'Bachelor' Star Nick Viall Recalls Being Arrested 10 Years Ago & Being Let Off 'Because I Was White'

Nick Viall is reflecting on his experience with the police amid protests globally against systemic racism and police brutality.

The 39-year-old The Bachelor alum spoke out to listeners of The Viall Files on Wednesday (June 4).

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“I did want to tell you guys a story, a story about the first time I was arrested. By first, I mean only time. I was detained. It was about 10 years ago. I was still living in Milwaukee. I went out to the bars with my best friend and my girlfriend at the time and his girlfriend at the time, now wife,” he said.

“This cop comes up to me and goes, ‘Get out of here!’ Starts screaming at me, cussing. I’m like, ‘Yeah, no problem, man. Just gonna grab my friend and I’ll be out of here.’ And then for whatever reason…he just did a beeline over to me and said, ‘You’re under arrest,’” he went on to explain, saying he was “thrown” into a police van with “one other white kid and a bunch of black young men.”

Thanks to his girlfriend and another officer, he was let off: “Thankfully, he went and found the arresting officer and convinced him to let me go.”

Nick said he’ll “never forget” what the arresting officer said to him next: “We shouldn’t be arresting people like you.”

“It was so clear to me at the time that what he meant was because I’m white, and it was so obvious. And he said it to me in a way, and I remember being, like, so offended by him saying that, because he said it to me as if I would acknowledge what he said, being like, ‘Yeah, why are you arresting me?’ Like I would agree with him.”

“It was just such an eye-opening moment. Like, holy s–t, this stuff still goes on. There’s no doubt in my mind that the only reason I was let off that night was because I was white,” he said.

Here are resources to help support the Black Lives Matter cause.