Hannah Brown Defends New Bachelor Matt James After Instagram Hater Calls Him a 'Clout Chaser'

Matt James just made history after ABC announced that he would star as the first-ever black Bachelor. He’s never actually appeared on any of the franchise’s shows before (unless you count being cast in Clare Crawley’s postponed season of The Bachelorette), but he’s frequently spotted hanging out with Tyler Cameron and Hannah Brown, so you know he’s well established in the highest echelons of Bachelor society. Apparently he’s lucky to have friends like those in his corner, as Hannah was quick to defend Matt against haters in her Instagram comments.

The former Bachelorette put one user in their place after they accused Matt of being a “clout chaser.”

“Don’t talk about my friend like that,” she commented. “He’s the best human and the real deal. You wait and see!”

The accusations that Matt's intentions might not be entirely pure started back in April, when he was still poised to be a contestant on Clare's season of The Bachelorette. Matt had just joined the celebrity-fan messaging platform Cameo, where he was raising money for an NYC-based charity, when Clare seemed to throw some shade his way. “If you are doing interviews and creating Cameo accounts before you are even on my season…you are in it for the wrong reasons,” she wrote.

Everyone understandably assumed that the tweet was directed at Matt, and the whole thing spiraled out of control. Chris Harrison ended up making a statement to Entertainment Tonight clarifying that Clare was “not against” Matt’s charity work. But clearly, some Bachelorette fans are not convinced that the new Bachelor is "the real deal." 

At the same time, Hannah was recently embroiled in an N-word scandal, so her place in this groundbreaking moment for the franchise is complicated, to say the least. Still, she's clearly ready to defend Matt, and any Bachelor knows that fighting the online haters is half the battle.