The Bachelorette alum Rachel Lindsay has broken her silence on her seemingly sudden divorce from Bryan Abasolo.
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Rachel chose not to publicly comment on her divorce from the chiropractor -- other than to noticeably drop Bryan's surname from her Instagram bio -- until now.
"I didn't think I was going to get emotional," Rachel said through tears during the Friday, January 5 episode of the "Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay" podcast.
"I just know people -- First off, I just want to say thank you to people who have reached out. I'm still trying to reply to people. You just never know how great your circle is until you see all the people who reach out and love you."
Rachel went on to point out how, "if you've read the headlines," she's "obviously" going through "a difficult time."
The Season 13 The Bachelorette star continued, "And you're probably wondering why I would even work. But to be honest with you, I need to distract myself from myself, and the best way to do that is to do something that I love -- and I love 'Higher Learning' -- and so I am going to try my best to get through this podcast."
The former attorney, however, told her listeners of her divorce, "But I'm not going to talk about it."
"I will eventually," Rachel clarified, "but now is not the time. I'm just trying to take it day by day."
Rachel's friend Justin Sylvester shared during a January 3 interview on Today with Hoda & Jenna that Rachel has been coping from her split from Bryan by "taking it day by day."
Justin said of Rachel, "She's just trying to pick up the pieces. She's in survival mode."
The Bachelorette 13 alum Adam Gottschalk -- Bryan's friend from The Bachelorette and the husband of Raven Gates, who had a falling out with her former bestie, Rachel, in 2019 after they appeared on Nick Viall's The Bachelor season -- defended Bryan in a since-deleted comment on an E! News Instagram post about Justin's interview.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"Not taking sides here but wanted to point out some facts on [Bryan] since I knew him from the show," Adam, 33, wrote, according to Us Weekly.
"He moved his entire chiro practice across the country, sold his Miami home, left his family and friends to put all he could into a relationship."
Adam continued in his comment, "Rachel has said in multiple interviews that she quit being a lawyer and started doing entertainment reporting [and Bryan] is a workaholic putting in 12hr+ days while trying to survive in high rent post covid California business environment."
"Doing that at 38 or something now he's in his mid 40s is ROUGH," he concluded.
When Bryan announced his divorce filing he wrote on Instagram, "If you've been following me for a while, you know I don't like to put my personal affairs on social media and like to keep a safe space for our family."
"Many of you know me as a chiropractor," he elaborated, "and also as a husband, my proudest role so far. After more than 4 years of marriage, Rachel and I have made the difficult decision to part ways and start anew."
The chiropractor continued, "My parents have been married forever and I'm a family man, but sometimes loving yourself and your partner means you must let go."
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Bryan concluded of his 38-year-old estranged wife, "Please respect the spaces of our family and friends as we figure out our next steps. Respectfully, Bryan."
In the divorce documents obtained by Us, Bryan had listed Sunday, December 31 -- New Year's Eve -- as the former couple's date of separation. He also requested spousal support from The Bachelorette alum.
On Monday, January 1, Rachel uploaded a cryptic quote via her Instagram Stories.
The quote read: "Lessons of 2023. Do not trust all the thoughts. Go where you are celebrated. Real friends are just real. If it's forced, it will probably fail. If they can't show up for themselves, they won't show up for you -- move on."
The message continued, "Patience will always be a friend. It's okay to outgrow people, places, and things. Growing pains are necessary to get to the next level. People will show who they are, always, believe them."
And on New Year's Eve, Rachel hinted that 2023 had been a difficult year for her, prompting speculation from fans that she may have been referring to marriage problems with Bryan, at least in part.
"Definitely one of the hardest years of my life," Rachel captioned a video montage of many different moments with friends and family, "but choosing to focus on grateful moments and carrying that energy into 2024."
Rachel recently raised eyebrows when describing her relationship with her The Bachelorette 13 winner, Bryan, whom she married in August 2019.
Rachel told Nick Viall on the December 21 episode of "The Viall Files" podcast that she and Bryan "live totally different lives" and "don't work well together."
Rachel shared, "Bryan is a sole practitioner. He leaves the house at 8AM and he comes home at, like, 9 o'clock, 9:30 [at night] sometimes. It's just him by himself."
"Whereas, me, especially now that I'm not doing Extra, I have a lot more free time. I'm podcasting, I'm researching, I'm paying attention to what's in the news, and then I'm back in hustle mode with trying to get a second job," she continued.
"So I go to events... We're just in two totally different places."
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"There's not a lot of time to take pictures of each other and show what we're doing, because we're in the bed or that kind of thing," Rachel explained.
And Rachel said she liked to keep her relationship with Bryan special and personal.
"I was just like, 'I want to keep this for ourselves' and, you know, marriage has ups and downs, but you never know when we're good or when we're not because we just don't really put it out there, and that's just kind of always been us," Rachel said.
"And I kind of want to keep it that way, so when I want to share something, I do."
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However, Rachel -- whom Nick had eliminated in third place on The Bachelor's 21st season -- admitted that she understood why Bachelor Nation was frustrated with the pair and criticized them from time to time.
"I get [why people throw stones at us]. We don't put ourselves out there at all [except] maybe an anniversary or a family trip here or there, or a holiday. But I think I [stopped posting] because people were so critical of us when we came off the show," Rachel said.
Rachel, a former attorney from Texas, chose Bryan as her winner on The Bachelorette over runner-up Peter Kraus.
After Rachel and Bryan got engaged in 2017, they lived in Rachel's hometown of Dallas, TX, for a while before moving to Miami, FL, in 2019 where Bryan continued working as a chiropractor.
Rachel and Bryan tied the knot in Mexico in Summer 2019.
While Rachel and Bryan only enjoyed being social-media influencers for a short time, Nick admitted he and his pregnant fiancee, Natalie Joy, post constantly about their lives, which could support the argument they're "using [their] relationship" for fame and money.
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"We did at one point, in the beginning... Also, you guys work well together and you work together. We don't," Rachel said.
"And we learned that! You've got to protect the marriage, and we just don't work well together. I commend you guys; not every couple can do that."
Despite the fact Rachel and Bryan were running in different directions, she claimed they were still excited about starting a family together, hopefully in the near future.
"We're working on having a kid," Rachel told Nick.
"Sometimes that's not as easy as you think. You think, 'Okay, when I'm ready, I'm ready and it will happen,' and then it doesn't. So, that's been a little bit of a struggle too."
Rachel said she and Bryan were also "ready for a restart" in 2024 after spending the holidays with her family.
"But I'm very much at peace. I have a lot more time to just do the things that I want to do and figure out what's next. I'm trying not to freak out because I'm so used to controlling everything," Rachel concluded.
Rachel discussed the pressure she's feeling to have a baby at her age during an August appearance on the "Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe" podcast.
"I feel the pressure, like, I'm 38. Oh my gosh, I don't even have eggs frozen. It's just a lot!" Rachel said at the time.
"And [my therapist] is telling me, as I'm in this transition phase, this is truly -- this is so scary to think about -- the first time that I've ever actually had time to be still and deal with my reality."
The Season 13 The Bachelorette star confessed to Kaitlyn -- who also feels pressure to have children and feels she's running out of time after her split from The Bachelorette 14 alum Jason Tartick -- that she's "impatient" as well as a "control freak."
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But Rachel said she didn't plan to share details about her family planning with fans because she values privacy both in her personal life and within her marriage.
"When you come off the show, you feel the pressure of showing people, 'How are we doing?' Because they want that, they fell in love with you as a couple and they want to see how you're doing and they want to check in," Rachel explained.
She added, "You feel like you have to perform."
Rachel recalled grocery shopping with Bryan after their stint on The Bachelorette and having people watch their dynamic. Rachel said at one point, Bryan walked away from her and the media "blew it up into this whole thing."
"I felt anxiety to have to perform for people I don't even know, and they don't know me," Rachel shared.
"And then I'm only giving them a piece of what our relationship is, which is up and down! You go through seasons all the time and it's work. I just didn't want to do that. So very quickly, we decided, 'We're only going to share what we want to share,' and people still criticize us for that."
In fact, there were months when Rachel and Bryan didn't post a single thing about each other, nor did they like each other's Instagram posts.
"Everyone assumed that we were breaking up. They were counting how long it had been since we last posted about each other," Rachel lamented.
Rachel joked about how she's a "terrible" social-media person, and actually wishes she wasn't because she was "losing money" because of it.
"I think that may have contributed to the success of our relationship," Rachel concluded.
"I am more private with my personal life, and that's why when people say, 'Are you going to do another reality show?' I don't want people to know where I live, what people I hang out with, and what I drive. I'd rather do something else -- I'd host a show!"
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And Bryan added at the time, "I'll be ready when it happens. That's the attitude you've got to have. I don't think anyone is ever ready for it; they just do it. And baby after baby, maybe it gets easier."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
