Cosmopolitan US has made the decision to pull bachelor contestant Victoria Fuller’s magazine cover over her ‘White Lives Matter’ (WLM) modelling past.
Last week on the Bachelor US franchise, Fuller won a photoshoot competition with the winning prize a digital cover for the magazine’s March issues.
However, after her WLM modelling past surfaced, Cosmo’s editor-in-chief Jessica Pels said she’d decided to withdraw Fuller’s prize.
In an editor’s letter shared on Cosmo’s website, Pels, who oversaw the photoshoot on the Bachelor, revealed Fuller had previously modelled in an ad campaign dressed in “White Lives Matter” attire.
“In my view, the nature of the organisation is neither here nor there,” Pels wrote, “both phrases and the belief systems they represent are rooted in racism and therefore problematic.”
Although some of the group date’s photos from the shoot were included in the mag’s print March issues, Pels said she “ultimately what felt right was choosing not to publish the digital cover on our website.”
ApPaReNtLy this is for white marlin conservation but I’m having a hard time believing that’s the only message these clothes are sending https://t.co/opYMqcLDaH
— rach against the machine (@rchlmllnd) January 7, 2020
Wow Victoria F is the biggest scam of #TheBachelor and her fake “confidence” issues. A racist and she slept a with her best friends’ husbands. pic.twitter.com/2SBjOinuWW
— sami bzami (@sami_bazami) January 14, 2020
The brand’s Instagram account, @wlmapparel_clothing, is no longer active.
Peter Weber, this seasons’s Bachelor, addressed the situation on Tuesday in an interview with the Huffington Post.
He said he wasn’t overly aware of the photos, but insisted that based on his time spent with Fuller, he believes she’s not a bad person.
“She’s not perfect, I’m not perfect, no one’s perfect,” he said.
