Now that Rachel Lindsay has found her own happily ever after, you’d think we’d be done talking about her time on Nick Viall’s season of The Bachelor. But this is reality TV, where drama never seems to end.
Recently, Danielle Lombard, who was also on Nick’s season, held a Reddit AMA during which she hinted at potential beef between Rachel and Vanessa Grimaldi—who split from Viall last month—while they were in the Bachelor mansion. “Vanessa called Rachel something that was extremely derogatory. From what I heard it was bad. Vanessa had to be separated for the rest of the show,” Danielle said.
Instead of letting someone else spill the details for her, Rachel graciously responded in an interview with ET. “Being in the Bachelor mansion is a true test of your character,” Lindsay said. “It’s a high-stress, low-sleep situation, and I learned all I needed to know about Vanessa during that time.” Do tell, Rachel. Do tell.
These Bachelor friendships are fickle and fleeting…#loyalty
— Rachel Lindsay (@TheRachLindsay) September 2, 2017
“Vanessa told me that I used ‘aggressive’ tones with her, and I was very upset by that. There are so many stereotypes placed on African-American women,” Rachel said. “She called me a ‘bully’, and for her to use that phrase was offensive to me. She had no examples to match it.”
Rachel also brought up that with Vanessa’s profession, you’d think she would be more aware of what she said. “I also felt as a special education teacher who works with children, she was using the word frivolously,” Lindsay said. Rachel has never been shy speaking out about issues she thinks warrant attention, and this was no exception.
Rachel said she tried to be the bigger person, but after Vanessa persisted in criticizing her character, Rachel asked the producers to keep them separate. “She told me, ‘No, you’re a bully, and I told Nick that’,” Lindsay said. “I told Nick ‘I’m going to let bygones be bygones.'” If Rachel is telling the truth, based on how the two addressed the situation with Nick, Rachel seems to have taken the more mature route.
Now that we’ve got all of the tea, let’s hope we can all shift our focus to the new season of The Bachelor.