update: Since this story was published, Brendan Scanzano has apologized for his statements. Read Brendan's full apology here.
After being accused of sharing various posts on social media that were against the COVID-19 vaccines, Brendan Scanzano from Katie Thurston's season of The Bachelorette is now being allegedly dropped by his sponsors as the result of a fan allegedly exposing his posts and calling them "racist" and "anti-Semitic." Over the summer of 2021, Bachelor Nation was introduced to Brendan S. as a 26-year-old firefighter trainee from Toronto, Canada. Despite never standing out to either Katie or the viewers throughout this time on The Bachelorette, Brendan made it to the final seven of the season.
Brendan did get very close to his costars on the show, but he never managed to get invited to a one-on-one date with Katie. After feeling the pressure all season long to stand out more, Brendan ended up being eliminated prior to a rose ceremony and went home in seventh place overall. As of late, Brendan became pretty outspoken about COVID-19 vaccine mandates in self-erasing Story posts and comments on his Instagram page. In the meantime, Bachelor Nation fans called him out for these remarks.
Now, TikToker @melworeit has shared two TikTok posts explaining how she exposed Brendan's remarks to his social media sponsors. She also alleged that one company has already dropped its sponsorship ties to Brendan as a result. In her first TikTok video, Mel didn't bring up Brendan's name but made specific enough remarks for fans to know who she was talking about. Mel explained that she takes "anti-Semitic" rhetoric very seriously given that she has living family members who survived the Holocaust. As seen in the Reddit thread included below, fans had already been noting Brendan's posts comparing vaccine mandates to World War I, World War II, and communism. He also clapped back at Bachelor fans on Instagram who tried to show him why his comparisons were unfounded and problematic.
In a follow-up TikTok video, Mel spoke more openly about Brendan S. after noticing that everyone already knew who she was talking about. In this second post, Mel included several screenshots of Brendan's inflammatory posts and problematic replies in the comments section of his Instagram. The TikToker also noted how Brendan called a Black woman "Kamala" while responding to some of the comments who had been calling him out. According to Mel, she reached out to a few companies that had sponsored Brendan S. in the past year and had already received confirmation that one brand was no longer going to sponsor the Bachelorette star as a result of these social media posts.
Fans on Reddit also reacted to Mel's TikTok videos calling out Brendan, with many commenters applauding her for taking action. In recent times, Bachelor Nation has been much more active in taking action against reality TV stars who profit from appearing on the show but act in very problematic ways. Exposing these social media posts and comments from Brendan S. is the latest example of fans asking these reality TV stars to take accountability for their actions and statements.
The Bachelor season 26 airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.