I Paid You Off": Rachel Lindsay Unloads on "Ruthless" Ex-Husband Bryan Abasolo After Final Alimony Payment

It’s officially over. And Rachel Lindsay is not just closing the door on her marriage to Bryan Abasolo—she’s practically slamming it, locking it, and throwing away the key. The former *Bachelorette* star is finally speaking her truth about her split from her Season 13 winner, and she is holding absolutely nothing back.

In a candid and cathartic new episode of her *Pop Syllabus* podcast, Lindsay revealed she has just made the final spousal support payment to her ex-husband, and with that significant financial milestone comes a wave of long-suppressed emotions. The relief in her voice was palpable as she described the feeling of being "free" from a man she now characterizes as "ruthless" and "all around awful."

For fans who watched the couple fall in love on reality TV and celebrated their fairy-tale wedding in 2019, the vitriol might come as a shock. But for those who have followed their very public and often painful divorce proceedings, Lindsay's latest comments are the explosive culmination of over a year of legal battles and bitter feelings.

The trouble began in January 2024, when Abasolo unexpectedly filed for legal separation, blindsiding many. The divorce was eventually finalized in January 2025, but the financial fallout was just beginning. As part of the settlement, Lindsay—a former attorney who built a successful post-*Bachelorette* career as a podcast host and media personality—agreed to pay her ex a staggering $500,000 lump sum in alimony.

It’s a detail that clearly still stings. On her podcast, Lindsay didn't mince words about the financial and emotional toll of the separation. She admitted to feeling "powerless" throughout the negotiation process, a feeling she directly attributes to one crucial mistake: not having a prenuptial agreement.

"I wanted a prenup. I talked to him about a prenup. He did not want it," she revealed, lifting the veil on a tense conversation that happened long before the wedding bells rang. She described a "perfect storm" of emotions and "societal pressures" that led her to walk down the aisle despite her reservations, including an internalized "narrative that I couldn’t be loved because I focused so much on my career."

That lack of a prenup, she says, gave Abasolo leverage he was more than willing to use. "He took so much from me," she alleged. "He was ruthless about it, there was no compromising." The settlement forced her to write a half-million-dollar check, a payment she framed not as a loss, but as a final, decisive act of liberation.

"I felt powerful that I was able to do it in a year," Lindsay told her listeners, a note of defiant triumph in her voice. "Like, ‘I paid you off, I’m still here, I’m still surviving.’"

This isn't the first time Lindsay has hinted at the darkness of her marriage's end. Shortly after the divorce was finalized in early 2025, she appeared on her other podcast, *Higher Learning*, and practically sang with joy. "I’m divorced. Thank you, God," she exclaimed, asking for "some freedom music." At the time, she noted the "very weird feeling" of liberation that washed over her the moment Abasolo finally moved out of their home, seven months after he had initially filed for separation.

Now, she's getting into the gritty details, shedding the "fear, the shame and the embarrassment" that often accompanies a public divorce. She’s eager to dismantle the misconception that she "has it all together," offering a raw and unfiltered look at the struggles behind the glamorous Instagram feed.

For his part, Abasolo has offered a quieter, but telling, version of events. In a 2024 YouTube video with a divorce coach, he painted a picture of a disconnected partnership, where much of their interaction was performative. "We didn’t spend enough time with each other," he explained. "In my estimation, we saw what the other person was doing in the relationship, mainly on Instagram, although we lived in the same house." He framed his decision to file as a necessary step to "protect my mental health and just relieve the pressure."

But in Lindsay's narrative, the pressure is finally off—for her. With the alimony paid and her side of the story now on the record, she is embracing her new chapter with a fierce sense of independence. She’s survived the legal battle, the public scrutiny, and the financial hit. As she so powerfully put it, she paid him off, and she’s still here.

The final word, it seems, belongs to Rachel. And it's a word of pure, unapologetic freedom.