The host and creator of MTV’s Catfish, Nev Schulman, which helps internet couples meet for the first time to reveal their true identities, is getting some backlash of his own due to the Ray Rice scandal.
Schulman, who revealed in his book In Real Life: Love, Lies & Identity in the Digital Age that he has previously hit a woman, tweeted against domestic violence and is now being called a hypocrite.
“Cowards make me sick. Real men show strength through patience & honor. This elevator is abuse free. #RESPECT,” he first tweeted, but has since deleted it.
In Schulman’s defense, when he hit a woman he wasn’t aware of her gender due to the hasty struggle that occurred while he was in college at Sarah Lawrence, Fox News reports. He did get kicked out of the college because of it, though.
He wrote he was at a party taking pictures for a photography project and “an individual who didn’t like that I was taking pictures attempted to tackle me and smash my camera on the ground.”
He continued, “Since the camera was attached to a strap around my neck, I found myself in a very unpleasant situation, much like a dog with a choke collar. In an effort to free myself, I punched the person and ran off; when I returned minutes later, I discovered that the short, stocky, crew-cut-styled individual that I’d fought with was a woman—a fact that I hadn’t been aware of in the heat of the moment. The next thing I knew, I’d been arrested.”
Schulman told TheWrap his case was dismissed “almost immediately” because it was clearly self-defense.
“My post was meant to raise awareness and support for everyone affected by the awful abuses of domestic violence,” he explained.
image via Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com