An epic moment of revenge — or crossing the line? Bachelor Nation has mixed feelings about how Rachel Recchia’s final moments with Tino Franco went down during the live Tuesday, September 20, finale.
Shortly after viewers watched Tino, 28, propose to Rachel, 26, the flight instructor revealed that they went through “growing pains” and things escalated “around the time of the premiere” in July. After seemingly getting back to a “great place,” the general contractor admitted he cheated on her.
“I messed up and kissed another girl, but the second I did I knew I belonged with you,” he said. “This was the tiniest thing ever. … I tried to just get past it. … The stuff you said hurt so much. You said ‘I don’t know how this is going to work … I can’t do happy couples this weekend like we planned.’”
Tino went on to accuse Rachel of saying she wanted to give her engagement ring back. She denied his claims.
“I was exhausted,” she said. “We were in a bad place, but … Never once did we say we are broken up.”
After declaring she was “done,” the twosome reunited with Jesse Palmer — and things got awkward as Rachel alluded to the fact that there was more to the reason behind their post-show issues.
“We both don’t want to air out why those things were happening,” she said. “There were things that they cut out that we both know maybe led to us being in this bad place.”
The duo continued to argue over her Neil Lane engagement ring. Tino, who said Rachel “got distant” after the proposal, argued that she said she was going to stop wearing it, signaling things were over. Rachel, meanwhile, insisted they were “never on a break” and she just noted she would stop wearing the ring if they went back to just dating.
“I never said that my engagement was over. We were never on a break. … You broke my heart!” Rachel declared. “We’re up here and nothing is making sense to me still … What you did is absolutely inexcusable.”
Rachel’s runner-up, Aven Jones, who she sent home because he wasn’t ready to propose during part one of the finale, then appeared on stage.
“You don’t really deserve any of this, anything that happened between any of us. I was just wondering if you wanted to maybe get out of here and just catch up?” he asked.
With Tino still on the stage, Rachel smiled and responded: “I would love nothing more.”
After walking off together, fans briefly saw the twosome chatting backstage and Aven telling Rachel: “We can explore that.”
Despite the host noting during segments with Gabby Windey that the Florida native was set to return to the stage, Rachel never came back — and Bachelor Nation couldn’t believe what they had witnessed.
Even ABC executive Robert Mills weighed in, writing: “Tino tried playing the Ross Geller card. #thebachelorette.”
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Scroll through for a breakdown of where Bachelor and Bachelorette alums stand on the drama:
