Former ‘Bachelor’ contestant Lex McAllister dead at 31

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Former Bachelor contestant Lex McAllister has died from an apparent suicide attempt, a friend confirmed to NBC4.

Multiple entertainment news websites, including TMZ and Extra, are reporting the 31-year-old overdosed on prescription drugs.

The reports say her family decided to remove her from life support Tuesday.

McAllister appeared on Season 14 of ABC’s “The Bachelor.” She was eliminated the first week.

Her friend Dan “Boots” Longenette said he was “surprised as anyone” when he heard the news.

“I about fell over,” said Longenette, who had McAllister as a co-host on his “Auto Smarts” radio show. He said McAllister was one of his best friends, and was incredibly driven and intelligent. Longenette said McAllister was a morning show host on 95.5 in Columbus while the station still played country music.

“Lex was a pistol, man,” he said, adding that former Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel once pulled him aside in the studio and told him to keep McAllister around.

“She was a ‘light up the room’ person,” Longenette said.

The New York Daily News reports McAllister is the second contestant of the show’s 14th season to die. In 2013, Gia Allemand died after an attempted suicide.

“I so appreciate the amount of laughter, fun, goofiness and love I’ve been given,” McAllister wrote on Instagram just weeks ago with the hashtag “#lifeisgood.” “Thank you for my family, for my friends and for the many experiences I’ve had in just 31 years of life.”

Longenette said McAllister was often bullied, and had to transfer schools because other women “didn’t like her.”

He said he is “devastated” for her parents and brother.

“They’re just good people and it doesn’t make sense.”