I know this is a cliché thing to say, but wow, that escalated quickly. Rachel Lindsay and Raven Gates, who were both contestants on The Bachelor and ended up coming in second and third, respectively, are apparently best friends no more after a long, public relationship that was well-documented on Instagram. There's a whole bunch we don't know about the situation, including when this rift happened, what the final result was, and, uh, what happened.
However. This is what we've been able to piece together, based on the little bits of information we do have available between the two, plus whatever other Bachelorverse alums have shared with us. So what do we know?
They were really close.
Lindsay and Gates ended up becoming very close during their time on The Bachelor and they supported each other in their various post-show careers—Lindsay as The Bachelorette, and Raven in Bachelor in Paradise. The two featured on each other's Instagrams and had nothing but glowing things to say about each other, and each other's partners. Then, that stopped suddenly and seemingly without explanation.
The last photo the two posted about each other was in July 2018. Gates captioned the photo "Big laughs with Big Rach 💕" and Lindsay wrote, "Living my BEST life with the BEST of them 💛." But Gates wasn't even a part of Lindsay's wedding, much less serving in the ceremony (as most fans suspected she might). So whatever happened happened quickly and was enough to cause a complete break.
Lindsay spoke out first.
This is how we discovered there was even a feud to begin with. Andy Cohen had Lindsay on the show, and asked her what happened to make the pair shift from BFFs to basically enemies.
"I can't say," Lindsay responded. "I promised I wouldn't say, but it was enough for me to not want to be friends with her anymore."
"So you're still not friends with her?" Cohen asked. Lindsay replied, "No. Not at all. And I never will be." WOW. That's pretty unequivocal; there is no chance for reconciliation between the two. Interestingly, it doesn't look like Gates has commented at the moment.
Other franchise alums weighed in.
Us Weekly posted about the "Rachel-Raven" feud on Instagram, and Colton Underwood decided that this was a perfect opportunity for him to a make a comment. "Shocker. Rachel mad at another person...does she like anyone?"
Nick Viall later weighed in on another post with the jokey, "Pretty sure me" in response. Apparently Underwood also added another comment here (that may have been deleted) in which he wrote, "I’m not weighing in on the Rachel/Raven drama. I could care less about that, not my business...What is my business is the countless number of times she’s spoke poorly of me… including that time she ran her mouth about me to Cassie…Funny thing is I have never met her."
All right, so, in fairness, Bachelor Nation loves to weigh in on all sorts of scandals, taking sides on various issues that don't really concern them. But I will be honest that this somewhat context-less piling on of the first (and so far only) black Bachelorette seems like a really bad look, regardless of whether Underwood likes her or not. His comments come off as baseless, especially since he's never met her.
Hannah Brown, on the other hand, when asked about the feud simply replied, "That’s news to me because I’ve just been dancing, and then I go to sleep." She then said Gates has been “so kind to me on social media” and praised Lindsay for having “strong opinions” and being “not afraid to say them.” Good job staying out of it, Hannah!
So that's all we know at this moment. But if we hear more, we'll update the post.
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