Abbie Chatfield has issued an apology to Brooke Blurton in a public statement on her Instagram after the Bachelorette called her out earlier today for taking the spotlight from what was meant to be an important and historic moment for First Nations Peoples and the LGBTQIA+ community.
In a two page post on her Instagram grid, Abbie admitted that hard-launching her relationship with Brooke’s Bachelorette season contestant Konrad-Bien Stephen during the week of the season finale was not the best move.
“I now understand the timing of publicly sharing our relationship should have been more considered and that is my fault,” she wrote.
“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.”
The former Bachelor contestant added: “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.
“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.”
However, some people aren’t buying it.
Brooke Blurton’s best friend’s Gabrielle Ebsworth and Alisha Aitken-Radburn’s Response
Brooke’s best friend Gabrielle Ebsworth left a number of scathing comments on the So Dramatic! Podcast Instagram page, questioning Abbie’s motives behind the apology and the timing of it.
“This is to address the post made by Brooke” but doesn’t actually speak to Brooke at all?” She penned. “So all the post is really addressing is her own PR nightmare and reputation.”
On another post, Gab wrote: “You missed the part where she hard launched a relationship on the night before the finale taking the spotlight away from not only her friend but the first-ever queer Bachelorette of colour who was providing representation to countless queer and Indigenous people who had never seen themselves on mainstream TV before.
“You also missed the part where she failed to take accountability and apologise for her behaviours to the person she’d wronged and only released this statement as a PR move,” she added.
Brooke’s Bachelor co-star and friend Alisha Aitken-Radburn left a comment on Abbie’s post and revealed that Brooke tried to call Abbie to sort things out and she did not answer her call. Ouch!
“This is great, hope you take her call now and have the conversation,” Alisha said.
Clementine Ford Also Put Her Support Behind Brooke Blurton
Feminist icon Clementine Ford also shared her opinion on the saga with a very eloquent and nuanced take on the matter.
“At best, it’s strategic,” she wrote. “At worse, it’s cheap and mean and yes, deeply steeped in white privilege.”
“So, why white privilege?
“As I said earlier, as a First Nations woman, Brooke confronts the reality of white supremacy every day in ways Abbie (and I, and every other white person commenting on this story) cannot a) possibly understand and b) are almost certainly guilty of enforcing.”
The How We Love author and Big Sister Hotline podcast host added: “This was a groundbreaking moment – a queer, First Nations woman, in a colonised country where white people still subject Aboriginal people to violence every day, and First Nations women are “the most oppressed people in the world”, FINDING LOVE ON A MAINSTREAM TV SHOW.
“This was Brooke’s moment, a culmination I’m sure of incredibly hard work and personal negotiations many of us can never understand.
“And instead of celebrating that, too many headlines that week were devoted breathlessly to a white woman and her new boyfriend.”
You can read Clementine’s full explainer here:
Can I just say that I personally find it very weird that people apologise to the media and the public but not directly to the person they upset?
As far as So Dramatic! are aware, Brooke has not received a sincere personal apology from Abbie at the time her Instagram post was made. It seems quite odd that she addressed the issue to her followers on Instagram, but not to Brooke directly?
Brooke Blurton Issues a Statement on Instagram Calling Out Abbie Chatfield
Earlier today, Brooke finally broke her silence on her rumoured feud with her good friend Abbie following the drama that emerged during finale week.
On Thursday, Brooke took to her Instagram stories to reveal she and her winner, Darvid Garayeli, are going “offline” in the wake of the drama.
“D and I just want to thank everyone for all the congratulation messages,” she penned. “We’ve decided to go within ourselves and go offline for this week.”
The youth worker confessed she and Darvid were “personally and mentally… disrupted by all the crap that came with finale week.”
Highlighting that she is not a “hostile person”, nor does she “have any hate in her heart”, Brooke said it meant a lot for her to be vulnerable on The Bachelorette.
“Not only that but for what it meant for the LGBTQIA+ and First Nations Community to have that display of representation,” she added.
Listing a number of things she took issue with, Brooke moved on to her “new” and “hardest point” in calling out Abbie.
“For [my season] to be tainted ONCE again by… what I thought was a close friend.”
“Another white woman displaying what white privilege looks like.”
“A very clear display of narcissism.”
The Bachelorette said the situation “literally pains” her before revealing she reached out to Abbie to “resolve this ‘conflict'”.
“Classic naive me, adult me went to this person to communicate openly about the layers of complexity that this person’s actions show and take away from NOT only me but what it meant for a queer woman of colour [sic].”
She also admitted that if this was taking away from another person’s experience, she’d “still have this stance”.
“You guys asked for my comment. There it is,” Brooke concluded. “Now go give them more air time in which is what this is exactly about.”
Brooke also explained to her 300 thousand-strong following that she is still grieving the death of her sister, Kye.
‘When I put in perspective to how long it has been, it’s been only two months,” she said. “Not having Darv there in that time was probably one of the most challenging times for both of us.
“It doesn’t make it easy when you physically can not be there for someone you love who’s lost someone they love.”
She then wrote that she’s promised herself, her partner and her “angel sister” that she will “take the time to heal”.
“It’ll take more than a week but this is a start.”
Brooke’s statement comes after she noticeably unfollowed Abbie on Instagram after she went public with Konrad.
Following that, Abbie noticeably snubbed Brooke during The Bachelorette finale, despite appearing on the show as her closest confidant.
Know something that we don’t about Brooke Blurton or Abbie Chatfield? Spill the tea here!
Get the tea first! Follow So Dramatic! on Instagram and tune in on Mondays to get your reality tea fix with the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto.
