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Bachelor Nation Stars Who Have Slammed Production: Colton Underwood, Rachel Lindsay and More

Breaking the fourth wall! Bachelor Nation members have given fans a behind-the-scenes look at The Bachelor and Bachelorette over the years and haven’t always had the best things to say.

Rachel Lindsay, who made history as the show’s first Black female lead, has spoken at length about her time in the Bachelor franchise. One major criticism she had about her season — which aired in 2017 — was the focus on her breakup with runner-up Peter Kraus rather than focusing on her happiness with now-husband Bryan Abasolo.

As a guest-writer for Us Weekly during Becca Kufrin‘s season in 2018, Rachel questioned, “Does the Bachelor franchise believe in happy endings?” The franchise alum went on to reflect on her own season asking readers if they saw Bryan’s excitement about proposing or if the watched her cry tears of joy over getting her “fairytale ending.”

Rachel added, “The answer would be ‘no’ to both of those questions. And it is a shame, because both of those things actually happened. You just did not see them. See, you know more about the journey of my breakup than the journey to my proposal acceptance. I think it is fair to say that I was denied my on-camera happy ending.”

While she’s since distanced herself from Bachelor Nation as a whole, Rachel did address the future of the franchise while speaking with the Associated Press in March 2020.

“I honestly don’t know how much longer the show can survive in this day and age, just to be honest, because social media spoils so many things,” the television host shared. “So many people come on, no job, no career, never worked a day in their life because they’re going to build it off of being Instagram famous or any other type of social media that you want to insert in there. I think it’s going to be harder for them to find relationships that work. … The show is either going to have to change or it’s gonna end.”

Colton Underwood, the lead for season 23, spoke out against Bachelor producers in his 2020 memoir, The First Time: Finding Myself and Looking for Love on Reality TV.

“It made me feel like production was working against me and trying to help Cassie break up with me,” the former football player wrote, referring to the moment when his frontrunner and eventual winner Cassie Randolph‘s dad showed up in Portugal ahead of the finale.

Scroll through the gallery to see which other Bachelor Nation stars have spoken out against the franchise.