To the casual observer, it may seem like some show in the ever-widening Bachelor franchise is always on television: the year begins with The Bachelor, summer brings Bachelor in Paradise, and fall is all about The Bachelorette. Lather, rinse, repeat. But what Bachelor Nation knows that others do not is that there’s even more drama worth following outside of that cycle—everything that happens on Instagram, for example. Blink, and you’ll miss it. And I miss most of it, so of course, I missed a big Bachelor-sized beef between Colton Underwood, Rachel Lindsay, and Raven Gates (from Nick Viall’s season). Here’s what went down.
August 2019
When Rachel Lindsay married the winner from her season of The Bachelorette, Bryan Abasolo, observant stans noticed that Raven Gates was nowhere to be found at the ceremony. They also noticed that when Raven announced her forthcoming wedding to a former contestant from Rachel’s season of The Bachelorette, Adam Gottschalk (Raven and Adam linked up during Bachelor in Paradise), Lindsay did not congratulate them on Instagram. That may seem innocuous, but it’s a big deal on Planet Bach. Clearly, something was up between them, because they used to be very close. They both suffered through dating Nick Viall, after all.
October 1, 2019
Lindsay went on Watch What Happens Live, where she was asked to shed some light on what caused her apparent falling out with Raven. She confirmed something was up by replying, “I can’t say. I promised I wouldn’t say. But it was enough for me to not want to be friends with her anymore.” Andy Cohen followed up with, “And you’re still not friends with her?” Rachel quickly retorted, “No, and I never will be.” Yikes.
October 3, 2019
Colton Underwood, the blonde potato who was your most recent Bachelor (he jumped the fence), decided to insert himself into the Rachel vs. Raven feud. The former football player commented on a Us Weekly Instagram post about the Watch What Happens Live incident, writing, “Shocker. Rachel mad at another person... does she like anyone?” Fans asked why he was hating on her, to which he replied in another comment, “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 [sic] poorly of me… including that time she ran her mouth about me to Cassie…Funny thing is I have never met her,” E! reports.
There isn’t much of a record of Rachel “speaking poorly” of Colton, save for a conversation in October 2018 when she said, “I’m definitely not a big fan of Colton as The Bachelor.” It’s not that serious, bro.
October 14, 2019
When asked to address Colton’s comments on a YouTube series called Whit & Ry, Lindsay said the following:
“I would love for Colton to actually come on the podcast because what I’m not going to do is entertain you in the comments section of somebody else’s post. What I will do is have a grown ass conversation with you and we can talk about it but what I don’t appreciate are the accusations being made because I believe he said I ran my mouth to Cassie. Well your girl follows me on Instagram so I don’t know what I could have said. He’s making it seem like I said don’t be with him. I would never tell another woman not to be with a man unless I had some type of relationship with her... I’m so confused as to why he thinks I ran my mouth. It’s so petty to me. As much as I wanted to go at him in the comments section, I just thought you know what? Excuse me. I need to go interview Oprah Winfrey. That was literally my mindset. I don’t have time for this.”
She also said she’d love to take their URL feud to IRL:
“I’d love to hash it out and discuss it in person. I didn’t know he was holding this resentment towards me. What’s today? October 14. I met Cassie three months ago so I don’t understand why you’re commenting on it on an Instagram post.”
For someone who doesn’t “have time for this,” that’s a mouthful.
November 21, 2019
The drama slowed for a while until Raven Gates was asked about her friendship-ending feud with Rachel while participating in a live recording of former Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe’s Off the Vine podcast. According to E!, she said, “I’m just as shocked as everybody else and I wish I had answers, but I don’t and I don’t think I ever will. I have never done her wrong... I guess I just have to put it to rest and it is what it is and I’m not going to say anything bad about her because that’s not in my heart or my spirit. But I wish her nothing but the best.”
Sounds like no one is ever going to reveal the real source of the feud, huh?
December 3, 2019
According to E!, Lindsay hosted a fan Q&A on her Instagram Story on Tuesday. There, someone asked, “Are we going to hear an episode on your podcast of you & Colton hashing it out?” She replied, “It’s not looking like it. Colton was invited to be on BHH [Bachelor Happy Hour, her podcast] and as of now the offer still stands. I’ll let you do the math.”
So what does it all mean? Potentially nothing, but I look forward to whatever dumb thing Colton Underwood says in reply. Onto the next!