'Bachelor' Contestant Victoria F Apologizes for White Lives Matter Shoot

'Bachelor' contestant Victoria F is finally addressing a controversy that's been dogging her for a minute now -- issuing a mea culpa for being part of a 'White Lives Matter' campaign.

The model -- who's currently still in the running for Peter Weber's final rose -- took to social media Saturday with a Notes-written apology for her eyebrow-raising shoot, which she posted on her Instagram story. It says, "I would like to sincerely apologize for my involvement with We Love Marlins. My intention was only to support an endangered species."

She continues in her post, "I want to say that I unequivocally reject the beliefs of the white lives matter movement or any propaganda that supports racism of any kind. I would like to specifically apologize to people of color that are affected by racism daily."

VF finished by saying, "It was never my intention to add fuel to the racial fire in this country. This has truly been an educational moment for me and I hope to be a voice against racism moving forward. I hope I can be shown grace as I navigate through this process."

The timing of her apology is interesting ... as we reported and as 'Bachelor' nation now knows, Victoria is in the final four group of girls who are taking Pete to their hometown.

We knew about the 'WLM' campaign -- which was meant to be a 'BLM' pun to raise awareness about over-fishing white Marlin -- but it went unaddressed as the show continued. About a week ago, however, Cosmo scrapped Victoria from their digital cover because of it.