Rachel Lindsay is still processing her marriage to Bryan Abasolo coming to an end.
“I didn’t think I would get emotional. … First off I just want to say thank you for people who 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 that reach out and love you,” Lindsay, 38, began her “Higher Learning” podcast on Friday, January 5. “Obviously it’s a difficult time, if you’ve read the headlines, 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.’”
Lindsay noted that she’s not going to get into details of the divorce at this time. “I will eventually, but now is not the time, [I’m] just trying to take it day by day,” she said.
Cohost Van Lathan then joked that Lindsay’s emotions were about the University of Texas’ loss in the College Football Playoff on Monday, January 2.
“Before we move on — I love you, I respect you, you’re a member of my family and whatever you need and in any way, me and everyone who loves who can be supportive, we’re going to be there,” he said, adding that listeners looking for the story about the split will found out on Lindsay’s “time.”
Lindsay’s comments comes after Us Weekly confirmed on Tuesday, January 2, that Abasolo filed for divorce. According to court documents, Abasolo listed Sunday, December 31, as their date of separation and requested spousal support.
Abasolo took to social media hours later to address the news, writing via 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, and also 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.”
In the statement, Abasolo said his parents and their long-lasting marriage has been an inspiration for him. “I’m a family man but sometimes loving yourself and your partner means you must let go,” he continued. “Please respect the spaces of our family and friends as we figure out our next steps.”
Bachelor fans saw the former couple’s love story unfold during season 13 of The Bachelorette in 2017. After ending the season engaged, Lindsay and Abasolo exchanged vows two years later. They later opened up about the challenges that came with having a bicoastal marriage.
“What people don’t realize is we were pretty much long-distance before [we got married] with all the traveling that I was doing pre-COVID. I didn’t actually have a place somewhere else, but I was never at home because I was always traveling,” Lindsay exclusively told Us in 2020. “And so for us, you know, we know how to work this out and navigate it, and obviously we have an end goal in mind. This is not a forever situation.”
Despite understanding the “curiosity” around her relationship, Lindsay admitted she wasn’t thrilled about outside commentary.
“In a reality television world that is designed for your relationship to fail, we survived and came out on top,” she wrote via Instagram in July 2022. “So quite naturally, the audience wants to know what we are doing, if we are okay, and what is next for our future. They want the love story to still play out for their public perception. But our contractual public story ended on August 7, 2017. At that point, we decided that we wanted to control the future of our relationship.”
Lindsay made it clear she wasn’t worried about how her marriage appeared on social media, adding, “Up until that point, the confines of our relationship were determined for us. Now we were free, and we jointly decided to pull away from the public eye to build a strong, solid foundation. And we successfully did that. So, it is interesting to me that people want to define the success and happiness of our relationship by the number of social media posts, comments, likes and stories we post.”
Less than one month before Abasolo filed for divorce, Lindsay discussed how the duo have “totally different lives.”
“I just [was 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 never put it out there,” the reality star explained on a December 2023 episode of Nick Viall’s “The Viall Files” podcast. “I kind of want to keep it that way, so when I want to share something, I do.”
