BACHELORETTE DEFENDS HER CHOICE OF FIANCÉ

Bachelor Nation gives and Bachelor Nation takes away.

That’s a lesson that Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay learned after her controversial season finale last week.

The Dallas lawyer, a fan favourite since a previous season of The Bachelor, may have been surprised by the ferocity of the backlash after she accepted a proposal from chiropractor Bryan Abasolo, who was mostly despised by fans, and broke up with business owner Peter Kraus, who was mostly beloved.

Perhaps the producers did too good a job of throwing us off the trail of the winner. Or perhaps the conspiracy theorists are right that Lindsay chose Abasolo to save face when she couldn’t have Kraus.

The only people who know for sure are the new couple and, in a conference call with the media, they were adamant that they are truly in love and had been throughout the season.

“I mean, it’s crazy the chemistry that we have between each other and how compatible we are,” Lindsay said. “And I really wish you could’ve seen more of that.”

What fans saw was a heart-rending final date between Lindsay and Kraus. She wanted to leave the show engaged; he said it was too soon to propose, although he offered to do so to keep Lindsay from breaking up with him.

But break up they did, clinging to each other as if unable to let go. Lindsay cried her false eyelashes off.

Lindsay says now that she and Kraus had “deep-rooted issues” that came up earlier in the season.

“I had already made up my mind when I walked into the room that I was sending him home. So it’s confusing to me why people think that I would settle on such an important decision just to get a ring on my finger.” But it seems many still think that. As for Kraus, he told the media he has no idea what issues Lindsay is talking about.

“I felt throughout the entire process that I was the best fit with Rachel . . . And had I been ready at the end, I don’t think she would’ve gone a different direction.”