Brooke Blurton’s Friend Just Gave An Interview About Abbie Chatfield & White Privilege
Another day, another piece of puzzle has been placed on the drama surrounding Brooke Blurton and Abbie Chatfield.
ICYMI: Brooke called out Abbie for “white privilege” after she hard launched her relationship with The Bachelorette finalist Konrad Bien-Stephens during finale week, which stole media attention from Brooke choosing Darvid Garayeli as her winner. The post followed photos of Abbie and Konrad kissing in Byron Bay being published online before Konrad was eliminated from the reality show. Abbie has since posted a two-panel apology to Instagram, and also addressed the controversy on a recent episode of her podcast It’s A Lot.
Aside from her statement, Brooke has stayed largely silent in recent days about where she now stands with Abbie. But now her bestie has given an interview on the So Dramatic! podcast to answer a few burning questions. Gabrielle Ebsworth is a proud Wangkumara and Barkindji woman, who has known Brooke for two years, telling host Megan Pustetto that they “clicked right away” upon meeting.
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Gabrielle addressed why Brooke was left upset over Abbie’s post. “It was really emotional for Brooke to have her moment in the spotlight taken, but also be taken by a friend,” she said. “It’s like saying you’re pregnant at someone else’s wedding, you could have just waited two days and done it in your own time and in your own space.”
She said that due to Brooke’s season breaking boundaries for both queer and Indigenous representation, she deserved her moment. “Having an Aboriginal woman at the forefront and driving her own love story, it’s so powerful — and it needs space to be heard and respected,” Gabrielle said. “I thought the timing was disrespectful, it could have been handled so much better.”
Gabrielle went on to speak about Abbie’s apology, which she said upon reading that she “thought the tone was off,” and that Abbie attempted to “deflect blame”. “With the first sentence, it says ‘Hi everyone’, it doesn’t say ‘Dear Brooke’ or ‘Dear my good friend Brooke’,” she told Pustetto.
“This already says that it isn’t for Brooke, it’s for the media and the people that keep her platform going. Then another problem was it was public — it wasn’t private. Brooke didn’t receive a message at all. The whole apology talked about her and Konrad at the bar, her and Konrad on FaceTime with Brooke… the whole thing was how do I fix this mess and it was very disingenuous.”
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Gabrielle claims that Brooke ended up getting hurt further from Abbie’s apology. “She felt really disheartened that there wasn’t a personal apology. She was also put in an uncomfortable and dangerous position of being painted out as someone who had put something wrong in the situation — and the comments were unmoderated. Not only was this public apology really intense, but she had to stop herself from looking at the comments that were flooded with racism,” she said.
“There were all these comments; all these white women accepting an apology that wasn’t meant for them.”
When asked if Abbie had reached out to Brooke’s personally, she replied “No,” adding “Brooke actually had to reach out to Abbie first after the whole Byron Bay kissing scandal. I think that Brooke was the first one to reach out which says a lot, but no, there was no direct apology.”
Former Bachelor star Alisha Aitken-Radburn posted a rather pointed comment on Abbie apology, suggesting that Abbie hadn’t been taking Brooke’s calls. Gabrielle elaborated, saying “When Brooke first messaged her after the Byron Bay incident, the response was ‘Sorry babe, I’m on the way to a party.’ I think there was the intent to call her back but the call didn’t happen. Brooke had tried to call Abbie a few times with no response.”
Within Abbie’s apology, she said she mistook Brooke’s message of approval of her relationship as approval to post, and Gabrielle addressed whether it was a miscommunication. “There was a call. I’m not privy to everything that happened , but Brooke was happy for Abbie and Konrad — she knows they’re great together,” she said. “But she did say ‘I want my moment in the spotlight.'”
In addressing people saying that Brooke was blaming Abbie for The Bachelorette’s poor ratings, Gabrielle did not mince her words. “No matter what an Aboriginal or bisexual woman does, it’s just never enough,” Gabrielle said. “People talk about the ratings of the show and they said ‘The season is so boring, no wonder that it’s doing bad in getting views.’ When I think the show it was really respectful and that’s why it had not many viewers — people want to see tea and drama.”
After Brooke accused Abbie of “white privilege”, some fans questioned whether race was relevant to what happened. “There’s a lot of white feminism which intersects with girl boss culture, which is all about putting white women into the same position of power as white men. It’s not about all women,” she said. Gabrielle encouraged white women to consider making more space for women of colour. “It’s about sharing and passing along the mic, just as much as it’s about listening and speaking up for other people.”
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She addressed Brooke’s critics, saying, “They don’t get that it’s about race or gender or sexuality because it’s probably never affected them. They’ve never had to think about how they’re portrayed, or scrutinised — they’re every move in front of the media,” she said.
Ultimately, this just comes down to timing, and whether intentional or not — Abbie’s timing was thoughtless. “[Brooke] deserved to have her six weeks in the spotlight without it being overshadowed by a white couple pashing in Byron Bay,” she said. “It’s about Aboriginal women being able to be princesses without a white woman coming to ruin it.”
Abbie has acknowledged her privilege on It’s A Lot, telling her listeners that “The white privilege is me not thinking about the impacts of that post to the community. I knew the importance but didn’t think my actions would affect that — and that’s where the white privilege comes in,” she said.
“I was neglectful in not thinking of the impacts of me — as a white woman in the media — uploading that post at that time… It was a mistake.”