‘The Bachelorette’s’ Josh Seiter Denies Faking His Own Death (Exclusive)

Josh Seiter is speaking with “Extra’s” Melvin Robert after an Instagram post announced he had died and he was forced to announce to the world that he was “alive and well.”

Josh claims his Instagram account was hacked and addresses accusations from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star Monica Beverly Hillz that he perpetrated the hoax and faked his own death. Josh also speculates about who could have wanted to target him.

Melvin asked how he’s doing following the ordeal, and he shared, “I’m doing good all things considered. Glad to be here, glad to be alive, glad that everyone knows that I’m alive, but it has been a crazy 48 hours.”

Seiter said he realized something was wrong “sometime late Monday,” adding, “Everything kind of blurs together now looking back, but it was sometime shortly after it occurred I was having trouble logging into my account which was very atypical and unusual, and then at the same time my phone just kept going off with phone calls and texts so I kind of knew something was going on. And so it was at that moment that I made it a priority to get back into my account, and that was what I dedicated the next 18 hours doing.”

He added, “It felt like a dream, kind of, like a nightmare, like you’re seeing images and articles coming out from… everywhere… saying that I’m dead and then at the same time, an Instagram page that I’ve spent six years trying to build and consistently using to talk about mental health I can’t get into, and I see it has been hacked with this post. It was just a horrible feeling and mixed with the fact that I already deal with anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, depression, it was a lot. It was kind of sensory overload, so I’m grateful that it is over.”

Josh felt like it was a targeted attack, explaining, “I’m used to getting hateful messages and having people say horrible things, so this was definitely a targeted attack on me, I feel, based on the nature of what was posted, and I feel like it was mocking, directly mocking, the issues I struggle with and I just found it pretty disgusting.”

As for Monica’s allegations, Josh said, “This person that is being very vocal, I hung out with them three times over a one-and-a-half-week period and now they’re coming out… and a lot of press is saying she’s my ex, she’s not my ex, I barely know her… So I think attention attracts attention… and it is attracting the wrong kind of people. I understand there are going to be negative things about me, but to the people with legitimate concerns and legitimate detractors of mine who think or allege that I was behind it, all I can say is the truth, which is that I wasn’t. If they want to choose to believe, that is up to them, but I can’t control other people and I don’t live my life trying to force people to believe me or like me or love me, so all I can do is just speak the truth. But if they don’t believe me, it does not bother me.”

As for why he didn’t go to the police, Seiter said, “That never even entered the landscape of my mind. In my head, it is just, ‘I’m Josh from the Midwest, I can’t log into my darn Instagram, this is super annoying, and I need to figure this out,’ so going to the police didn’t occur to me. I’m glad I didn’t… I don’t think their top priority at the police station is helping Josh get into his Instagram account, so I’m grateful we were able to do it.”

Melvin also asked if he filed a report with Instagram. Josh said, “I haven’t filed a claim with Instagram; I don’t know what exact procedure I would take since I’m back in my account.”

Explaining how he got back into his account so quickly, he said, “I don’t know the ins and outs of it. I have a couple people who are pretty technically savvy helping me… I changed my password, but I don’t know why I was locked out or what happened.”

So, who does he believe targeted him?