Rachel Lindsay Gets Real With Bachelor Ex Nick Viall About Their Season

The reality TV exes revisited their experiences on the ABC show.

By Samantha Schnurr Feb 05, 2019 10:10 PMTags
Rachel Lindsay, Nick ViallABC

Nick Viall and Rachel Lindsay faced their romantic history—together. 

While sitting down together for the former Bachelor's The Viall Files podcast, he and the Bachelorette alum reflected on the time they spent together on his season of the hit ABC series that aired back in 2017. As Bachelor Nation fans well know, Lindsay ended up being eliminated in week nine, leaving him to choose between Raven Gates and Vanessa Grimaldi, who he ultimately proposed to. In August 2017, the exes jointly confirmed exclusively to E! News that they had ended their engagement. Meanwhile, Lindsay went on to star as the Bachelorette for the 13th season and remains engaged to winner Bryan Abasolo

While she and Viall went their separate ways after the Texas lawyer's elimination, her memories of that time are still crystal clear. 

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Lindsay recalled a few moments in particular that she had never spoken about, including during the fourth week when Viall and the women traveled to Wisconsin. 

"I had been drinking. I was so upset that day," she recalled in a sneak peek of the interview shared with E! News. "I have never told this story." As she described, they had a "horrible" day on a farm and then saw Viall and Grimaldi have a "secret moment." Viall defended his ex-fiancé, claiming producers told her to find him. Either way, the other contestants saw it and Lindsay got frustrated because she thought it was obvious who he wanted to be with. "So, I was like, 'Why are we even here?'" she said, also noting that she had tried to quit the season three times. 

Ultimately, after being notified by a producer, Viall found Lindsay sobbing in a bathroom and she told him she didn't want to be there. In her words, "It was the most embarrassing moment." 

ABC/Bill Matlock

The former contestant also remembered seeing a book Grimaldi was going to show him that she used to work with her students. At the moment during the second week, Lindsay said, "This b--ch is gonna win."

Both unfortunately and fortunately, they knew who he was going to pick. "I never felt like you led me on," she assured him. In fact, it was so clear to Lindsay where she stood in the show that she hugged the crew goodbye before the rose ceremony she was eliminated in. "It's been real fun. This is it for me tonight," she remembered telling the camera and sound people. "I remember. I was like, 'It's not me.'"

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Despite their eliminations, "I had a real connection with you. I had a real connection with Raven," Viall told her on the podcast. "I really liked a lot of things about you guys and there was a lot of attributes that both of you had that—I would really like this in my relationship."

While Lindsay didn't expect to win, she admitted, "I at least thought I was going to be second." Still, things were pretty transparent. "We never had a ring conversation. We never talked about the future," Lindsay said. "We just had a good time."

The full podcast episode is set to air on Wednesday.