Rachel Lindsay is ready for change. The former Bachelorette has never been afraid to speak up about her issues with the Bachelor franchise.
The attorney first appeared on Nick Viall’s season of The Bachelor in 2017. While she scored the first impression rose and made it to the final three, Viall ultimately picked Vanessa Grimaldi over runner-up Raven Gates. (Viall and Grimaldi split less than a year after the finale aired.)
Lindsay went on to be named the first African American lead as the season 13 Bachelorette. While she found love with now-husband Bryan Abasolo, Lindsay was upset with the way the franchise portrayed their love story as the focus was on her popular runner-up Peter Kraus.
“The Bachelor franchise does believe in happy endings — some people get an on-camera happy ending, some people get on off-camera happy ending, and some people get both,” she wrote in her Bachelorette season 14 finale blog for Us Weekly. “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 made headlines again in 2019 when Peter Weber was named the Bachelor over Mike Johnson, whom many fans had campaigned to become the first black Bachelor. She also criticized the show for not reflecting real life.
“I honestly don’t know how much longer the show can survive in this day and age, just to be honest, because social media spoils so many things,”Lindsay told the Associated Press in March 2020. “So many people come on, no job, no career, never worked a day in their life because they’re going to build it off of being Instagram famous or any other type of social media that you want to insert in there. I think it’s going to be harder for them to find relationships that work. … The show is either going to have to change or it’s gonna end.”
Scroll through for more of Rachel’s commentary on the franchise:
Editing of Her Finale Bryan Abasolo Rachel Lindsay Most Critical Quotes About Bachelor Franchise
Credit: Michael Simon/startraksphoto.com
On the Editing of Her Finale
“Do you ever recall seeing Bryan profess how excited he was to propose to me? Do you recall seeing me cry about how I was so excited to say yes to Bryan and get my fairytale ending? The answer would be ‘no’ to both of those questions,” Lindsay wrote in her season 14 finale blog for Us Weekly. “And it is a shame because both of those things actually happened. You just did not see them. See, you know more about the journey of my breakup than the journey to my proposal acceptance. I think it is fair to say that I was denied my on-camera happy ending.”
She continued: “She was protected and I was placed on display for three hours and labeled an angry black female. And there will always be that stigma attached to my finale because it has been said that when truth is blurred by misinformation, perception becomes reality and all is lost.”
Picking Hannah Brown Rachel Lindsay Most Critical Quotes About Bachelor Franchise
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On Picking Hannah B.
Rachel made it clear that she didn’t think any of Colton Underwood’s contestants were ready to be the lead. “There’s just so much cattiness going on. You don’t know who to believe, you don’t know what’s true. I don’t trust any of them!” she told Us in March 2019. “She said this, she said that, and usually, when you get down to the top four, it’s drama-free. … There’s just so much going on. I don’t like it! I can’t see any of them being the next Bachelorette.”
After Hannah Brown was officially named the 15th Bachelorette, Lindsay told Us that it’s “nothing personal,” but she wasn’t happy with the network’s decision. “I separate the two: friends and [The Bachelor]. I think Hannah B. is very, very nice,” she said. “If I was 23 and in that house, I would have the time of my life. If she happens to find love, that’s great! But she wasn’t my first choice or my favorite.”
Becca Kufrin, Rachel Lindsay, JoJo Fletcher lack of Diversity Rachel Lindsay Most Critical Quotes About Bachelor Franchise
Credit: ABC/John Fleenor
On Lack of Diversity
ABC reunited 12 of the past 14 Bachelorettes for a reunion special in April 2019 and Lindsay couldn’t help but get emotional.
“It was sad for me to look around the room and [see that] no one else looked like me,” she told Us at the time. “It was sad for me to be the sole representation for women of color.”
Picking Peter Weber Over Mike Johnson Rachel Lindsay Most Critical Quotes About Bachelor Franchise
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On Picking Peter Over Mike
“I think Peter seems like a very nice guy. He seems lovely. This is absolutely nothing against him, but how many Peters have we seen before? What season are we on? 24. So, we’ve seen 24 Peters,” Lindsay told Entertainment Tonight in September 2019. “I want to be hopeful, but when you have a contestant like Mike Johnson, who seems to check all the boxes, how is he not the Bachelor? I don’t understand. I’m sure they have some reason for not picking him, and I’m going to trust in that, but at the same time, the system isn’t working in giving us a Bachelor who is a person of color. So we need to change the system. Something has to be done. Break the rules, step outside the box, give the people what they want!”
Lindsay added that it’s a cycle. “The Bachelor is in charge of saying what they’re interested in and what they’re not. Some people don’t know that — they do ask you,” she explained. “You’ve seen some of the girls that Peter’s dated. It came out before, his girlfriend was in the news from the past, before Hannah. So, you know what his type is at this point. And so, I expect girls to look more like Hannah than they do like me or someone else of color.”
2nd Black Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay Most Critical Quotes About Bachelor Franchise
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On Chances of a 2nd Black Bachelorette
Lindsay admitted to Us that she was not “hopeful at all” about the network naming a second woman of color as the Bachelorette. “That’s why I keep talking about it because maybe it’ll start the conversation and maybe it’ll change,” she said in October 2019. “Even after me, you’ve had Sienne [Fleming], you’ve had Tayshia [Adams]. Not that Hannah B. was bad. But she was number nine. Tayshia was number three [of Colton’s contestants]. Usually the system picks one of the top four, why not? Before, the excuse would be, ‘No one is making it far enough.’ Now they are. So now what?”
Peter Decision Making Victoria F and Peter Weber Rachel Lindsay Most Critical Quotes About Bachelor Franchise
Credit: ABC/Francisco Roman
On Peter’s Decision Making
Lindsay declared that she “f—king over” season 24 on her “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast in February 2020. “Are you looking for a wife or a good time? Do you really need The Bachelor to find a crazy chick?” she said, referring to Victoria Fuller. “The writing is on the wall and he won’t read it. Why can’t Peter have an opinion and stick to it?”
Need for Change Rachel Lindsay Most Critical Quotes About Bachelor Franchise
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On the Need for Change
“If I could change one thing, it’s that the show doesn’t reflect the real world,” Lindsay told the Associated Press in March 2020. “You’re just now having, on Bachelor in Paradise, a same-sex relationship and they had to bring somebody who wasn’t even a cast member on the show to make that happen.”
She added that all of the female contestants “look the same way.”
“My first reaction to when someone said, ‘You should be on The Bachelor,’ [was] ‘Black people don’t go far on that show.’ We laughed about it but it’s actually true,” she said. “My biggest complaint is that the show does not reflect what the real world looks like. I would have women of all ages. I mean, there has to be a cut-off point, but I’d have women of different shapes, sizes, backgrounds, ethnicities. I would change it completely.”
Rachel Lindsay Critical Quotes Bachelor
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On Her Future Association With the Franchise
As protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement took place around the world, Lindsay made it clear that she would no longer support The Bachelor franchise if changes weren’t made. “I can’t. I have to see some type of change. It’s ridiculous. It’s embarrassing. At this point, it’s embarrassing to be affiliated with it,” she declared on a June 2020 episode of AfterBuzz TV’s Bachelor A.M. With Kelsey Meyer. “In 40 seasons, you’ve had one black lead. We have had 45 presidents and in 45 presidents, you have one black president. You are almost on par to say you’re more likely to become the president of the United States than you are a black lead in this franchise. That’s insane. That’s ridiculous.”
