As Rachel Lindsay gets close to handing out that final rose, the castoff men of the season gathered to air their grievances, get answers to their questions, and… in some cases… hug it out. On the July 31 episode of The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All, Rachel faced the guys she had kicked to the curb over the last few months, but it seemed more of them were more interested in facing each other.
DeMario Explains That Infamous Basketball Date
ICYMI, Rachel asked DeMario to leave after another girl appeared during their date and claimed DeMario was basically her boyfriend. DeMario still denied the truth of those allegations. “That’s called a side chick,” DeMario said as the audience started booing him. “You can boo me. I’m just keeping it real.”
Chris Harrison wasn’t going to let DeMario off the hook that easily, however. “I feel like now you’re really distancing yourself from Lexi,” Chris said. “I had this guy DeMario tell me he dated her and had been in a relationship.” DeMario said he’d never said any such thing. “I have that on tape,” Chris shrugged. Sadly, they didn’t air the footage in which DeMario admitted to being in a relationship with Lexi. Instead, the airtime was spent letting the other guys complain that when DeMario blindsided Rachel with his (maybe-maybe not) girlfriend, Rachel closed off emotionally from the process, making it harder for any of them to connect with her. DeMario didn’t seem very apologetic and Chris moved on.
Kenny Vs. Lee
Next up were Kenny and Lee, who had been at each other’s throats all season. Dean was on Kenny’s side. “Kenny might have been the most well-liked guy in the house and it’s hard to say the same about Lee,” Dean said. “I will forever have Kenny’s back in that situation. I think that Lee made a point to badger certain people.” DeMario jumped in to support Lee. “The Lee that I know was a very genuine guy,” he argued. Will added that Kenny was “one of the smartest guys in the house” and that Lee had been hell-bent on getting under Kenny’s skin.
For his part, Kenny reasoned that Lee’s behavior was a reaction to him feeling that he was in over his head and couldn’t compete with the other guys in the house. “It was just somebody who didn’t belong,” Kenny said.
Lee admitted he “should have been a better friend” and apologized to Kenny, who said he didn’t carry grudges, but he wasn’t sure that he and Lee were going to “sit and kick it” anytime soon. Chris then surprised Kenny by having his daughter come out on stage and telling the two of them that they were celebrating Kenny’s birthday the next day at Disneyland.
Lee Gets in the Hot Seat
Lee then joined Chris on stage. Lee insisted he’d gone on the show “to meet somebody,” and admitted that – watching the footage of himself as the show aired – he realized he had some things about himself that he “needed to fix.” Dean then jumped in to ask Lee why he’d fanned the fire on social media while the show was airing if he had, in fact, been embarrassed by his actions. Chris conveniently had some tweets ready to go to refresh everyone’s memory. “You should have done this [and apologized] two months ago,” Dean added, while Kenny said that Lee needed to take responsibility for his actions like a man.
“I feel like I have a lot to learn,” Lee said. “If you didn’t get caught, would you be sorry?” Kenny asked. Lee insisted he didn’t like racism at all and DeMario said he wanted to sit Lee down and give him a history lesson. “If I hurt anybody in any way, with a bad joke, I apologize,” Lee said. “I did things that were wrong.”
Chris then asked him if he recognized the misogynistic, racist things he said. “I completely denounce that and I denounce that Lee. I want to learn.” He added, “I am sorry for saying things when I was not educated and ignorant in those subjects.” Kenny said he was willing to “help” educate Lee and the two hugged it out.
Everybody Loves Dean
Next up was Dean, who reiterated how blindsided he was when Rachel dismissed him after telling him she was falling in love with him. “She’s always going to have a piece of my heart, but I understand that door is closed,” Dean said. Fortunately, he is getting another chance to find love because he’s appearing on Bachelor in Paradise.
Rachel came out to join Dean on stage and told him it was “very, very difficult” to say goodby to him. “I’m still confused about why you told me you were falling in love with me and then I got the boot four days later,” Dean replied. Rachel repeated what she’d said before — that she really did mean it when she’d said she was falling in love with him, even though she’d sent him home soon after. Dean didn’t seem totally convinced, but said he felt better about it and let it go.
Rachel Vs. Lee
The final showdown came between Rachel and Lee. After telling Kenny that she was “disappointed” by the way he’d handled the situation with Lee, Rachel turned to the Nashville songwriter to talk to him directly. “I feel like I’m in such a unique position, I have the opportunity to be a spokesperson for African Americans, for women, and I just feel like you had such an amazing opportunity to be surrounded by different people and different cultures and you didn’t take advantage of that,” she said. “You can meet me backstage and I’d be more than happy to give you a black history lesson and a lesson on women’s rights.”
Lee then completed his unofficial apology tour. “Today, I learned how great the people that I was with actually are and I just, I want to apologize to you too,” he said. Rachel said thank you and that was that.
Tell Us: Do you think Lee really felt sorry for the things he’d said?
