The Bachelorette star Rachel Lindsay will soon cut ties with ABC’s Bachelor franchise completely. Lindsay announced her decision when she spoke out about the controversial Extra interview with franchise host Chris Harrison that included his comments about contestant Rachel Kirkconnell, whose racist past incidents resurfaced on social media. Kirkconnell has since apologized for her behavior, and Harrison said he should have been “better informed” when he spoke about race.
“I’m f— tired. I’m exhausted. I have truly had enough,” Lindsay said during Friday’s episode of her podcast Higher Learning with Van Lathan, reports Variety. Lindsay was the first-ever Black lead on the franchise when she starred on The Bachelorette in 2017. Lindsay met her husband, Bryan Abasolo, during the show. More recently, she has made cameos on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette and hosts a Bachelor Nation podcast. The current season of The Bachelor features the show’s first Black star, Matt James.
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“My entire reason for doing The Bachelorette — and I was lucky that it worked out for me in the most beautiful way in finding Bryan — is that I wanted to be represented as a Black woman to this audience. And I wanted to pave the way for more people to have this opportunity,” Lindsay said on Higher Learning. “In some ways that has happened. I wanted the franchise to be better. I have a love-hate relationship with it. I’m connected to it. It did stuff for me, and I’ll never forget that.”
Lindsay, 35, previously threatened to leave The Bachelor world during the Black Lives Matter movement last summer if ABC did not hire a Black Bachelor. Days later, James was introduced and Lindsay remained a part of the series. Now though, Lindsay is unsure if she wants to be affiliated with the franchise. She wondered how many of the contestants listened to a diversity consultant the show hired, or if Harrison listened to the consultant.
“I’m confused as to how you could have whole consultants working for you, yet what happened just happened,” Lindsay said. “I can’t take it anymore… I’m contractually bound in some ways. But when it’s up, I am too. I can’t do it anymore.” Warner Bros. TV, which produces the Bachelor shows, has not commented on Lindsay’s podcast.
The Bachelor has found itself under scrutiny again this week when images of Kirkconnell at a plantation-themed fraternity formal in 2018 surfaced on social media. She also allegedly liked posts including the Confederate flag. Kirkconnell, who has emerged as the frontrunner for James’ heart, has apologized. “I hear you, I am here to say I was wrong. At one point, I didn’t recognize how offensive and racist my actions were, but that doesn’t excuse them,” she wrote on Instagram. “My age or when it happened doesn’t excuse anything. They are not acceptable or okay in any sense. I was ignorant, but my ignorance was racist.”
Before Kirkconnell’s apology, Lindsay interviewed Harrison on Extra, and he appeared to defend Kirkconnel’s behavior. He criticized “woke police” and suggested that Kirkconnell going to a plantation-themed party was only not a “good look” by 2021 standards, not 2018 standards. On Wednesday, Harrison issued an apology, saying he “took a stance on topics about which I should have been better informed.” He also apologized directly to Lindsay “for not listening to her better on a topic she has first-hand understanding of, and humbly thank the members of Bachelor Nation who have reached out to me to hold me accountable. I promise to do better.”
On Friday, Lindsay said Harrison often spoke over her during the interview and refused to give her a chance to share her view on the situation. “He wasn’t trying to hear it. He was just trying to be heard,” Lindsay said. “And that’s because I felt like he had an agenda that he was trying to push. He was really trying to push that forward. He expressed everything that he said, with passion and conviction. So, for me, Tuesday is what it was. And I’m not saying that he can’t be apologetic. I’m not saying that he can’t learn and be better from it.”
