In the wake of The Bachelor finally casting its first Black lead, Becca Kufrin is taking responsibility for her own blind spots when it comes to the franchise’s community. On the previous episode of Bachelor Happy Hour, Becca and co-host Rachel Lindsay got into a tense back and forth regarding a pro-police image posted by Becca's fiancé, and winner of her season of The Bachelorette, Garrett Yrigoyen. When the women returned for the next episode on Tuesday, Becca began with an apology, and said she doesn't "know" where she and Garrett currently stand.
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"I want to first start by saying Rachel, I owe you an apology," she said. "I would like to first start there. I fell short last week because this conversation — that conversation deserved my complete, undivided attention. It deserved much more care and thoughtfulness on my end. You delivered all of that and more and I did not."
Garrett’s conservative social media posts have been an issue before. While Becca’s season was airing, fans noticed he liked Instagram images suggesting school shooting survivor and activist David Hogg is a crisis actor. Becca defended him then and continued to defend him last week when he posted a blue line and a lengthy statement in support of the police.
"Garrett is my fiancé and I love him and to his core, I believe that he is a good person," Kufrin said, adding, "I don’t think he meant it in a malicious way. I do think it was tone-deaf, and it was the wrong time and message and sentiment."
Rachel has been especially vocal in recent weeks about The Bachelor’s issues with diversity and previous Bachelorette Hannah Brown’s use of the n-word.
“This is not an isolated accident with Garrett’s behavior and I never spoke about what Garrett did during your season," Lindsay said in the previous episode. "To me, this is what Garrett thinks, this is what Garrett is...I don’t think Garrett is malicious, but Garrett is what the problem is.”
Now, Becca has realized how her defensiveness was a mark of her own privilege, and also said her relationship with Garrett is currently on shaky ground.
"For those who are curious about my relationship with Garrett at this point, all I can say right now is that I don't know," she shared. "I can't give anything more than that."
As for Rachel, she accepted Becca’s apology. But fighting racism in the Bachelor community shouldn’t be Rachel’s job to fight alone. For there to be change, a lot more people involved in the franchise need to take Becca’s cue and own up.