Rachel Lindsay is reflecting on her experience as a Bachelorette in the wake of Taylor Frankie Paul’s season 22 cancellation.
“It was funny to me that the show wanted to take this risk, but for you to have a lead of color — that was too risky,” Rachel, 40, said on the Tuesday, March 24, episode of her “Higher Learning” podcast. “When it came to, ‘Hey, we were going to have our first lead of color,’ which took 15 years, that person had to be damn near perfect on paper because that had to make sense to your audience. They had to be digestible to your audience.”
She continued, “So it was funny to me that this is OK. Divorce — and I’m divorced, no shame. But just, the ideal Bachelorette, what they have presented to us over these 20-plus years was not this. Not someone with two baby daddies, divorced, three kids, soft-swinging scandal and a felon.”
While Rachel claimed that a former executive producer told her DEI “ruined” the Bachelor franchise, she pointed out that’s “obviously that’s not the case” since fans do not know the future of the franchise.
“At the end of the day, when you thought adding diversity in the form of color is what caused the franchise to crumble, it turned out at the end of the day it was a white felon,” she said. “I mean, come on. I don’t think irony is the right word.”
She continued, “And I say this from a personal way of having been through it, it was so, ‘You can’t act like this. We’re not going to air this season because the audience will name you an angry black female. You can’t go confront your man because you’re frustrated with something you’re hearing because that won’t look good.’”
Rachel claimed that it was “so risky” for her “to be opinionated or have a personality,” noting that it’s “interesting” this was the “risk [the network] want[s] to take.”
Rachel’s comments come days after ABC announced their decision to pull Taylor’s season 22 of The Bachelorette amid allegations of her involvement in a domestic violence dispute with ex Dakota Mortensen.
“In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of The Bachelorette at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family,” a Disney Entertainment Television spokesperson told Us Weekly in a Thursday, March 19, statement.
Taylor, for her part, addressed ABC’s decision in a statement from her rep.
“Taylor is very grateful for ABC’s support as she prioritizes her family’s safety and security,” the spokesperson told Us. “After years of silently suffering extensive mental and physical abuse as well as threats of retaliation, Taylor is finally gaining the strength to face her accuser and taking steps to ensure that she and her children are protected from any further harm.”
The statement continued, “There are too many women who are suffering in silence as they survive aggressive, jealous ex-partners who refuse to let them move on with their lives. Taylor has remained silent out of fear of further abuse, retaliation and public shaming. She is currently exploring all of her options, seeking support and preparing to own and share her story.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
