Rachel Lindsay is dishing on the feud she had with Nick Viall's ex-fiancee, Vanessa Grimaldi, while filming The Bachelor.

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Rachel, The Bachelorette's latest star, was asked to elaborate on some comments fellow The Bachelor bachelorette Danielle Lombard made earlier this week when she said during an Reddit AMA session that Vanessa called Rachel something "extremely derogatory" that resulted in Vanessa being "separated for the rest of the show."

"One thing I know about Danielle is that she's not a liar," Rachel told Entertainment Tonight. "But I do want to set the record straight on what happened between Vanessa and I."

The 32-year-old Dallas attorney, who is currently engaged to The Bachelorette winner Bryan Abasolo, continued: "Being in The Bachelor mansion is a true test of your character. It's a high-stress, low-sleep situation, and I learned all I needed to know about Vanessa during that time."

Rachel admitted she tried to keep her distance from Vanessa, a 30-year-old former special education teacher from Montreal, Canada, but one day, Vanessa confronted her.

"Vanessa told me that I used 'aggressive' tones with her, and I was very upset by that," Rachel confessed. "There are so many stereotypes placed on African-American women."

As for the "derogatory word," Rachel explained, "She called me a 'bully,' and for her to use that phrase was offensive to me. She had no examples to match it... I also felt as a special education teacher who works with children, she was using the word frivolously."

Rachel said she had given Vanessa a chance to apologize to her after justifying why she felt uncomfortable around her in the house. But according to Rachel, Vanessa refused to bury the hatchet.

"She told me, 'No, you're a bully, and I told Nick that,'" Rachel recalled, adding that she then asked producers to keep Vanessa away from her. "This was an assassination on my character. After I've faced uphill battles for my entire life and worked to prove myself in my career."

Rachel said she broached the topic with Nick while filming but ultimately decided to let things go.

"I told Nick, 'I'm going to let bygones be bygones,'" Rachel shared with ET.

Most of the drama ABC aired on Season 21 of The Bachelor was centered upon Corinne Olympios, and Rachel apparently isn't sure why her heated moments with Vanessa were not shown.

"Maybe because at the end, the show is more about relationships than any drama," Rachel reasoned, "or because they didn't know how the audience would take each side of things. What Vanessa said was offensive."

Rachel finished in third place on Nick's season of The Bachelor. She got eliminated after Nick met her family and enjoyed a night with her in the Fantasy Suite. Danielle was ousted in the middle of the season, which came as a surprise to many fans.

Vanessa and Nick got engaged on The Bachelor finale that aired in March 2017 but announced their split in late August.

Sources previously told ET that Vanessa and Nick's relationship was doomed from the start because they fought often and both have similar stubborn and feisty personalities.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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