Abbie Chatfield has apologised on social media to Brooke Blurton after she called Chatfield out in a hard-hitting Instagram Story.
The Bachelorette 2021 star made a powerful post in her Instagram Story, addressing all the “crap that came with finale week.” She mentioned an unnamed “white woman” and “narcissist” which was then confirmed to be a reference to Chatfield.
“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,” she said. “Hurts me. Literally pains me. I’ve reached out to this person to resolve this ‘conflict’ which in fact, 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.”
That has now prompted Chatfield to post a lengthy apology on her own Instagram. She admitted that unveiling her relationship with The Bachelorette contestant Konrad-Bien Stephen was poorly timed.
“A month ago, a video of Konrad and I kissing was secretly captured by a patron and made public,” she wrote in her statement. “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.
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.”
Chatfield continued by insisting that she and Konrad tried to keep their relationship hidden. “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,” she said. “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.”
She continued: “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.
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.”
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