Unlike most Bachelor Nation feuds, this one was silent. Rachel Lindsay, 34, and Raven Gates, 28, are no longer friends, but their fallout wasn’t accompanied by the usual “she said, he said” dialogue often see between feuding Bachelor stars. But Raven did decide to acknowledge that their friendship is in fact a thing of ABC’s past, nearly a month after Rachel announced she “never will be” friends with her ex-BFF during an October appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. “I wish I had answers, but I don’t and I don’t know if I ever will,” Raven revealed on the Nov. 19 episode of the Off The Vine podcast, hosted by fellow The Bachelor alum Kaitlyn Bristowe.
Raven could say how she feels about the whole ordeal, though. “I have been really saddened by the whole thing just because I really loved her,” she admitted. Like Rachel, she doesn’t have much hope for a reconciliation as she added, “I guess I just have to put it to rest and it is what it is.” Raven also shared Rachel’s wish to keep this feud classy.
“I’m not going to say anything bad about her because that’s not in my heart or in my spirit,” Raven continued. The ABC star did, however, defend herself against any suspicion that she’s responsible for their beef: “I wish her nothing but the best but I have loved her, I will always love her…I also want it to be very clear that I have never done her wrong.”
Rachel and Raven both made the final top three on Nick Viall’s season of The Bachelor in 2017, and despite the competition, they became close friends. They were last seen together on vacation in Bermuda of July of 2018, but fans didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary until Raven was MIA from both Rachel’s bachelorette party and her wedding to Bryan Abasolo, who won Rachel’s season of The Bachelorette, in August of 2019.
Fans’ worries were confirmed when Rachel answered a curious WWHL caller, who asked what happened between the two ladies. “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,” Rachel announced. The ESPN radio host was serious, because she added, “And I never will be.” Even Colton Underwood tried to jump into the middle of this mysterious feud with an unsolicited comment — “Shocker. Rachel mad at another person… does she like anyone?” — which Rachel didn’t appreciate!