Rachel Lindsay doubts there will be another black Bachelorette after she became the series’ first lead of color in 2017.
“I’m not hopeful at all,” the attorney, 34, told Us Weekly exclusively on Tuesday, October 1, while promoting season 13 of The Bachelorette on Tubi with her husband, Bryan Abasolo. “That’s why I keep talking about it because maybe it’ll start the conversation and maybe it’ll change.”
The Texas native explained that she became less optimistic after Mike Johnson wasn’t cast as the lead of The Bachelor season 24, with the role going to Peter Weber. If the Air Force vet, 31, was offered the title, he would have become the franchise’s first black Bachelor.
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“If Mike can’t get it, what’s the reason?” Lindsay said before listing black Bachelor contestants, such as Seinne Fleming and Tayshia Adams, who could have been the Bachelorette instead of Hannah Brown. “Even after me, you’ve had Sienne, you’ve had Tayshia. Not that Hannah B. was bad. But she was number nine. Tayshia was number three [of Colton Underwood’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?”
Though Lindsay is doubtful of another black lead, her husband, 39, still believes The Bachelor could star a man of color for its 25th season.
“I hope next year, the 25th Bachelor anniversary, they go back and choose Mike. If not, there’s another great candidate,” Abasolo said.
While she campaigned for Johnson to become the next Bachelor, Lindsay notes that she has no negative feelings toward Weber, 28, who competed with the portfolio manager on Brown’s season of The Bachelorette earlier this year and was announced as the franchise’s new lead on the season 6 finale of Bachelor in Paradise in September.
Lindsay revealed that she ran into Weber right before he went to the Bachelor mansion to meet his suitors. She said that she was open and honest with the pilot about him not being her first pick for the next Bachelor.
“I told him, ‘Listen, I think that you are great. This is nothing personal against you. I don’t know what you’ll hear, but I was a proponent for Mike being the Bachelor. Please don’t take this in a negative way, but I feel it is my place to advocate for him because I don’t know who else is going to. Because of the way that I look and the way he looks and I do think he’s a good candidate, I’m going to support him, but it’s not against you,’” she said.
The Bachelor alum shared that Weber, who was unaware of Lindsay’s campaign for Johnson, understood her opinion.
“He totally appreciated it, and then he goes, ‘I actually don’t have my phone right now, so I can’t see anything that’s going on in the media,’” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh, here I go! Being too honest.’”
Lindsay’s first experience in Bachelor Nation was on Nick Viall’s season of The Bachelor in 2017. She became the franchise’s first black Bachelorette after she was announced as the series’ lead for its 13th season in 2017. Lindsay and Abasolo got engaged in the season finale and tied the knot in August.
For more with Lindsay and Abasolo, watch the video above.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi