Juan Pablo Galavis Apologizes Following Controversial Gay Bachelor Comments

The Bachelor's Juan Pablo Galavis is apologizing following his controversial thoughts about having a gay bachelor contestant on the ABC hit reality series, saying his comments were "taken out of context."

"I want to apologize to all the people I may have offended because of my comments on having a gay or bisexual Bachelor," the reality star wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday, Jan. 18. "If you listen to the entire interview, there's nothing but respect for gay people and their families. I have many gay friends and one of my closest friends who's like a brother has been a constant in my life especially during the past 5 months."

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The former Venezuelan soccer star told The TV Page that even though he respects gay couples he doesn't "think it is a good example for kids to watch that on TV."

"Obviously people have their husband and wife and kids and that is how we are brought up," Galavis said in an audio recording on Friday, Jan. 17 at a network party in Pasadena, Calif. "Now there is fathers having kids and all that, and it is hard for me to understand that too in the sense of a household having peoples. Two parents sleeping in the same bed and the kid going into bed. It is confusing in a sense."

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The single dad to 5-year-old daughter Camilla admitted he misused the word "pervert" to describe same-sex couples.

"The word pervert was not what I meant to say and I am very sorry about it," he wrote in his Facebook message. "Everyone knows English is my second language and my vocabulary is not as broad as it is in Spanish and, because of this, sometimes I use the wrong words to express myself."

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"What I meant to say was that gay people are more affectionate and intense and for a segment of the TV audience this would be too racy to accept," he added. "The show is very racy as it is and I don't let my 5 year old daughter watch it. Once again, I'm sorry for how my words were taken. I would never disrespect anyone."

In a joint statement, ABC and the show's producers said: "Juan Pablo's comments were careless, thoughtless and insensitive, and in no way reflect the views of the network, the show's producers or studio."

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