Four months after officially ending her contract with ABC’s The Bachelor, former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay opened up about her experience in an op-ed for New York magazine’s latest issue about Chris Harrison, feeling “exploited” and more within the hit franchise.
Lindsay, who in 2017 became the first Black Bachelorette, began the essay by referencing her controversial Extra interview with Chris Harrison, whose departure as host of The Bachelor was announced on June 8.
During Harrison’s interview with Linsday, The Bachelor host appeared to defend former contestant Rachael Kirkconnell after racially charged Instagram posts resurfaced of her going to an antebellum plantation-themed fraternity formal in 2018.
“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.”
Lindsay claims that her infamous interview with Harrison caused Bachelor fans that “had always had a complicated relationship with” her to further “turn against” her.
“The franchise has spent 19 years cultivating a toxic audience. They have constantly given it a product it wants: a midwestern/southern white, blonde, light-eyed Christian. Not all viewers are like that,” she wrote in the piece. “My Higher Learning co-host and I have divided it – there is a Bachelor Nation, and there is a Bachelor Klan.”
Elsewhere in the op-ed, Lindsay admits she doesn’t regret her decision to be The Bachelorette yet maintains she is firm on her decision to step away from the franchise.
“To the franchise, I am no longer a figurehead,” she said. “I am no longer a spot-filler. I am no longer the face of what is diverse.”
