Josh Seiter, a former contestant on ABC's "The Bachelorette," posted a video on Aug. 29 saying reports of his death were due to someone hacking his Instagram account, according to NBC News and TMZ, among others.
"Somebody was playing a cruel joke and mocking my mental illness and the struggles I've gone through with depression and suicide attempts," Seiter said. "And I'm sorry for all the pain they caused when they made that post. I just got back into my account."
Media outlets (including Windy City Times) noted earlier in the day that Seiter had died at age 36, citing a post that was supposedly from his family. That post has been deleted and his comments section has been disabled.
Seiter recently made news for coming out as bisexual and for getting engaged to fellow exotic dancer named David. However, they broke up, with Seiter stating on Instagram, in part, "It is with a heavy heart that I must break the news that David and I are no longer together. Per David's communications, he was not ready for the publicity and hate that accompanied our union." Answering someone's question, Seiter said, Because we didn't send the marriage certificate into the county yet to finalize the marriage, we do not need either a divorce or an annulment and can just go our separate ways. We aren't considered married in the county's eyes. Silver lining."
The supposed statement from his family did not disclose Seiter's cause of death, but implied that there was a mental-health crisis by sharing the 988 SMS suicide-crisis hotline.
Andrew Davis