Bachelor in Paradise season 4: Josh Murray talks Amanda Stanton casting

Of course at some point Josh Murray was going to talk Amanda Stanton on Bachelor in Paradise season 4. Better now than later? These two had a deep history on the show last year, leading to the two parties getting engaged at the end of it. They were together for some time after the fact, but over the past several months everything spiraled out of control in an increasingly nasty way. This may be one of the most bitter franchise breakups since Jake and Vienna, and it made us wonder why Amanda would even want to come back.

Then again, Jake and Vienna did come back on their own for Bachelor Pad, and that went about as terribly as you would expect.

At least here, Josh isn’t throwing a whole lot of shade when it comes to Amanda being on the show. Speaking to Us Weekly recently on the subject, he threw out the following statement:

“Good for her, let her have a great time. This is her third time around … Hopefully she finds somebody, hopefully she finds happiness.”

Murray also noted that he saw no future for himself with her anymore:

“That ship has definitely sailed. Amanda and I are done. But like I said, I wish her nothing but the best. Hopefully she can find love in Paradise for the second time. We’ll see what happens.”

It’s hard to know how to read intent with statements like this. Maybe you can argue there’s some shade with him mentioning twice that this is not Amanda’s first foray with the franchise, but that’d be a pot-meets-kettle sort of comment given that last summer was Josh’s third reality TV experience if you count his Famously Single experience. This is at least a statement that’s not going to ruffle too many feathers; at least he realizes now that nothing good is going to come out of this mess and he’s better to just move on. That’s far better than the alternative in letting the past take over and overwhelm you.

At around now the first episode of Paradise season 4 should either be over or close to it. The cast members for this season, beyond Amanda, include Ben Zorn, Alexis Waters, Corinne Olympios, Robby Hayes, and Raven Gates. DeMario Jackson from this season of The Bachelorette is also going to be out there; hopefully it goes better than it did for Rachel Lindsay.

What do you think about Josh’s statement, and do you have any desire to relive all of this over the summer? (We certainly imagine that Josh’s name will be mentioned in the midst of the madness.) Share below! (Photo: ABC.)