The Bachelorette star Rachel Recchia has revealed why she didn't want to join the Dancing with the Stars' Season 31 cast, which includes fellow The Bachelorette star Gabby Windey.
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Gabby and Rachel were the dual stars of The Bachelorette's nineteenth season, which wrapped in late September on ABC, but only Gabby was tapped to put on her dancing shoes and compete on Season 31 of Dancing with the Stars, which is currently streaming on Disney+.
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Rachel previously admitted that she had campaigned and rallied for Gabby to be on Dancing with the Stars, but she never explained why she wasn't interested in participating -- until now.
During a Thursday appearance on the "Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe" podcast, Season 11 The Bachelorette star Kaitlyn Bristowe -- who is a former Dancing with the Stars champion -- asked Rachel if she wanted to do Dancing with the Stars, even the tiniest little bit.
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"I mean, I think maybe in the future I would definitely be open to it," Rachel, 26, revealed.
But the flight instructor confirmed, "I wouldn't want to compete against [Gabby]."
Rachel said Gabby, an ICU nurse and former Denver Broncos cheerleader, is "an amazing dancer," adding, "I could never be her."
"I just wouldn't want that competitiveness, but I knew that this was Gabby's dream. There was a new season coming up and we were at CMA Fest and [ABC executive] Rob Mills was there," Rachel shared.
"And I was like, 'You have to put Gabby on!' And it's been so amazing to watch her," Rachel gushed of her best friend.
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Rachel said she's "so excited" for Gabby, especially since Gabby has topped the judge's leaderboard on Dancing with the Stars three weeks in a row. (She has tied with two other couples for the highest score).
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Rob Mills had confirmed what Rachel said on the podcast during a late September interview on an episode of SiriusXM's Julia Cunningham's "Bachelorette Recap."
"Gabby is actually on -- and this is the God's honest truth -- she's on because of Rachel," Mills, who oversees the network's reality programming, said, according to Entertainment Tonight.
"When we were at CMA Fest in Nashville in June, we were having dinner and Rachel said, 'You have to put Gabby on Dancing with the Stars. This is her dream. She would be so good. Please, please put her on.'"
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Mills therefore suggested that Rachel never mentioned herself wanting to give the reality dancing competition a shot.
And up to that point, Mills admitted executive producers weren't even thinking about Gabby for Dancing with the Stars.
"For whatever reason, she wasn't really [on our radar]," Mills said. "And then I was like, 'Why didn't we think of Gabby?'"
Rachel has noticeably been sitting in the Dancing with the Stars ballroom week to week, cheering Gabby and her pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy on from the audience.
Gabby's The Bachelorette fiance, Erich Schwer, has also attended most of Gabby's performance shows.
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"Oh, my gosh, having him here was amazing," Gabby recently gushed to Us Weekly.
"[I'm] excited to perform for him and [for] him to see a different side of me that... we don't get to share with each other, you know, every day."
Gabby is following in the Dancing with the Stars footsteps of many The Bachelor and The Bachelorette stars or contestants before her -- including Melissa Rycroft, Trista Sutter, Jake Pavelka, Sean Lowe, Chris Soules, Nick Viall, Joe Amabile, Matt James, and Hannah Brown.
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Kaitlyn starred on The Bachelorette's eleventh season and then won Dancing with the Stars' 29th season in 2020 with pro partner Artem Chigvintsev.
Hannah won Season 28 of Dancing with the Stars in 2019 with Alan Bersten after an emotional and tumultuous ride on The Bachelorette's fifteenth season.
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