Years after her season of The Bachelorette with Gabby Windey, Rachel Recchia had a former flame slide into her DMs.
“I got a DM from one of these guys who rejected my rose,” Rachel, 28, said on the Saturday, December 21, episode of the “Almost Famous” podcast, noting that she received the message about a month ago. “He unsent the message, but I have a screenshot.”
While questioning why the contestant would send the DM, Rachel said, “If you’re going to send a message like that, which he’s also kind of apologizing in a way, say it with your full chest.”
“He starts off, ‘Yo. What’s up Rachel, so random, I know. I was literally just thinking about my time at the Bach house and all the regrets I have from not seeing things through. I definitely had to reach out because it’s something on my mind, and is something I’ve thought about for a couple years. What could’ve been and how fun things could have/be,’” she read. “‘So I’m just reaching out to see if you’d be down to chill and grab a drink or two and vibe out.’”
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Rachel explained that she thinks the contestant is thinking about how he “totally lost the experience” of the show.
“I’m like, ‘You didn’t even give me a shot and so I will not be giving you a shot now,’” she said. “But you know what, we could have been something.”
Rachel explained that the former suitor, who follows her on Instagram, “chose to go home” during week 2 even though she “wanted him there.”
“I feel bad reading it, but you get me,” Rachel told cohost and former Bachelorette Trista Sutter. “That’s crazy.”
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While recalling her time as the lead with Gabby, 33, Rachel explained that the contestants split up between the two women.
“The boys, from what I gathered, didn’t know that once you didn’t get a rose from one, you didn’t get it from the other one,” Rachel said. “So, one guy said, ‘No,’ to my rose because he thought he could get Gabby’s, which, fair, and then it just tumbled.”
Rachel called this rose ceremony “the most humiliating night” of her life. “Your confidence is already like, ‘Do these guys like me?’ I’m so nervous, I’m doing this for the first time,” she said. “To have people be like, ‘I would rather go home than even date you,’ … it was horrible.”
From Rachel’s perspective, the men “really want to have power.” She added, “They’re so used to being the one to be the pursuer and it’s when it’s in our hands, I feel like it takes their masculinity away. When they feel like, ‘Oh, I’m not your front runner, I’m just going to leave because I don’t want you to reject me,’”
Rachel ultimately ended up accepting a proposal from Tino Franco on season 19 of the ABC series, but the pair called it quits when it was revealed he had kissed another woman during a rough patch in their relationship.
