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Rachel Lindsay reveals clash with Bachelorette producers over not casting 'enough men of color'

Former Bachelorette star Rachel Lindsay is speaking out.

After stepping back from the ABC reality franchise, she has opened up - in detail - about the difficulties she faced as the show's first black Bachelorette, including what she saw as a lack of diversity on her season. In a first-person "as told to" essay for Vulture, Lindsay said "things came to a head during" the filming of the fourth episode of season 13, prompting a clash between her and producers.

Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images Former 'Bachelorette' star Rachel Lindsay

The lawyer-turned-reality-star explained that two of the men (Kenny and Lee) were arguing while she was deciding who to send packing.

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As a reminder, here's an account of that incident from EW's 2017 recap:

Speaking of which, Kenny asks to chat with Lee, where the wrestler tells Lee that he took advantage of their "friendship" in order to get more time with Rachel, but Lee promises he'd never do what he just did. Then Lee, who's simply doing anything he can to get a rise out of Kenny, explains, "I knew what I was doing when I did what I was doing." Got it?

As Rachel listens in from another room - simply because she can't not - Kenny and Lee end the conversation with neither one of them understanding anything the other one has to say. As for Rachel, she's fed up with the drama


In Lindsay's essay, published Monday, she said she "didn't have a clear perspective on what was going on, but [she] wanted to get rid of the drama in the house."

"I wasn't thinking, I have to keep this many Black people and this many white people,'" Lindsay continued. "And the response I got was, 'You can't send a Black man home.'"

She added, "They didn't want to lose the season's sheen of diversity."

Responding to producers, Lindsay said she told them it was their fault, "because of how you cast this season."

"You didn't give me enough men of color - not just Black men, men of color,'" she recalled telling them.

She found the incident beyond frustrating: "I was getting angrier and angrier. I didn't care that I was miked up. The fact that we had to ration the Black men was extremely upsetting. And I said, 'You have no idea what it feels like to be the first person representing Black people to your lily-white audience.'"

Lindsay, who found her happily-ever-after with Bryan Abasolo, said she was "prepared for how much the casting would prioritize people who might cause drama in the house," and added that a lot of the "drama was largely centered around race."

Representatives for ABC and Warner Bros. didn't immediately respond to EW's request for comment about Lindsay's remarks.

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