The Bachelorette star Rachel Lindsay is done with the franchise.
The last straw was the interview that Chris Harrison did with her last week where he essentially proved to her that nothing had changed within the franchise.
It’s no secret that the franchise has truly struggled to show diversity.
Throughout the past 20 years, there has only been one person of color to lead the franchise before the 2020 season.
Producers struggled to make it happen with Tayshia Adams and Matt James, but based on recent events, it’s clear that racism still exists within the franchise and that they still struggle to show true equality in the franchise.
Rachel Lindsay says she’s done with the franchise when her contract is done
After her interview with Chris Harrison last week where he seemingly defended Rachael Kirkconnell’s racist actions back in 2018, Rachel felt that the franchise was not where she needed to be.
As soon as the news broke, Bachelor fans shared the news on their respective social media accounts. And needless to say, fans were devastated at her decision.
She opened up about her decision on her Higher Learning podcast with her co-host Van Lathan.
“I’m (expletive) tired. I’m exhausted. I have truly had enough,” Rachel revealed to her co-host.
She added that she had threatened to leave before, but decided to stay if the franchise did more to add diversity. They tried to do that by using Tayshia Adams as a Bachelorette in 2020 and Matt James as the 2021 lead.
“My entire reason for doing The Bachelorette, and I was lucky that it worked out for me in the most beautiful way in finding Bryan (Abasolo), is that I wanted to be represented as a Black woman to this audience. And I wanted to pave the way for more people to have this opportunity,” she said.
She hasn’t seen many changes in the franchise and her interview with Chris appeared to be the final straw.
“How much more do I want to be affiliated with this? How much more can I take of things like this?” Rachel explained, adding, “I’m contractually bound in some ways. But when it’s up, I am too. I can’t do it anymore.”
Rachel Lindsay interviewed Chris Harrison last week
It was last week that Rachel interviewed Chris Harrison about the recent Rachael Kirkconnell issue. Here, she talked to Chris about who should take responsibility as Rachael hadn’t addressed the issue at the time.
In addition, Rachel had previously asked for Bachelor Nation to do more digging on people when they cast them on the show.
She didn’t feel that Chris had given her any good answers in the interview, and essentially told Rachel that no one should judge Rachael until they knew the whole story.
Rachel had hinted that her days were numbered in Bachelor Nation after the interview, but at the time, fans didn’t know whether she was leaving immediately or finishing her contract.
The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.
Quit saying fans when you mean some fans! I am glad that she is not judging and criticizing everyone. She does not need to evaluate everyone’s words and decisions.