Former Bachelorette leading lady Rachel Lindsay is speaking out about her tumultuous relationship with the now very-much-embattled reality TV show.
The Extra correspondent, who famously hosted the controversial interview that led to Chris Harrison‘s removal as the reality TV mainstay’s host, opened up about it in an op-ed for New York Magazine on Monday.
Related: Chris Harrison Got A WAY Smaller Payout From ‘Bachelor’ Producers Than We Thought!
In her piece, the 36-year-old started things with a bang, detailing her time first as a contestant on Nick Viall‘s season of the show before going into her experiences leading the way on The Bachelorette. Judging by the sound of her powerful words (below), she’s not holding anything back:
“I thought I could change The Bachelor franchise from within. Until I realized I was their token.”
Whoa!
And she jumps right into her tenuous relationship with the 49-year-old now-former host, too. Remembering back to that infamous Extra interview in which she grilled Chris about then-contestant Rachael Kirkconnell‘s plantation party-themed pictures, Rachel wrote:
“During my season and after, he became someone who gave me advice on how to navigate the show and the celebrity of it. I called him my fairy godfather. We’d had our highs and lows, but there had been mutual respect until this interview. I felt disrespected, but I maintained my composure because I had to. There were photos. Nobody had made a statement — not Rachael, not Chris, not the network. I wanted to know how the franchise felt now that one of the final four contestants on the first Black Bachelor was engulfed in a race controversy. I wanted someone to acknowledge it.”
Damn! And the rest, at least as far as the end of Chris’ career with Bachelor Nation, was history from there.
But Rachel still had to come to terms with her own role within the franchise as Harrison’s fall-out swept the entertainment world. The Los Angeles-based entertainment correspondent wrote:
“I had a squeaky-clean record. 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 fandom had always had a complicated relationship with me. But it really started to turn against me after that interview. The franchise has spent 19 years cultivating a toxic audience. … 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.”
Ultimately, Bryan Abasolo‘s wife reveals she had to “hire people” to protect her after receiving “death threats and personal attacks” in the months following that infamous interview.
Related: Rachel Accuses Producers Of Purposely Casting Black Men Who Don’t Date Black Women!
And now, in the end, she’s done. With helping the franchise reach viewers and maintain popularity, that is. Rachel explained more, concluding (below):
“I am no longer making myself available to The Bachelor universe (though any contestant, past, future, or present, who needs my advice can call me). To the franchise, I am no longer a figurehead. I am no longer a spot-filler. I am no longer the face of what is diverse. The goal for me was always to be that person until I could step away because the change had happened, and I could sit back and enjoy it.”
Seems pretty definitive and well thought-out. Very empowering, too, to take her power and agency back from the show that didn’t give her enough credit to begin with! BTW, Rachel also called out New York Magazine for mis-appropriating her thoughts in the headline of the piece itself. In a new Instagram post published on Monday morning, Rachel wrote (below):
Wow!
You can read her full op-ed HERE. Reactions, Perezcious readers? What do U think about Rachel getting in her final say on the matter now that Chris has been canned and Bachelor Nation desperately tries to move on? Sound OFF about it all with your take down in the comments (below)…
[Image via Rachel Lindsay/Chris Harrison/Instagram]
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