Abbie Chatfield has apologised to Brooke Blurton in a public statement since the Bachelorette called her out earlier today for taking the spotlight from what was meant to be an important moment for First Nations Peoples and LGBTQIA+ communities.
In a two-page post on the Insta grid, Chatfield admitted that regardless of her intentions, hard-launching her relationship with Blurton’s Bachie season contestant Konrad-Bien Stephen during the week of the season finale wasn’t the best decision.
Due to the privilege she holds as a white woman and the way the media often silences Blak voices, the timing of that decision took away from Brooke’s moment. A historic queer First Nations woman’s moment to be exact.
“I now understand the timing of publicly sharing our relationship should have been more considered and that is my fault,” she said.
“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.”
PEDESTRIAN.TV reached out to Abbie Chatfield for comment but she did not reply at the time of publishing. You can read her public statement in full below.
In case you missed it, earlier today The Bachelorette 2021 leading lady, Blurton confirmed Abbie Chatfield is the person referenced in her scathing Instagram Story addressing all the “crap that came with finale week.”
In the original post on her story, Blurton wrote about an unnamed “white woman” and “narcissist” with whom she was close friends with who has “tainted” her Bachelorette experience.
She said there: “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 wrote.
“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.”
Yesterday, Channel 10 slammed claims that Abbie Chatfield was blacklisted by the network over the controversial hard-launch of her new boyfriend.
