The Bachelorette is coming clean. Rachel Lindsay has finally opened up about her strained relationship with Vanessa Grimaldi during their time on Nick Viall‘s season of The Bachelor. Following fellow contestant Danielle Lombard‘s revelations about their feud in her Reddit AMA earlier this week, Lindsay spoke to ET on Wednesday, September 27, and explained what really went down between her and Grimaldi off screen.
“One thing I know about Danielle is that she’s not a liar,” she said. “But I do want to set the record straight on what happened between Vanessa and I.”
The 32-year-old continued, “Being in the Bachelor mansion is a true test of your character. It’s a high-stress, low-sleep situation, and I learned all I needed to know about Vanessa during that time.”
Lombard revealed to a fan during her AMA why Lindsay distanced herself from Grimaldi, writing: “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.”
Lindsay addressed Lombard’s comment, saying that although she tried to keep her distance, Grimaldi pulled her aside one day. “Vanessa told me that I used ‘aggressive’ tones with her, and I was very upset by that,” she confessed. “There are so many stereotypes placed on African-American women.”
“She called me a ‘bully,’ and for her to use that phrase was offensive to me. She had no examples to match it,” she told the publication. “I also felt as a special education teacher who works with children, she was using the word frivolously.”
The Bachelorette said she gave the 29-year-old a chance to apologize, saying: “She told me, ‘No, you’re a bully, and I told Nick that.'”
“This was an assassination on my character,” Lindsay said. “After I’ve faced uphill battles for my entire life and worked to prove myself in my career.” She says did speak with Viall about what happened, but chose to let things go. “I told Nick, ‘I’m going to let bygones be bygones.'”
The ABC show didn’t air any of their confrontations during the season and Lindsay says it was perhaps so it didn’t take away from what the show is about. “Maybe because at the end, the show is more about relationships than any drama,” the Dallas attorney said. “Or because they didn’t know how the audience would take each side of things.”
She concluded: “What Vanessa said was offensive.”
Grimaldi has yet to speak out about the incident.
