Rachel Lindsay Opened Up About the Racist Contestant on Her Season of ‘The Bachelorette’

Photo credit: Noel Vasquez - Getty Images
Photo credit: Noel Vasquez - Getty Images

From Cosmopolitan

  • Rachel Lindsay opened up about how The Bachelorette cast a racist on her season.

  • She said she experienced racism from the audience during the show, after her engagement to Bryan Abasolo, and from an unnamed contestant.

  • As Matt James prepares to film his season of The Bachelor, Rachel said she hopes ABC won’t try to force a similar storyline.


Rachel Lindsay has definitely been the most outspoken of Bachelor Nation when it comes to holding ABC accountable for its lack of diversity. Because the franchise is so far behind the times, some of the contestants, producers, and Rachel have experienced racism from all angles on the show. And last night, while talking to Andy Cohen and Senator Cory Booker, Rachel opened up about a racist contestant on her season and how it was made into a storyline.

During the virtual Watch What Happens Live episode, Rachel explained how she experienced racism from the audience and one of her own contestants. “I definitely experienced it,” she said. “More so when it came to picking the men, and then at the end, my husband [Bryan Abasolo] is Colombian, so I got a lot of racism toward the fact that we were in an interracial relationship. Just a lot of nasty messages, trolling.”

She went on to say, “I did have a racist contestant on my season” but avoided dropping the man’s name. She said, “Which is one of the things that I’m fighting for for Matt James as the first Black Bachelor, for them to do a better job at vetting contestants. You need a person of color in the decision room making decisions so that doesn’t happen to them.”

Cory Booker then added pressure on ABC and said he hopes they won’t be “opportunists” in that regard or “try to hype that storyline” again, and Rachel said ABC admitted they didn’t do a good job. She added, “But I would hope in the future that never happens again. It’s a storyline that shouldn’t happen.”

Agreed! It’s so dangerous for a show not to do its vetting job properly and put others at risk for the sake of ratings.

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