Update: Our initial version of this story stated that Josh Seiter, a one-time contestant on ABC’s The Bachelorette, had died. We cited a now-deleted August 28 Instagram post on his account that announced his death, which Seiter says was the work of a hacker. Our headline and story have been updated to reflect this new information.
Bachelorette alum Josh Seiter says that a hacker falsely posted to his official Instagram account that he had died.
“I am alive and well. My account was hacked,” Seiter said in a video posted to his Instagram on August 29. “For the last 24 hours, I have been trying desperately to get into it. Somebody was playing a cruel joke and mocking my mental illness and the struggles I’ve gone through with depression and suicide attempts. And I’m sorry for the pain they caused when they made that post. I just got back into my account. I am going to do all I can with my team to try to identify who is behind this. But again, I apologize for the confusion. And I will update you guys as more facts come in.”
According to an Instagram post from July 2021, he was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), bipolar depression, and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).