Peter Kraus may not have won this season of The Bachelorette, but based on how fans have reacted to him, it looks like he might be on track to be the next Bachelor. If he chooses to accept the position.
It looks like Rachel Lindsay really doesn"t want Peter to be the Bachelor, though.
Because not only is Rachel saying that Peter wasn"t the man for her (which is fine) but it sounds like she"s saying that Peter wouldn"t be good for anyone, because she"s calling him out as a "manipulator."
Entertainment Tonight got an exclusive interview with Rachel Lindsay and the man she chose, Bryan Abasolo.
We have the video for you below.
And Rachel Lindsay accuses Peter Kraus of being manipulative, which is … a lot.
As we said, it"s one thing to decide that he"s not the man for you, even if the entire viewing audience thinks that you"re nuts for picking Bryan Abasolo.
It"s quite another thing to drag a guy"s name through the mud and use your voice to hurt his chances of being the next Bachelor.
(Or of finding love at all)
If she were accusing him of being abusive, or something, we"d be paying close attention — because that is always a serious accusation.
But "manipulation" is vague as hell … and, as you"ll hear for yourself in the video below, Rachel doesn"t really describe it so well.
"I felt a little bit of manipulation there."
She does try to explain:
"The lack of commitment, you telling me that you want this future with me, but you didn"t want to take the actions to have it."
She means when Peter told her that he wasn"t comfortable proposing to her right away.
That"s because, to Peter, an engagement is a commitment to marry and he takes that very seriously.
(And probably would want to continue to get to know her and to date her off camera, to know that they could truly have a healthy and successful relationship even when they"re truly alone)
But, for Rachel, that seemed like cold feet or commitment issues, and she felt haunted by the ghosts of boyfriends past.
"That"s what triggered those emotions in me."
As for the actual "manipulation," it just sounds like it has more to do with Rachel having emotions than Peter playing some sort of game with her.
"I felt like there was a lot of push and pull. I feel like he was giving me just enough to keep me and string me along, rather than being forthcoming with everything."
That"s interesting, because we were just speculating that perhaps Rachel had strung Peter along to give him more air time even though she"d already decided that Bryan Abasolo was the one for her.
"And the thing is, when I walked in [the night of the breakup], I knew what I was going to do, and I still kept getting that push and that pull. So it was hard."
Most of us would just call that mixed emotions, because she was breaking up with an incredibly handsome man for whom she had a lot of feelings.
Rachel seems to want to make us believe that Peter"s on-screen personality isn"t who he really is.
"I think you saw the essence of Peter in that breakup. I think people saw a different side to him they still aren"t ready to accept."
The essence of Peter is … crying?
Because that"s what we remember about that brutal breakup.
"I mean, the man told me I was going to have a mediocre life if I wasn"t with him, and then apologized about it. And I"m not."
That"s probably the least cool thing that Peter said all season, so we don"t blame Rachel for bringing it up.
He did apologize, but a guy saying something screwed up like that is a huge red flag.
We don"t think that it necessarily embodies the whole of Peter, though.
Rachel seemed really defensive about that.
"I"m having an amazing life. These last few months have been absolutely amazing."
That defensiveness on Rachel"s part might be more about responding to how the Bachelor Nation was pretty heavy-handed about being Team Peter.
But you know, Rachel got the smooth-talking Bryan Abasolo and is already planning their wedding.
If she got everything that she wanted, what does she care what the Bachelor Nation thinks?
We think that Rachel talking about how great her life is now might be less about what Peter predicted and more about convincing herself.
That"s just our impression, anyway.
Decide for yourself as you watch the clip below:
