Rachel Lindsay's Instagram Is Back & Her Latest Post Is All About Finding The Bright Side
Rachel Lindsay is back online. The former Bachelorette deactivated her Instagram on Saturday, Feb. 27, due to harassment from certain Bachelor Nation fans. But now she's come back to the platform, and Rachel Lindsay's return to Instagram after the Chris Harrison controversy is all about finding the bright side of life.
On Saturday, Mar. 7, Lindsay shared a photo of sunflowers to signal her return to the platform after a week offline, captioning it: "I want to be like a sunflower so that even on the darkest days I will stand tall and find the sunlight." Her uplifting Insta post came just a little over a week after she temporarily disabled her account following harassment from Bachelor fans after longtime host Chris Harrison stepped aside.
On Feb. 13, Harrison announced he would be taking time away from the franchise after facing backlash for his Feb. 9 interview with Lindsay on Extra. During the appearance, he defended current Bachelor contestant Rachael Kirkconnell after details about her past racist actions surfaced, dismissing many of Lindsay's points in the process.
While the controversy has led to an important reckoning about Bachelor Nation's problematic handling of diversity and racism over the years, a segment of fans reacted to Harrison's temporary exit from the show by attacking Lindsay on Instagram. In the March 2 episode of her podcast Higher Learning, the 35-year-old explained that disabling her Insta account was the healthiest choice for her in the moment.
"I woke up, looked at my phone, one of the first things I saw [was] something negative and I said, 'You know what? Not today. Not even this weekend,' and currently still not now because I'm still disabled," she said. "It was the best decision that I could do for myself to detach from that negativity. I needed that. I feel so much better. I'm not 100 percent, but I feel lighter."
Although it's unclear how (if at all) Lindsay will be involved with the franchise after her Bachelor contract expires, she did ultimately forgive Harrison after he apologized for his actions during a March 4 Good Morning America appearance.
When fellow Extra host Billy Bush asked her if she accepted his apology that same day, she responded, "I do accept the apology, Billy, and I think it's important for me to say that because I haven't really talked about Chris and the statement because I'm not trying to make this a Chris-versus-Rachel."
Lindsay added: "He apologized again on GMA today, and I do accept that, and I think it's important for me to say that, because we need to move forward."
