‘Bachelorette’ contestant Brad Ledford addresses Madison Cawthorn crash

(NewsNation) — Season 22 of “The Bachelorette” may have been pulled due to controversy surrounding Taylor Frankie Paul, but one contestant is addressing an incident that left his friend paralyzed. Reports surfaced last week that Brad Ledford, one of the men vying for Paul’s attention, was involved in the 2014 car crash that paralyzed former North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn when they were teenagers. “It’s tough for me because you know this was an accident that I was in 12 years ago, so I was 17 years old. So, a very long time ago, but definitely impactful and definitely a big piece of my life," Ledford told Bachelor Nation’s Charity Lawson and Kathy Swarts. “I wish that publications wouldn’t be grabbing onto something that’s so old and from my childhood.” Ledford explained that he and Cawthorn, who was 18 at the time, were driving from Florida to North Carolina when he briefly fell asleep and then woke up when he crashed into a concrete barrier on the interstate. “We ended up striking a jersey barrier a little further down the road. Came to a stop and my first thought in my head was, ‘Oh, my gosh, we were just in a car accident.’ But not thinking anything was really serious. And so I reached over to check on my passenger, Madison, and realized that he was knocked out and unconscious,” he said. Ledford said that Cawthorn’s feet were propped up on the dashboard, a 2017 lawsuit deposition revealed, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The would-be “Bachelorette” star said the car caught on fire, and he escaped from his car window, unbuckled Madison and pulled him out. However, Cawthorn’s version of events differs from Ledord’s. The former congressman, who’s confined to a wheelchair, claimed that Ledford abandoned him immediately after the accident, where he was “declared dead on the scene.” “He was my brother, my best friend. And he leaves me in a car to die in a fiery tomb. He runs to safety deep in the woods and just leaves me in a burning car as the flames start to lick my legs and curl up and burn my left side,” he said during a 2017 chapel speech.