The Bachelor is not the first time Kelsey Toussant has opened up about her religion

During the sixth episode of The Bachelor, Kelsey Toussant finally got the chance to step into the spotlight when she got her first one-on-one date of the season. During her date with Joey in Montreal, Kesley and Joey took to the air as they worked with an aerialist for Cirque du Soleil and got the chance to practice their aerial skills.

After the date, Joey and Kelsey finally got the chance to sit down for a romantic dinner which provided Kelsey with the chance to have some alone time with Joey. During the conversation, Kelsey began looking ahead to the future and got quite candid in expressing concerns over hometowns due to a rift that had formed between her and her father.

"With hometowns coming up, I want to feel comfortable and with my family, I haven’t had the best of relationships with some of them, specifically my dad. We were really close growing up, that was my dad. We talked about everything, he was my rock and safe haven. He would be there through everything no matter what and he stopped talking to me for a very long time," Kelsey revealed to Joey.

Upon hearing this, Joey inquired about what caused the rift between the pair which was when Kelsey candidly revealed that it was religion that had driven a wedge between her and her father.

"It was religious," Kelsey explained to Joey. "He wanted me to focus on that, he wanted me to be in that but in my heart, I knew it wasn’t where I wanted to be. Because I chose to go to college, he didn’t support that decision at all. Anyone in who’s in his household has other be in the religion."

Kelsey explained to Joey that she ultimately went to live with her mom and didn't speak with her father for some time after she decided to walk away from the religion. Thankfully, she did mention that she's begun to rebuild the relationship but it's clear this is something that has weighed heavily on Kelsey and she was incredibly brave in opening up and showing vulnerability during the show in sharing her story.

Kelsey T has opened up about being a former Jehovah’s Witness

During The Bachelor, Kelsey Toussant did not provide any details about the religion she walked away from, but she has been open in discussing her decision to walk away from the religion outside of the show as well. In a 2019 interview, Kelsey openly discussed her decision to walk away from being a Jehovah’s Witness:

"As a child, I was actually pretty quiet. I would briefly blossom whenever I was given a creative assignment from school. From then on I knew I had creative genes flowing through my body. To this day my dad has a talk show I wrote, produced and starred in on his phone. I don’t think he knew I had it in me, no one did, not even me. When high school came around, I joined a theater class and that’s when I realized I wanted to pursue creativity for the rest of my life. At the same time, I was a full-blown Jehovah’s Witness and I knew the two couldn’t co-exist. So I decided to leave the religion and set my focus on attending California State University, Northridge."

As Kelsey touched upon on the show, growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness and coming from a strict religious background her decision to leave the religion came with a lot of challenges. Not only did it create a rift with her father, as Kelsey touched upon on The Bachelor, but it also opened a door to a world she previously never experienced.

"Coming from a very strict religious background I’ve had to break out of a mentality that I’ve had for more than half my life. I was so separated from society and didn’t even realize it and I’ve had to play catch-up ever since," Kelsey told Voyage LA. "From rebuilding relationships with family and friends to watching movies I wasn’t able to experience. Even to this day, friends of mine will ask if I’ve seen certain movies and they can’t believe that as an actress I haven’t seen some of the most iconic films!"

While Kelsey did not discuss the specifics of the timing, she did reveal on The Bachelor that she has begun to rebuild her relationship with her father in recent years telling Joey they've gone to the movies and started calling to check up on one another, it's clear her decision to walk away from being a Jehovah’s Witness was a life-changing moment for Kelsey and it takes an incredibly strong person to openly discuss these struggles in the candid way Kelsey has done.