The Bachelorette star Rachel Recchia has revealed when Tino Franco’s kiss with another woman happened and when she first found out her fiance had cheated on her.
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Rachel and Tino got engaged at her Final Rose Ceremony of The Bachelorette’s nineteenth season.
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But Rachel revealed on The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose, which aired Tuesday night, that she decided to end her relationship with Tino because he had been unfaithful to her and failed to fully explain himself or offer a sincere apology.
Rachel felt Tino was trying to place blame on her for his own mistakes considering they were in a bad place at the time of his infidelity. Tino claimed Rachel had given him the impression that there wasn’t much hope for their relationship.
“He was upset that we were in a bad place, and instead of sitting there and doing the work, like I did — taking that space for myself and seeking help and focusing on this — he ran straight to someone that he was apparently not seeing — but seeing before the show… And not only that, but keeping it from me,” Rachel lamented on the latest episode of the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast.
Rachel claimed Tino had managed to hide the kiss from her “for weeks.”
“[The kiss] was around the time of [The Bachelorette] premiere [on July 11],” Rachel revealed to the podcast’s co-hosts, The Bachelorette alums Becca Kufrin and Michelle Young.
“And we’re talking The Men Tell All is when I found out [he cheated].”
The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All filmed on August 11, which is when Rachel found out about Tino, and then the special aired on August 29 on ABC.
“That long, he sat on this information,” Rachel continued.
“[He] sat in front of me and told me that I need to do all this work on myself for our relationship, which I agree… but you are sitting here on this information and actively seeking comfort and intimacy with another person — and then trying to turn it on me when you finally reveal it to me,” the flight instructor vented.
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Rachel said she lost trust so quickly in Tino that there was no hope for their relationship, especially since she needs to travel constantly for work as a flight instructor and needs to trust that her partner will be loyal at home.
Rachel complained about how Tino had “proven within one month, not even” that he couldn’t be faithful to her in a relationship.
“You’ve already proven… you can’t be faithful to me in a fight or in a hard time, and there’s no excuse for that. And I don’t think there’s another side to that,” Rachel said.
Rachel insisted that she never called off her engagement to Tino before his kiss with a former flame, nor did she ever threaten to return her engagement ring and break up with him.
Rachel also said Tino took no accountability and never gave her the answers that she needed for a possible reconciliation.
In a separate interview with People, Rachel said she starting thinking something was off with Tino in early August when he kept bringing up how messages had been leaked involving another The Bachelorette cast member, presumably Nate Mitchell, who was slammed by an ex-girlfriend for allegedly hiding his daughter in their relationship and cheating on her with multiple other women.
“I couldn’t figure out why he was bringing it up so much,” Rachel recalled.
“And I really wanted to talk to him about what happened in previous relationships: ‘Is there anything you need to tell me?’ And he told me, ‘No.'”
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Rachel said shortly after that Happy Couple visit, Tino called her on the phone.
“He did call me and I slowly worked out the details of some infidelity. It wasn’t something that he felt like he needed to tell me by any means. It was something I had to pull out,” Rachel said, adding that Tino’s confession was certainly “not an act of courage.”
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Rachel also shared additional details about how her face-to-face conversation with Tino came about in another podcast interview with “Chicks in the Office.”
“There was a conversation on the phone when he, I want to say, initially told me — I was yanking it out of this man! But initially, we had this conversation on the phone, hung up, and then it was like, ‘Okay, we need to be in person for the rest of this,’ Rachel said.
“So when I got there I was, ‘I need answers — I need to know timelines, I need to know when things started.’ Like I think everyone is owed that regardless of fighting or what you did. You could be broken up, you’re still owed those answers because there is an engagement. It’s still playing out on TV, and it just is a level of respect as well.”
“You think you’re going to get an answer, you think you’re going to have this revelation. But then he would say something else. So it was super frustrating, you could see him getting frustrated, me getting frustrated, so it was just a mess,” she continued.
According to Rachel, less than a day elapsed from when she first learned about Tino’s cheating and when the pair met in person for the discussion.
“It really was not even a day from when I found out to when we were in person and my head was just spinning… and I was like I just need to know what happened, and where is the timeline? Because it does matter,” she said.
During the interview, Rachel also reiterated her claims that Tino’s infidelity wasn’t just a fleeting one-time kiss and suggested it also included extensive texting.
“It isn’t just a kiss in a bar. It is so emotional and intimate and so many things that transpired up to the kiss. So I needed to get that information,” she said as she explained her thinking during the now former couple’s face-to-face meeting.
Rachel also voiced her frustration that Tino was allegedly still not very forthcoming with additional details.
“It really did like she was the one being protected, so I was like I need to get on front of him,” she said.
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As shown on The Bachelorette finale, Tino attempted to apologize to Rachel for “the emotional betrayal” and breaking her heart, but it wasn’t enough to convince Rachel to give him another chance.
When Tino and Rachel’s conversation on After the Final Rose reached a conclusion, The Bachelorette host Jesse Palmer said someone was waiting backstage, “demanding” to speak to Rachel.
Rachel’s The Bachelorette runner-up, Aven Jones, then surprised Rachel onstage and asked her out for a drink so they could “catch up” — and Rachel said she’d absolutely love to.
Rachel opened up if she’s willing to give Aven another shot during a Wednesday appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan.
Rachel told People how she’d like to “get to a point” with Tino “where we are at peace” and she wants to “move on with my life.”
“I obviously still believe in love and I really know it’ll come along when it’s ready,” Rachel shared. “I am looking forward to this time to myself and to be able to reflect on everything and move forward.”
Rachel ultimately thanked Gabby Windey, her co-The Bachelorette star, for helping her get into “the right headspace.”
“It truly was honestly like a godsend for me,” Rachel said of being able to lean on Gabby.
“I really can’t thank her enough for being there for me. I am so thankful for her. I came in here with Gabby and I came out [with her]. I didn’t walk out with a love story that I necessarily hoped for — doesn’t mean I’m not walking out with all the love in the world at the end of the day.”
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About The Author:
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.