‘Bachelorette’: JoJo Fletcher’s Secret Family Drug Scandal

We’re about halfway through Season 12 of Bachelorette, and news of a family scandal that JoJo Fletcher would rather keep secret from her suitors is being reported by Radar Online. According to the website, the mother of the Bachelorette star is in hot water with the state government for actions related to prescription drugs. The order that was issued for these actions was effective in April. JoJo’s mother was also investigated by the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency last year.

Soraya Fletcher is the mother of Bachelorette JoJo Fletcher. She received a Doctor of Nursing Practice from Vanderbilt University in 2010. Along with her degree, Soraya Fletcher was authorized and received a license to prescribe drugs. Radar Online obtained a copy of a disciplinary report from the Texas Board of Nursing. The report states that on six different occasions JoJo’s mother admitted to behaving in a manner that falls below the minimum standards of nursing practice by prescribing drugs for non-therapeutic purposes.

On all six occasions, the drug that Soraya Fletcher prescribed inappropriately was Phentermine. According to Drugs.com, Phentermine is a stimulant that is prescribed for appetite suppression. It’s a Schedule 4 drug, which means that there is some risk of abuse. JoJo’s mother was found guilty of prescribing the drug without performing assessments to determine whether Phentermine was appropriate for the given patient. She also failed to properly document the patient’s medical records with assessments that were conducted and any other treatments or prescriptions the patients were using at the time.

As with any drug, there are conditions under which Phentermine should not be prescribed. By failing to follow the appropriate protocol for prescribing a drug, JoJo’s mother put the health of the patients in danger. Court documents related to the case state that Fletcher put the patients at “risk of harm from medication prescribed without appropriate treatment plans based on individualized assessment and diagnosis.”

In addition to these six situations, the mother of JoJo Fletcher lied on her application to renew her license in 2015. During the online process, Soraya did not disclose to the Texas Board of Nursing that she was being investigated by the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency. The Texas board issued a warning to Fletcher that included stipulations of her continued practice and a fine. Radar Online reported this about the contents of the warning.

“Soraya needs to comply with the Nursing Practice Act, take a remedial course in Texas nursing jurisprudence and ethics, fined $1500, needs to be employed as an advance practice registered nurse for one-year and cannot work as a registered nurse during her disciplinary period, notify present and future employer, practice sites and credentialing agencies of the order.”

JoJo has not publicly acknowledged or commented on the case against her mother. She is typically pretty quiet about her family and tries to portray a healthy, upper-middle class life. The news is bound to be something Fletcher would rather not deal with in the public eye.

On a lighter note, on the Bachelorette reality TV show, JoJo Fletcher has narrowed the number of men vying for her heart down to six. Still in the running to win this season of Bachelorette are Luke Pell, Chase McNary, Jordan Rodgers, Alex Woytkiw, Robby Hayes, and James Taylor. JoJo joked in the last episode about the possibility of being in love with two of them. At least we hope that was a joke, a little jab at Ben Higgins, who says he fell in love with both JoJo and Lauren Bush in last season’s Bachelor. He broke JoJo’s heart when he chose Lauren. We’re hoping some poor guy doesn’t end up in the same situation in the Bachelorette finale.

[Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]