Fans of "The Bachelor" who tuned in Monday night might expect to see Victoria Fuller as a future Cosmopolitan cover girl — but that's not going to happen.
The magazine pulled a cover shot of Fuller after learning she once modeled clothing featuring the slogan "White Lives Matter."
“Unequivocally, the White Lives Matter movement does not reflect the values of the Cosmo brand. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, and any cause that fights to end injustices for people of color," Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Jessica Pels wrote in a letter on the magazine's website.
Pel's letter was published Monday night while fans of the ABC reality show watched Fuller and her fellow contestants on a group date with Peter Weber in Costa Rica. The challenge took a fashionable turn when Pels and other Cosmo staffers showed up to photograph the ladies modeling swimsuits. The best photo was supposed to appear on a future Cosmo cover.
Pels handpicked Fuller, a 26-year-old medical sales representative from Virginia Beach, Virginia, as the challenge's winner. But the segment was filmed months before the controversial images of Fuller were discovered in January.
“When my team and I flew down to Costa Rica for our challenge, we weren’t told who our models were going to be. We didn’t even meet them until we were all on camera on-set, ready to start our shoot,” Pels explained in her letter.
“It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I found out that the woman I’d chosen had, in her past, modeled in an ad campaign wearing White Lives Matter attire," she wrote.
Though reports indicate Fuller's photos were part of an ad campaign for an organization aiming to save fish, Pels still objected to the attire's language.
“It’s been reported that what she modeled for was actually a Marlin Lives Matter organization focused on preventing white and blue marlin from being overfished, which used ‘white lives matter’ and ‘blue lives matter’ messaging on its promotional shirts and hats," she wrote.
"In my view," Pels continued, "the nature of the organization is neither here nor there — both phrases and the belief systems they represent are rooted in racism and therefore problematic."
Pels let viewers knew that photos of Fuller had already been printed in the March edition of the magazine.
While she hasn't yet addressed the controversy around the images, Fuller vowed on Instagram, "there will be a time & place where I can defend myself, but for now I choose to wait.”
Fuller caused a smaller stir on the show last week when country singer Chase Rice showed up to serenade her and Peter and she was forced to reveal Rice was an ex of hers.