Reality Steve formally retracted his claim that Jenna Cooper cheated on Jordan Kimball after they got engaged on Bachelor in Paradise in 2018. Although it's been a year and a half since Reality Steve reported on this story, new information brought to him by Jenna influenced him to admit that his prior reporting was completely wrong.
During the 2018 Bachelor in Paradise finale, Jordan proposed to Jenna and she accepted. On the morning that the finale aired, however, Reality Steve released a story claiming that Jenna was cheating on Jordan with a "sugar daddy." In his column, Steve included text messages from Jenna to this other man, claiming that her relationship with Jordan was all for business and that she had no real feelings for him. Although Jenna vehemently denied the claims, Jordan chose not to stand behind his new fiancée and ended their relationship. At that time, Jenna hired lawyers who did a forensic investigation on her phone and supposedly proved that she never sent those messages, but most people disregarded her evidence, Steve included. He accused Jenna of grasping at straws to clear her name and insisted that he believed his sources and trusted his reporting.
A year and a half later, Jenna contacted Reality Steve again. In a recent interview on Reality Steve's podcast, Jenna explained that she had been compiling evidence over the last eighteen months that proved she never cheated on Jordan. Before they got into the details of why the information was wrong, Steve immediately admitted that his prior reporting was erroneous and formally retracted his claim that Jenna cheated on Jordan. In the podcast, Jenna explained that there are at least two unnamed individuals who contacted Reality Steve claiming that Jenna was cheating on Jordan. Both those people, however, have been proven to be liars who spend the large majority of their time trolling Bachelor Nation stars. After comparing texts Jenna had received with information Reality Steve got at the time of his reporting, Jenna was able to convince Steve that the entire story had been fabricated specifically to break up Jenna and Jordan. You can read Jordan's tweet on the matter below:
Knowing that Jenna didn't cheat on him hasn't done much to soften Jordan's heart. When Jenna completed the forensic analysis on her phone, she found that many of the fake texts used exact words and phrases that she had only sent to Jordan. While being bullied and harassed online, Jenna asked Jordan if he had any part in the fake story, which caused Jordan to turn against his former fiancée completely. In the interview with Reality Steve, Jenna explained that she didn't think Jordan had anything to do with it, but she couldn't be sure. She said, "It’s a big set up. I’m confused about the actual texts and how those were made, but I think that my first thought doesn’t go to, ‘Oh Jordan did it.' My only issue with him was him throwing me under the bus and saying a couple of things that weren’t true that made me sound really bad and not being on my side.” While Jenna defended her former fiancé to a point, Jordan refused to apologize for his behavior.
Reality Steve is known for reporting the most accurate information about almost everything in Bachelor Nation. However, to be this wrong about a story this big certainly calls his journalistic integrity into question. While Steve tried to vet his sources, he obviously didn't do enough work to ensure the total accuracy of his claims. His bad reporting led to months of emotional distress for Jenna, who was ripped apart online for something she didn't even do. In an era where online hate is plentiful for the smallest of mistakes, reporters like Reality Steve need to be twice as vigilant with their information. While his apology is necessary and positive, it certainly doesn't undo the harm that resulted from his actions.
Source: Reality Steve, Jordan Kimball
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April 17, 2020 at 10:54AM
