‘The Bachelor’ Creator Mike Fleiss Accused of Attacking Pregnant Wife

Mike Fleiss, creator of The Bachelor franchise, has been accused of attacking his pregnant wife, Laura Fleiss, at their Hawaii home on July 4. According to Deadline, which obtained copies of court documents filed this week, Laura requested a temporary domestic violence restraining order after Fleiss allegedly attacked her and “demanded that [she] get an abortion.” While ABC declined to comment on the matter, a representative for Warner Bros., which produces The Bachelor, told Deadline that they are “aware of these serious allegations and are looking into them.”

Documents filed on Tuesday detail the alleged incident on July 4, as well as “prior acts of abuse,” both emotional and verbal. “While Mike has frequently been verbally abusive towards me during our marriage, in recent weeks, he has become enraged, due to the fact I am pregnant with our second child,” Laura Fleiss claims in the restraining order petition (read the entire document here, courtesy of Deadline). “Mike told me many times that he did not want us to have a second child.” On July 4, she claims, “Mike demanded that [she] get an abortion.” The document continues, “Our son Ben was in the house, seated in another room nearby. Mike told me, ‘If you have an abortion, then we can just go back to the way we were.'”

“This was not the first time he had threatened a divorce during our marriage, but now, he was using this threat as leverage to force me to have an abortion,” Laura’s declaration continues. “In addition, on July 4th, Mike made the following statements to me: ‘I am cutting you off financially Monday morning’; ‘You are paying for everything with your money’; ‘Next time I see you, I don’t want to see your stomach’; and ‘You have a choice, you can choose. Have an abortion or go back to Wisconsin, but you are not taking Ben.'”

Laura alleges that the fight continued for the next few days, and on July 6, Fleiss got physical. “He grabbed my body, forcibly pinned me up against the wall and held me there,” she writes. “After I broke free … he walked towards his pick-up truck parked outside our driveway, shouting, ‘I’m going to punch your face in.'” Laura claims that she tried to stop him from leaving by standing on the “running board/footstep directly below the driver-side door,” but Fleiss stopped and started the car in an attempt to make her fall off. “At this point, Mike forcefully shoved me off the running board,” reads the document, which also includes photos of Laura’s bruised arm.

On Tuesday, a Los Angeles judge granted Laura Fleiss’ restraining order and set a hearing for August 6. When asked about the matter, a Warner Bros. representative told Deadline, “We are aware of these serious allegations, and are looking into them.” ABC, the network that airs The Bachelor and Bachelorette, declined to comment.

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