Former Bachelorette star Rachel Lindsay said she has suffered from PTSD after her now-infamous exchange with former The Bachelor host Chris Harrison on Extra.
According to Yahoo! Entertainment, Lindsay told the University of Texas at Austin’s alumni magazine The Alcade that she still suffers from the aftermath of the interview in which Harrison defended The Bachelor finalist Rachel Kirkonnell regarding 2018 pictures that showed her at an antebellum plantation-themed fraternity party.
The pictures put Kirkconnell in the hot seat, not only because they are racist, but because she was vying for the heart of Matt James, the franchise’s first Black Bachelor. Despite a brief separation from the scandal, James and Kirkconnell are still together.
"It's a struggle. I literally have PTSD from that interview…from watching it, from the aftermath," she said.
“It’s a struggle. I literally have PTSD from that interview…from watching it, from the aftermath,” she said. “Friendships were lost over it; people were calling my job asking for me to get fired. It was total harassment; it was a really tough time. But I guess I couldn’t live with myself if I held back. I just never want to live in a place of regrets, and I feel like I was given this platform for a reason, and I have a certain purpose, and I’m supposed to live that out.”
During the 2018 interview, Harrison said he wanted people to have “a little grace, a little understanding, a little compassion” for Kirkconnell, giving the opinion that he felt the pictures came from a different time in American life (even though 2018 is relatively recent). Lindsay countered by asking what she would have represented if she went to a party like that. Harrison eventually apologized and stepped down from his hosting duties after swift fan rebuke.
