Rachel Lindsay’s rose for the Bachelor franchise has officially wilted. A month after exiting her Bachelor Happy Hour podcast and four months after conducting the Chris Harrison interview that led to his ouster, Lindsay is offering her Bachelor Nation tell-all.
The first Black Bachelorette detailed her complicated feelings about the franchise in a cover story for New York Magazine’s latest issue, published Monday—though on Instagram, she’s taken issue with the headline featured on the cover itself: “Oops, I Blew Up The Bachelor.” That title, she says, does not reflect her actual words, and stands in “stark contrast to the context of the piece.”
Lindsay begins the essay itself by referencing her infamous Extra interview with Harrison, who announced on June 8 that he was stepping down as host of The Bachelor. During the interview, Harrison defended a contestant who had been accused of racist behavior. “I knew my relationship with The Bachelor was over in February 2021, when Chris Harrison, the host and face of the franchise, showed his true self on national television,” Lindsay writes, later adding, “We had only seen Chris Harrison perform as a host; this was like catching him with a hot mic.” (Harrison has since settled with ABC for a reported $9 million.)
Prior to her headline-making Harrison interview, Lindsay already had a thorny history with the Bachelor franchise. When she auditioned for season 21 of The Bachelor ini 2016, Lindsay writes, she wondered: “Can a show that’s built on stereotypes handle race well?” The 32-year-old got her answer that season when producers facilitated a confrontation between hers and eventual winner Vanessa Grimaldi about Lindsay’s alleged “bullying.” During that conversation, Lindsay writes, she maintained her composure for fear of being branded “an angry Black female.” She later told production, “You do not understand what it is to be a Black woman in this house full of white folks and for a white woman to cry in your face and call you a bully.” (That scene never aired during the season.)
When Lindsay was tapped to become the franchise’s first Black lead, she expressed reservations about taking on the role. “I talked about the fact that there were no Black people behind the camera and how I wanted that to change,” she remembers telling producers. “I wanted them to come to me if they didn’t understand something. I wanted a diverse season. I wanted it to be Black in every way.” Instead, Lindsay says she was “constantly put in situations” where she had “to tear the Black men down” on her season. That included mediating drama between Lee Garrett, who had a history of racist rhetoric on social media, and several Black contestants. Lindsay also alleges that she was also urged to keep people of color on the show. “They didn’t want to lose the season’s sheen of diversity,” she explains, adding,“The fact that we had to ration the Black men was extremely upsetting. And I said, ‘You have no idea what it feels like to be the first person representing Black people to your lily-white audience.’” (ABC has yet to publicly comment on Lindsay’s essay.)
Despite finding love as the Bachelorette with her now husband, Bryan Abasolo, Lindsay has frequently found herself at odds with a franchise that’s slow to make progress. “I’ve often wondered if it felt like a 180 to the franchise when I became its biggest critic,” Lindsay writes, adding, “After all, they had cast me because, on paper, I made sense. I couldn’t be like the Bachelorettes who had come before—somebody who was still living at home with her parents, who had ‘pageant queen’ on her résumé. . .I had to be a good Black girl, an exceptional Black girl. I had to be someone the viewer could accept. And I was a token until I made sure I wasn’t.”
The often tenuous culture cultivated by Bachelor producers has trickled into the show’s fanbase, according to Lindsay. “The franchise has spent 19 years cultivating a toxic audience,” she writes. “They have constantly given it a product it wants: a midwestern/southern white, blonde, light-eyed Christian.” Lindsay contends that fans often fall into two categories—“there is a Bachelor Nation, and there is a Bachelor Klan. Bachelor Klan is hateful, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, and homophobic. They are afraid of change. They are afraid to be uncomfortable. They are afraid when they get called out.”
Lindsay ends her essay by declaring that she will not be affiliated with The Bachelor going forward. The former lead does, however, say she’ll offer “uplift and support” to Michelle Young, who will be the show’s next Black Bachelorette this fall. “To the franchise, I am no longer a figurehead,” she writes. “I am no longer a spot-filler. I am no longer the face of what is diverse.”
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