Entertainment

Dean & Rachel's Kissing Competition Beef From 'Winter Games' Isn't Over

ABC

When Rachel Lindsay judged the kissing competition on The Bachelor Winter Games, it was impossible not to notice how she was a bit tough when it came to her ex Dean Unglert. And just because Winter Games is over doesn't mean that their kissing competition-based issues are through. On March 1, Dean tweeted at Rachel about Winter Games and how she said his kiss with Lesley Murphy was "juvenile." Dean's tweet was in response to Rachel thanking a Marquette University Law School for appreciating her "judging skills" at a competition.

After hometown dates on Rachel's season of The Bachelorette, she sent Dean home. Since then, Dean has been busy appearing on Bachelor In Paradise and The Bachelor Winter Games (supervising producer: Lindsay Liles) while Rachel has continued to be engaged to Bryan Abasolo. But based on Rachel's harsh criticism of Dean's kiss with Lesley during the third episode of Winter Games, fans on Twitter thought that Rachel might just be a tiny bit bitter. People reported that Rachel responded to the hate she was getting in an Instagram story, but that wasn't the end of it.

Rachel was a judge for a sports law negotiation competition for her alma mater's National Sports Law Institute. When Marquette thanked Rachel and the other judges on Twitter, Rachel retweeted the post and wrote, "Ah Yes! A place where My judging skills were appreciated."

Dean saw Rachel's post and responded by tweeting, "Hopefully no one was acting juvenile," complete with the eye emoji.

To be fair, Rachel responded to Dean in a playful way. "Lol no this was the big leagues," she tweeted back at him — referring to the fact that she was judging a sports law competition alongside Major League Baseball's commissioner emeritus.

While JoJo and Arie also had to judge their exes during The Bachelor Winter Games kissing competition, they were much more generous in their comments to Luke and Bibiana than Rachel was to Dean. Lesley and Dean were the only pair to add a playful dance to their kiss and when they took their initial position, Rachel immediately asked, "Why are you standing like that?" While she seemed amused when Lesley ended up with her legs around Dean's neck, Rachel was not impressed overall. "When you started off, you lost me," Rachel said. Later, she called Dean and Lesley's kiss "awkward," juvenile," and "forced." She made them her last place vote, below another one of her exes, Josiah — even though Josiah's partner Ally had vomited during the competition.

As Elite Daily noted, Lesley was particularly vocal on Twitter about how Rachel judged her and her current boyfriend Dean. And Rachel also didn't stay silent on the topic — calling out the people who were criticizing her. "OK, so usually I don't do this, but I gotta say something on this one," Rachel said in a Feb. 21 Instagram story, according to People. "All of a sudden now I'm bitter, sad, petty, a hater, I'm lame, I'm jealous, you're questioning my relationship with Bryan — all because I judged a contest. Like, it was a show. This was a show, it was for show, and I guess I just can't get over how people are questioning my character as if I did the same to people on the show.

“I didn't attack anyone personally, I didn't attack anyone’s character, I didn't judge anyone personally — I only judged kissing," she continued. "It was supposed to be something new and different and I wanted an experience I had never done before. But like, y'all took it to a whole other level, and honestly, that's just sad."

While it's unclear where Dean and Rachel stand now outside of social media, these tweets have reignited the debate that Winter Games started. But at the end of the day, the only person who needs to be judging Dean and Lesley's kisses now are the couple themselves. And based on their relationship status post-Winter Games, they seem to think they're still in first place.