While there have been a number of successful Bachelor Nation marriages over the years, the franchise has also produced its fair share of divorces.
Among the nuptials that unfortunately didn't work out is The Bachelor and The Bachelorette's Rachel Lindsay. Rachel, who is going through a divorce from husband Bryan Abasolo, is opening up about the "shame" felt about the idea of her relationship not working out and when she first realized that the two weren't meant to be.
Rachel Lindsay said she had doubts about Bryan Abasolo before they got married
While appearing on The View, former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay opened up about her divorce from Bryan Abasolo. The two of them announced that they were splitting due to "irreconcilable differences" first thing after the new year in 2024.
The two of them met during Rachel's season of The Bachelorette in 2017 and tied the knot in 2019 before going fairly quiet with their relationship and on an episode of The Vial Files, Rachel Lindsay said the two of them kept their relationship private on purpose.
"Marriage has ups and downs, but you never know when we’re good or when we’re not because we never put it out there," she shared with the podcast host and fellow Bachelor Nation alum.
But now, Rachel is ready to open up about what went wrong in their relationship and she shared on The View that she saw signs that things weren't going to work out with Bryan Abasolo before the two of them even said "I do."
"I would say that probably I saw signs before the marriage, but as women, we're fixers and we think that we can figure it out. They're a challenge to us! But eventually I saw it more. I would say within two years, and we were married for four and a half," she revealed on the talk show. The two of them met in 2017 on her season of The Bachelorette and were married in 2019, so her revelation seems like the two of them were having issues even before their nuptials.
This isn't the first time she's opened up about her doubts about her relationship. On an August episode of Getting Grilled with Curtis Stone, she admitted that immediately after being proposed to on The Bachelorette, she felt "scared" and "weird" about the idea of this next chapter of her life.
"I just kept looking at the ring, and he was excited, and I just was like, I think I was very quiet on the way home. I just -- I was weirded out," she admitted on the podcast.
Rachel Lindsay says public pressure pushed her to get married despite her concerns
It's no secret that reality TV fans can get super invested in the relationships they watch on their favorite shows and according to Rachel Lindsay, the pressure that she felt from the public's opinion of her was one of the main things that lead to her going through with her marriage.
According to Rachel Lindsay, she was worried about people being judgmental of her if she admitted that the two of them didn't work out. She and Bryan Abasolo were considered one of The Bachelorette's successes, so it made her feel like anything but a happy relationship wasn't an option.
"We met, we dated for two and a half years, we went and got married. And we were looked at as one of the more successful relationships that came from the show. Anywhere I went, people would ask me about my relationship... And you feel the public pressure to always let people know that things are great, even though behind closed doors, that might not be the case," she confided on The View about her relationship before the divorce.
Despite struggling with what the public would think of her divorce, Rachel Lindsay says that she's realized that being a Bachelor Nation success in a relationship isn't her whole identity. She admits that she was worried that people would look at her differently, but has since come into her own as a person and is moving past her fears about public opinions about her marriage failing.
She shared a piece of advice with The View watchers that might be struggling in their own relationships and worried what people they know will think about them if they're honest about it. She said, "Your identity becomes wrapped up in the relationship and you’re afraid that’s the only way people see you. But I'm here to tell you, it’s not. You can take your power back, you can find your power within. No one has to dim their light."