When Abbie Chatfield debuted her romance with Konrad Bien-Stephens last week, during Finale Week of The Bachelorette Australia, fans began to wonder what Brooke Blurton thought of the relationship reveal. Now, the Bachelorette has shared her thoughts with fans, saying she’ll be taking a break from social media for a little while.
Konrad was not yet eliminated from Brooke’s season when he was first spotted out with Abbie in Byron Bay.
Though the couple waited until he was eliminated to post their relationship on social media, some fans questioned how Brooke felt about the timing as it was the day before the Grand Finale – and Brooke unfollowed Abbie afterwards.
The conflict was especially of concern to fans, since Abbie stood in place of Brooke’s family to meet the top two contestants in the Finale of The Bachelorette.
Brooke says she and Darvid will be taking a break from social media.
(Credit: Ten)
Now, the Bachelorette herself has shared her statement regarding the situation in a post about taking a break from social media to spend time with boyfriend Darvid Garayeli.
“We’ve decided to go within ourselves and go offline for this week,” Brooke wrote on her Instagram Stories. “We’ve waited a very long, very awaited 4 months to get to this and we want to really enjoy this moment and live in our love bubble.”
Brooke continued on to say she also needed this time to grieve the death of her beloved sister.
“I’ve promised myself, Darv, my family and my angel sister that I’ll take the time to heal. It will take more than a week but this is a start,” she wrote.
“I hate to bring it up, but personally and mentally I’ve been disrupted by all the crap that came with Finale Week. We both have,” she continued.
Abbie and Konrad went public on Instagram last week.
(Credit: Instagram)“I’m not a hostile person and literally do not have any hate in my heart. Everyone who watched the show, or was on the show cast and/or working as crew, will know that I put my hear and soul into it and it meant a lot for me to open myself up so vulnerably like that. Not only that but for what it meant for the LGBTQIA+ and First Nations Community to have that display of representation.
“Which moves onto my new point. The hardest point. For that to be tainted ONCE again by 1) What I thought was a close friend. 2) Another white woman displaying what white privilege looks like. 3) A very clear display of narcissism.
“Hurts me. Literally pains me,” she continued. “I’ve reached out to this person to resolve this ‘conflict’ which in fact, classic naive me, adult went to this person to communicate openly about the layers of complexity that this persons actions show and take away from NOT only me but what it meant for a queer woman of colour. If this wasn’t me, I’d still have this stance.”
“You guys asked for my comment. There it is. Now go give them more air time which is what this is exactly about. “
Brooke shared a statement to her Instagram page.
(Credit: Instagram)Brooke later followed up on her statement by sharing a now-deleted response from someone else on Instagram, shutting down commenters who were saying the incident has nothing to do with “white privilege.”
Re-posting someone’s story that read: “So many posts and questions about Brooke’s comment about white privilege and how it upset her about Abbie Chatfield hard launching her relationship with The Bachelorette finalist Konrad, this is the best explanation I’ve found so far.”
The re-posted explanation, which can be seen below, pointed out that the media is whitewashed and mainstream TV was never “designed for Blak people.” They also said that Abbie knew “how big this was for the Indigenous community.”
“Abbie is not dumb. She knew exactly what was going to happen if she posted that post before finale night, she knows her white privilege would have made her centre of attention and taken that away from the Blak community as a whole. That’s where white privilege comes in.”
Brooke shared a post with fans, explaining the white privilege comment to those who didn’t understand.
(Credit: Instagram)On Thursday evening, Abbie shared a typed statement to address the post made by Brooke.
“A month ago, a video of Konrad and I kissing was secretly captured by a patron and made public. Following this, Brooke and I had a conversation in which I apologised and expressed regret multiple times for our public affection as this was prior to Konrad’s exit from the show. Konrad had a similar conversation with Brooke,” she wrote.
“We met as a result of him coming along to a catch up with a mutual friend, the public setting was an accident. We absolutely should have waited to be in private as we are public figures and these are things we need to consider, but we didn’t. We also didn’t consider the possible ramifications of our actions.
“Immediately following this, we intentionally kept things quiet, and did not leave the house together in an effort to not be photographed out of respect for the show and to minimise press surrounding the spoiler of Konrad’s exit.”
Abbie continued: “When I uploaded a post confirming the numerous rumours, it was not with malice.
“The morning of, I mistook a message from Brooke expressing her happiness for and approval of our relationship as a green light to upload a post. Following the post, Konrad received an equally supportive message.
“I see with hindsight that this assumption was naïve. I now understand the timing of publicly sharing our relationship should have been more considered and that is my fault. I acknowledge that impact outweighs intent. I didn’t take into account the Australian media landscape and the inherent privilege that I hold as a white woman.
“My actions had the potential to undermine the importance that this pivotal season of The Bachelorette holds to the First Nations and LGBTQIA+ Communities.
“This is an extremely important conversation to be having.”
She finished by saying, “In future, this will be at the forefront of my mind and I will continue to listen to and amplify minority communities, and endeavour to learn. I’m sorry.”
Alisha, who met Brooke on Nick ‘Honey Badger’ Cummins’ season, shares the love for her Bachie bestie.
(Credit: Instagram)Ahead of Abbie’s statement, some fellow Bachie alumni shared their thoughts on the rift.
Alisha Aitken-Radburn, who starred with Brooke on The Bachelor Australia and Bachelor In Paradise Australia posted a selfie with Brooke on her Instagram stories shortly after the statement was released.
Simply adding a star emoji to her post, Alisha made it clear she was supporting her friend.
Angie Kent, who has said she “loves” Abbie, did question the timing in her Bachelorette recap for Yahoo! last week.
Calling it opportunistic, she wrote: “Announcing your spicy hot relationship THE DAY of your mate Brooke’s finale episodes was just a little bit can we say opportunistic?
“I love me some Abbie, don’t get this twisted, but she’s a very clever clogs when it comes to dropping it like it’s hot and creating an absolute media circus of sorts. Sister has stated many a time that there is one thing she does not like to discuss and that is who she is dating. But on the day of her friends finale episode(s) she HARD launches the s–t of her brand spankin’ new relationship with someone from Brooke’s season. Of course we are going to eat this right up, It’s yummy. Power move vibes right there. I love a power move. But it wasn’t the day for it hey?”
This story was originally featured on our sister site, Who Magazine.
