Not all Bachelorette journeys are created equally — even when they are sharing the season. Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia used very different words to describe how season 19 went down for them individually.
“Roller-coaster,” Gabby, 31, exclusively says on Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast. “You can’t do it in one truly. I mean, it was just so incredible, but yeah, not without struggle. But it’s so worth it.”
Rachel, 26, for her part, opted for a word with a more positive spin — “magical.”
Still, both women cry their fair share of tears in the super tease for the season. At one point, it appears either Gabby or Rachel may want to walk away from the show.
“We love the dramatics. We’re very emotional. So I think there just is so much struggle that goes into no matter, like, what season it is,” the pilot told Us. “It’s hard to navigate relationships and it is messy. So I think people are gonna see our real raw emotions and be able to go through that journey with us.”
The ICU nurse echoed Rachel’s thoughts.
“I think anyone who’s been in our shoes has had a moment or two of, ‘Oh, my gosh, can I do this?’” Gabby explained. “And Rachel and I are so genuine and real and raw that we just really wear emotions on our sleeve. So when we say that, it’s what we are feeling in the moment, but we obviously always overcame.”
The Monday, July 11, premiere made it clear that Gabby and Rachel are taking the reins on the structure of the season, canceling their first rose ceremony. They told Us that their No. 1 “unspoken rule” was putting their friendship first.
“We went in with so much love and respect for each other after what we had been through,” Gabby said. “And I think watched each other grow tremendously throughout our first time around. So it was just easy to really put our friendship first above all and I think that was really the guiding light throughout this journey that helped us.”
While the teaser showed the two ladies individually handing out roses, they played coy when asked whether that’s how all rose ceremonies will work.
“At some point we have to naturally separate because we are on our own journeys and it makes you in more of an environment that’s conducive to finding love,” Gabby said. “Unfortunately, we’re not gonna end up with one guy because there’s two of us. But we would love to, and the world would love us too, but it just doesn’t make much sense.”
The Bachelorette airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
