Rachel Lindsay doesn’t feel any connection to Bachelor Nation anymore after her split from Bryan Abasolo.
During the Wednesday, July 3, episode of Scott Evans‘ YouTube series, Lindsay, 39, was asked about her place within the franchise now.
“It is weird that you say this because now I feel completely detached,” she shared. “Now that I am going through this divorce — and we are separated — there’s nothing tying me to it.”
Lindsay noted that the plan was to always keep some distance, adding, “My goal when I finished the show was to step away from it and really focus on the relationship, but also for people to get to know that I actually had a life and was a person before.”
Despite finding love on the hit ABC dating show — and making history as the first-ever Black lead — Lindsay didn’t want to just be known for that.
“I wanted people to say, ‘Oh, that girl was on that show. But I know her from this and this and this,'” she added. “I am never denying that I was the first Black Bachelorette — I wear it very proudly.”
Lindsay and Abasolo, 44, became a couple after meeting on season 13 of The Bachelorette in 2017. While they ended the season engaged, Lindsay still questioned how their story was depicted to viewers at the time.
“The Bachelor franchise does believe in happy endings — some people get an on-camera happy ending, some people get an off-camera happy ending, and some people get both,” she wrote in 2018 in an exclusive blog for Us Weekly following the Bachelorette finale. “As for my happy ending, it was not demonstrated within the confines of your television screens, but I am living it every day in real life.”
Lindsay and Abasolo tied the knot in 2019. Us confirmed earlier this year that he filed for divorce, and the proceedings have taken a messy turn. Lindsay requested in paperwork filed late last month that the court order $9,882 monthly in spousal support to her ex. Abasolo, meanwhile, reportedly responded by requesting that Lindsay pay him $16,275 monthly, according to docs obtained by TMZ.
During Wednesday’s interview, Lindsay candidly discussed being the subject of “controversy” both throughout her season and after her time as the Bachelorette.
“Everything I did on the show had a tinge of controversy,” Lindsay said, recalling how she “played the role” until her season was over before taking a stand about “the lack of diversity” on the show — to no avail.
“People got annoyed with me. People were like, ‘She’s always complaining.’ No. When you love something, you want it to be its best,” she continued. “I loved the show and everything that it brought to me. It wasn’t necessarily the franchise, it was the audience. I get a lot of love but the toxic side just sounds so much louder.”
Lindsay has been vocal about the franchise’s lack of racial diversity, a topic executive producers Claire Freeland and Bennett Graebner recently addressed in an interview with The Los Angeles Times.
“It’s hard to say out loud, that people of color didn’t see themselves represented, that they did not see The Bachelor franchise as a safe place,” Graebner said last month. “We didn’t have a Black lead in this franchise for 15 years, and that’s inexcusable. It created a vicious cycle, and it’s taken a lot of work to get back to a place where we feel at least we’re working for the positive.”
Graebner and Freeland said it’s been a “priority” to cast another Black lead in the future after Matt James‘ Bachelor season aired in 2021. The Bachelorette, meanwhile, will have its first Asian lead as Jenn Tran takes center stage when the show returns on July 8.
