Everything Bachelor Nation Has Said About Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia Being Joint Bachelorettes: ‘Double the Love’

Credit: ABC/Gizelle Hernandez

Everything Bachelor Nation Has Said About Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia Being Joint Bachelorettes: ‘Double the Love’

Two is better than one — isn't it? Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia were both shocked and excited when they were named joint leads for season 19 of The Bachelorette. "I am so happy for her. I truly am!" the pilot, who competed for Clayton Echard's heart on season 26 of The Bachelor alongside Gabby, said shortly after the news was announced in March 2022. “It’s crazy. This is insane and I’m excited to do this journey with you." The registered nurse added: "I’m a girl’s girl through and through, so having a friend by my side is the best thing I could ask for." Gabby and Rachel are the first leads to share a full season of suitors in the history of the ABC dating franchise, which means the pair had to "make up their own rules" as they embarked on a journey to find their respective soulmates. “When it was announced that they were gonna be the Bachelorettes back at After the Final Rose, [I thought], ‘Never done this before. How are they gonna be dating the guys? Who’s going on dates? How do they navigate this? This is all completely unprecedented,’” host Jesse Palmer told Us Weekly exclusively in July 2022. "Gabby and Rachel deserve a ton of credit because they really took control of this thing," he added. "They made up their own rules along the way, took charge." [jwplayer IHlA4vof-zhNYySv2] Though the former Bachelor admitted that the twosome “faced with a lot of very difficult circumstances and situations” and had “a lot of very difficult conversations," he praised them for leaning on one another throughout the process. "At the end of the day, I think it was their friendship and their support of each other that really helped them through it all — magically, somehow,” Palmer said. “And I don’t know how [but] this whole thing just worked and I cannot wait for Bachelor Nation to see how it all unfolds because it’ll be like unlike anything I’ve ever seen before." However, not every member of Bachelor Nation was as optimistic about the prospect of Gabby and Rachel having to share the spotlight. “I want to be supportive because it’s a franchise that literally put me here right now, so I always feel a bit of support, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t bummed that it’s two women," Andi Dorfman told Entertainment Tonight in June 2022 about her feelings on the upcoming season. “I’d like to see two men go at it. I don’t know. It gives me a little sexist vibe there that I don’t really love.” She continued: “I don’t really love the fact that two women have to share the screen. I think we’ve progressed a little further. It’s 2022. … I want each girl to have it for themselves. It is such an incredible thing.” Keep scrolling to see how other members of Bachelor Nation feel about Gabby and Rachel being joint Bachelorettes: [podcast_block]

Credit: ABC/Gizelle Hernandez

Everything Bachelor Nation Has Said About Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia Being Joint Bachelorettes: ‘Double the Love’

Two is better than one — isn't it? Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia were both shocked and excited when they were named joint leads for season 19 of The Bachelorette. "I am so happy for her. I truly am!" the pilot, who competed for Clayton Echard's heart on season 26 of The Bachelor alongside Gabby, said shortly after the news was announced in March 2022. “It’s crazy. This is insane and I’m excited to do this journey with you." The registered nurse added: "I’m a girl’s girl through and through, so having a friend by my side is the best thing I could ask for." Gabby and Rachel are the first leads to share a full season of suitors in the history of the ABC dating franchise, which means the pair had to "make up their own rules" as they embarked on a journey to find their respective soulmates. “When it was announced that they were gonna be the Bachelorettes back at After the Final Rose, [I thought], ‘Never done this before. How are they gonna be dating the guys? Who’s going on dates? How do they navigate this? This is all completely unprecedented,’” host Jesse Palmer told Us Weekly exclusively in July 2022. "Gabby and Rachel deserve a ton of credit because they really took control of this thing," he added. "They made up their own rules along the way, took charge." [jwplayer IHlA4vof-zhNYySv2] Though the former Bachelor admitted that the twosome “faced with a lot of very difficult circumstances and situations” and had “a lot of very difficult conversations," he praised them for leaning on one another throughout the process. "At the end of the day, I think it was their friendship and their support of each other that really helped them through it all — magically, somehow,” Palmer said. “And I don’t know how [but] this whole thing just worked and I cannot wait for Bachelor Nation to see how it all unfolds because it’ll be like unlike anything I’ve ever seen before." However, not every member of Bachelor Nation was as optimistic about the prospect of Gabby and Rachel having to share the spotlight. “I want to be supportive because it’s a franchise that literally put me here right now, so I always feel a bit of support, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t bummed that it’s two women," Andi Dorfman told Entertainment Tonight in June 2022 about her feelings on the upcoming season. “I’d like to see two men go at it. I don’t know. It gives me a little sexist vibe there that I don’t really love.” She continued: “I don’t really love the fact that two women have to share the screen. I think we’ve progressed a little further. It’s 2022. … I want each girl to have it for themselves. It is such an incredible thing.” Keep scrolling to see how other members of Bachelor Nation feel about Gabby and Rachel being joint Bachelorettes: [podcast_block]

Credit: Courtesy of Katie Thurston/Instagram

Katie Thurston

The season 17 Bachelorette revealed that she was apprehensive about the two leading ladies seemingly being made to compete with one another during their time on the show. "While I like the idea of them having each other to lean on, I also hate the idea of them being compared against one another by not only the men but the viewers," Thurston wrote via her Instagram Story in July 2022 during a Q and A session. "Being declined by a guy who is pursuing the other woman instead sounds brutal and would hurt your confidence in an already unfamiliar dating environment." Despite her reservations, however, the Washington native promised she would "definitely be tuning in" to support Gabby and Rachel.

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

Jesse Palmer

"It’s two love stories, two completely different journeys, [but] people are gonna need a notebook — and take notes — to try to follow who’s dating who [and] what’s going on,” the former football player told Us in July 2022. “Because it’s literally double the love, double the drama and double the fun."

Credit: Scott Kirkland/Shutterstock

And Dorfman

The former lawyer claimed it's "a little sexist" to make Gabby and Rachel share their Bachelorette journeys instead of each receiving their own season. “I want to be supportive because it’s a franchise that literally put me here right now, so I always feel a bit of support, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t bummed that it’s two women," she told ET in June 2022.

Credit: AFF-USA/Shutterstock

Kaitlyn Bristowe

“I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, can’t a woman have her own season?’” she said in a March 2022 interview with E! News. “It feels like it was Clare [Crawley] and then she was gone. And then it had to be Tayshia [Adams]. And then it was Katie [Thurston] and then, back-to-back, Michelle [Young]. And now it’s the two Bachelorettes again."

The Dancing With the Stars champion also joked that she was "triggered" by the announcement, as she famously competed against Britt Nilsson for the role of Bachelorette back in 2015. At the time, the men voted for who they'd rather pursue over the course of the season, and while Kaitlyn won, she wasn't thrilled at seeing two leads chosen once more.

“I just want somebody to have their own season and I just don’t want it to be them pitted against each other,” she explained ahead of season 19. “I don’t know how the format is going to work. I don’t know what their little system is going to be, but I know how two Bachelorettes felt and it felt like we were being pitted against each other for the men to decide.”

Credit: John Salangsang/Shutterstock

Nick Viall

“[I] can’t wait to see two Bachelorettes. Don’t know how that’s going to go, but I’m sure it will be wild,” the "Viall Files" podcast host told Us in March 2022, adding that he hoped the show's producers "know better" than to pit the women against one another. "I hope and expect to see a lot of camaraderie and … a sisterhood between the two [women]. I’m sure there’ll be drama and there will be ways to kind of elicit that, but I’m optimistic that it won’t be in any way Gabby versus Rachel. That’s my hope.”

Credit: ABC/Gizelle Hernandez

Gabby Windey

“Everyone keeps asking [how it will work]. We just got thrown in,” Gabby said during an interview on Good Morning America shortly after she and Rachel were announced as joint Bachelorettes. "But I have faith and a lot of trust, and I love Rachel to death and I know we’re gonna have each other’s backs the whole way, so there’s really not a doubt in my mind that it’s gonna end up [going] well."