'I Can't Take It Anymore': Rachel Lindsay Hints At 'Bachelor' Exit Once Her Contract Is Up, Calls Out Chris Harrison
Enough is enough! Rachel Lindsay is hinting that she is ready to leave The Bachelor franchise amid scandals regarding race on the dating show.
"I can’t take it anymore," Lindsay said on her podcast, "Higher Learning," on Friday, February 12. "I’m contractually bound in some ways. But when it’s up, I am too. I can’t do it anymore."
Things came to a head when racially insensitive posts and photos allegedly from Bachelor contestant Rachael Kirkconnell went viral, promoting host Chris Harrison to ask viewers to give her "a little grace, a little understanding."
"The things that were boiling to me the most were the compassion and the space and the grace that Chris Harrison wanted to give to Rachael, but couldn’t give it to this Rachel in the interview, couldn’t give it to the people that were offended by the things that she did," Lindsay noted on her podcast.
"I’m f**king tired. I’m exhausted. I have truly had enough," the brunette beauty said. Harrison reached out to Lindsay and apologized and she "appreciated" that but struggles to accept the apology.
"At one point, I didn’t recognize how offensive and racist my actions were, but that doesn’t excuse them. My age or when it happened does not excuse anything. They are not acceptable or okay in any sense. I was ignorant, but my ignorance was racist," Kirkconnell said in an apology earlier this week.
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"Twenty-five women who identify as BIPOC were cast on this historic season that was meant to represent change," Kirkconnell and other contestants shared on social media in a joint statement amid the controversy.
"We are deeply disappointed and want to make it clear that we denounce any defense of racism. Any defense of racist behavior denies the lived and continued experiences of BIPOC individuals. These experiences are not to be exploited or tokenized."
"Rachel Lindsay continues to advocate with 'grace' for individuals who identify as BIPOC within this franchise. Just because she is speaking the loudest, doesn't mean she is alone. We stand with her, we hear her, and we advocate for change alongside her," the statement concluded.
Lindsay shared the statement to her Instagram Story.
"This is everything," she added. “This truly moved me. Thank you ladies."
The 35-year-old hosts the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast after she appeared on The Bachelor during Nick Viall’s season of the show and was chosen as the first Black Bachelorette in 2017 and has been advocating for more diversity on the show.
Season 25 Bachelor Matt James is the first Black male lead since the show began in 2002.
"I am beyond grateful to have Rachel as a mentor during this season. Your advocacy of BIPOC people in the franchise is invaluable, I stand with you and the rest of the women advocating for change and accountability," James wrote on his Instagram story on Friday.
"When I look at what’s happening in our country, and then I look at the franchise, I can’t continue to be affiliated — it’s embarrassing honestly at this point — to be affiliated with a franchise who is not on the right side of this," Lindsay told Page Six last summer during the Black Lives Matter movement.
