Caelynn Miller-Keyes opened up to “The Bachelor” Colton Underwood Monday’s episode of the long-running reality show.
The pair were enjoying a one-on-one date when Miller-Keyes spoke candidly on her past trauma. The Miss U.S.A runner-up was at a college sophomore when her male acquaintances allegedly drugged Miller-Keyes and her friends at a party. She was raped.
“I woke up the next morning and I was completely naked in my bed and I knew that something bad had happened,” she told People. “I was passed out on a couch from the drugs, and [one man], in front of his fraternity brothers… lifted up my dress, they watched and laughed and took photos and Snapchats. It was horrible.”
“My life was flipped upside down. Even though I’ve moved on, it is something I will struggle with forever,” she said. “These situations happen when you’re safe. They don’t necessarily happen when you’re walking down a dark alley. It’s when you’re comfortable and when you let your guard down.”
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The trauma did not end after the assault. Miller-Keyes detailed the challenges she met dealing with medical professionals and police. “They told me they wouldn’t do a rape kit unless I filed a police report,” she explained. “At that point, these were friends of mine and I wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, so I wasn’t positive I wanted to file a police report. But later that night, I did, once I figured out what had really happened.”
“The reporting process is a lot more difficult than people realize. I had no idea what to do. I was completely stranded, I was completely alone. I didn’t even think it was possible to be turned away from a hospital,” Miller-Keyes continued. “Thankfully, I had a good support system and people went to a second hospital with me and I was able to get a rape kit and speak to authorities and go through that process. But it’s a lot more difficult than it seems.”
“If you watch [‘Law & Order:] SVU’ on television, it looks so easy, but it’s not. It takes time, and it takes a lot of no’s, and hopefully, eventually, you can get justice,” she said. “By the second hospital, so much time had passed, the results were inconclusive.”
One of the men was expelled from school, but the others got off scot free. “Even though they got away with it, I’m happy that I still fought,” she assured. “I can live with myself and know that at least I tried and I pushed and I went after justice.”
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Miller-Keyes believes she knew exactly who her assaulters were. So how did she find peace? “I’ve detached myself in away from the perpetrators because I felt like that was the healthiest thing to do. I don’t want to have to keep reliving it. I was able to forgive the me” she explained. “Once you’re able to do that, you’re able to take that power back. I hope they’ve learned from that experience and that they never do it again.”
“It’s always a tough conversation,” she says. ”In some ways, it feels like it was a past life, and in situations like this where I’m having to relive it, it feels like it was yesterday.”
So why did she open up to Underwood? “As soon as I met Colton, there was this immediate connection and safeness that he created. I truly have never felt so safe and so comfortable in a relationship,” the contestant said. ”I knew that if it progressed and if my feelings continued to progress, it’s something that he would need to know about. It’s an important part of a relationship.”
“My focus is on survivors,” she concluded. “I want to help other people who are hiding out and feel like their voices are restricted. I really am so much stronger now, in so many ways.”
