Justin Hinsley slammed his “Challenge: Cutthroat” co-star Anna Leigh Wilson for bringing up his past support of former “Cheer” teammate Jerry Harris, who is in prison on child pornography charges.
“I think her going there was just trying to find some way to get the heat taken off of her because there was a bunch of ways to get heat on her, and she was digging for something for me,” Hinsley exclusively told Page Six following his elimination from the reality competition series on Wednesday’s episode.
Hinsley, 27, noted that publicly defending Harris, 27, is “the one and only thing that I’ve ever done in my entire life” that Wilson, 31, could attack him for.
“I was young,” he explained. “It was years and years ago, there’s so many different layers to it. And that was just her way of trying to drag me down into the mud, and I guess that just shows the character that she has as a person.”
Hinsley blasted Wilson, who has been married since 2020, for flirting with one of their co-stars during the season.
“I didn’t do anything or expose or say anything that she did not do herself,” the “Cheer” alum said. “I didn’t have to go dig into her past to go try and to create a narrative or create something that she wasn’t. She did it all on her own and she did this and I mean… I can’t fault her.”
“She wanted to go dig, she went and dug, and she started a little bit of a war with that scenario,” Hinsley continued. “It is what it is. It’s public knowledge.”
During a recent interview, Wilson called out Hinsley for supporting Harris when he was going through his child porn case.
“If people are listening to the morale police of Justin, then I think they need to look up the Jerry Harris situation,” the “Amazing Race” alum said.
“I didn’t see it, but if you’re interested in what I’m talking about, look it up, and maybe take a step back and look at who you’re getting your information from, especially when they’re judging someone’s character,” Wilson added.
Back in 2022, Hinsley was one of Harris’ “Cheer Friends” who made a character video statement in his defense, according to a Reddit thread about the case.
Later that year, Harris was sentenced to 12 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.
The disgraced Netflix star was charged back in September 2020 when the FBI searched his home in Naperville, IL, and charged him with producing child pornography. Authorities claimed he solicited sex from minors at cheerleading competitions and coerced teen boys to send him inappropriate pics.
In February 2022, Harris pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old and paying a 17-year-old for sexually explicit photos and videos.
During his interview with Page Six, Hinsley admitted that his former co-star’s scandal is “still hard to talk about” today.
“It happened when I was 20, 21 years old. That was almost six, seven years ago,” he explained. “So there’s a lot of different layers and there’s a lot things that we weren’t told about while we’re doing it.”
Hinsley went on, “And then once it got brought up, more and more layers get added on into years and years now. So, it was a huge chunk of my life and we didn’t know or weren’t aware of anything until it all came out.”
The reality star added that “it’s hard to navigate those types of things, and you have to do it in a very meticulous way.”
“The Challenge: Cutthroat” drops new episodes Wednesdays on Paramount+.