ABC/Craig Sjodin

Rachel Recchia: It'd be "good" for 'Bachelor in Paradise' to take a break after "stupid" Season 9

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/28/2024

The Bachelorette alum Rachel Recchia has admitted she thinks ABC possibly "taking a break" from Bachelor in Paradise is a "good thing" after a trainwreck of a season last year.

"It was just so stupid," Rachel, 28, reflected of Bachelor in Paradise's ninth season during the Thursday, April 25 episode of "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast," which featured Dean Unglert and Caelynn Miller-Keyes as temporary co-hosts.

"Like, looking back, not one couple is together," Rachel added, before Caelynn called the 2023 Paradise season "a waste" for the franchise.

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Bachelor in Paradise's ninth season was dubbed a "fail" for the franchise. The season had concluded with three couples leaving the beach in Mexico still together.

Aven Jones and Kylee Russell left as a dating couple, and two couples got engaged during the Final Rose Ceremony: Eliza Isichei and Aaron Bryant as well as Kat Izzo and John Henry Spurlock.

However, within four days of the finale airing in December 2023 on ABC, all three couples announced they had split.

"I think we're just getting to the point, too, where I think the season of Paradise before mine, everyone was still really open to going there and meeting people and doing it, like, organically -- of course there's always, like, the DMs," Rachel reasoned.

"But this season it felt so [contrived]. Everyone knew what they were doing before they went down [to the beach]. And if you didn't know, you were just out of the loop."

Caelynn called that scheming "lame," and Rachel agreed.

"The rumor of [Bachelor in Paradise] taking a break is probably a good thing. Maybe they can reset it and find a new way to do it," Rachel said.

Caelynn suggested Bachelor in Paradise producers should forbid pre-show connections or else they won't be allowed to appear on the show.

"Well, it's usually all girls from [The Bachelor] season before and they're all so close," Rachel said. "I remember talking to some of the girls and they'd be like, 'Well, I'm really interested in so and so -- but my friend likes him, and so I can't.'"

Rachel called the girls' dynamic on the beach "a game" that she clearly didn't enjoy playing.

"I think it was a little too [innocent]. People didn't want to step on toes," Rachel noted.

"People didn't want to look stupid, where I think that's the beauty of it, is like taking chances and looking dumb. I feel like maybe that's why this season fell really, really flat."

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Rachel said she feels "it's such a new thing" for The Bachelor and The Bachelorette contestants to be so preoccupied with how they're going to look on TV and come across to viewers.

"On my season of The Bachelor, girls were just running around screaming and no one cared. And now, it's the awareness of it, I think, that is now making it not as fun," Rachel suggested.

Rachel shared how she hasn't heard of "anyone who is going" on Bachelor in Paradise this year, and so she thinks it's not happening.

"Normally by now, we would know [if it's happening]," Rachel said, adding how she hasn't heard "anything" from her friends who would want to give Paradise a shot.

"But fingers crossed they bring it back. I heard someone say online that we should bring back Winter Games, and I think that would be so fun!"

Looking back on her own journey on the show, Rachel quipped, "I dated everyone on Paradise. I just think it was maybe, like, too close to my [The Bachelorette 19] season."

Rachel competed for Clayton Echard's heart on The Bachelor's 26th season, and after she had her heart broken by Clayton, she co-starred on The Bachelorette's nineteenth season alongside Gabby Windey.

Rachel got engaged to Tino Franco at the end of her season, but they broke up before After the Final Rose aired because he had cheated on her with another woman.

Rachel proceeded to love for love on Paradise, and she had romances with Sean McLaughlin, Brayden Bowers, Jordan Vandergriff and Tanner Courtad.

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Rachel ultimately left Bachelor in Paradise single, and she's still in her single-girl era.

"Not too much fun at all, but fingers crossed," Rachel said of not having a partner. "I've been in the single girl days for awhile."

Rachel called herself "the worst picker on planet earth" in a TikTok video she uploaded in February.

The pilot said she's looking for a man who has a cool job and she'd love to meet someone "in the wild," potentially during one of her trips to Europe.

During an October 2023 Q&A session with her Instagram followers, Rachel was asked if she wishes ABC had given her a solo The Bachelorette season.

"Never," Rachel responded. "The best memories I have were spent with her and I would do it all over again!!!!!!!"

When Rachel spoke to Becca Kufrin about her love life during a November 2022 episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast, she said she'd "absolutely" star on The Bachelorette again if the show could provide her with her perfect match.

And Rachel previously said on the "Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe" podcast that she wants to be done with dating.

"The fact that I find myself now in the same position [as I was in before The Bachelor], I'm like, 'I don't want to do this.' I wanted to find my person," Rachel vented.

"I want to get married, I want to start a family. That's where I'm at in my life. I don't want to go back to the streets, and now I'm forced to! Literally!"