'Bachelorette' Star Josh Seiter Says Fixing Fake Death Posts Wasn't His Priority

TMZ.com

Josh Seiter says he didn't fix the fake death post about him for a full 18 hours because his priority was finding out who hacked his Instagram account...it's all very confusing.

The former 'Bachelorette' star appeared on TMZ Live on Wednesday and we bombarded him with questions about the long, long period of radio silence... from him and his family.

Josh says he was trying to deal with a ton of texts and calls from worried friends/family, which begs the question...why didn't someone he called didn't tell the media -- including TMZ -- that the death post was a hoax?

08/29/23 Instagram / @josh_seiter_official

The thing is...we called Josh right after the death announcement was published, but we didn't get a callback until the next day. We also called some family members, and they either hung up or said "no comment".

He acknowledges he's going to be scrutinized, but says he handled the situation the best way he knew how and is standing firm: he was hacked.