The Bachelorette star Rachel Recchia has slammed Tino Franco for "weaponizing" her "personal traumas" against her when they discussed their breakup live on After the Final Rose.
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According to Rachel, Tino cheated on her around the time of The Bachelorette's July 11 premiere, and she didn't find out about his infidelity until mid-August, when The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All filmed.
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On The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose, which aired Tuesday on ABC, Tino attempted to explain his "mindset" at the time he kissed another woman. Tino suggested he had insecurities due to things Rachel had said to him, although he claimed he wasn't trying to justify his actions.
"Our conversations did get a little tough... When we started letting our conversations get into, 'I can't love you anymore,' or when you said..." Tino began.
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"Do you want to get into that?!" Rachel asked in astonishment. "You just projected it onto me again with no context. We were going through a really hard time that's deeply personal to both of us, and maybe we don't want to air that out."
Rachel explained to The Hollywood Reporter after the finale, "It is disappointing to have certain things aired out to the public where now there might be a little bit of question of integrity or what the conversation was."
During the on-camera "Happy Couple" visit that turned out to be the pair's breakup conversation, Tino also accused Rachel of saying they may not be able to bounce back from the rough patch they were in as a couple.
"[You asked me] jokingly, 'Would you be the next Bachelor?' That hurt," Tino recalled.
"Do you really want to bring that up?" Rachel asked.
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And then Tino claimed Rachel once threatened to return her engagement ring, which Rachel has repeatedly denied in the press.
"And that is just really unfortunate on his part that there's even that question [of our off-camera conversation], because I think there are just some things that shouldn't be brought up when you are in a relationship with someone, regardless of cheating or anything like that," Rachel explained.
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In a separate interview with Entertainment Tonight, Rachel reiterated how she had expected parts of her relationship with Tino to remain private.
"There are things that are fine to be aired on television and things that I think we are comfortable sharing with the world, and there are some things I think that are so deeply personal [between a couple] -- like your own personal traumas -- things that you only share with a partner who is that close to you," Rachel said..
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"To have something like that weaponized against you in front of a live audience, it really is just really shocking."
Rachel didn't provide any specifics on what Tino allegedly used as a weapon, but she said Tino "knows that things don't make it into a cut for a reason, maybe for both of us."
"It's definitely just something very personal," Rachel said, declining to elaborate further on her personal traumas. "I'm just very shocked that it was even brought up."
(In another interview with Variety, Rachel stressed how she had gone through something "extremely, extremely, deeply personal" with Tino, which was edited out and removed from the show, and so she was shocked when Tino tried to bring it up on the live finale).
But Rachel insisted what fans saw on The Bachelorette's live finale is enough to understand the demise of their relationship and why they ultimately broke up.
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"There are so many things that I think went on that day on top of allegations of whatever problems we were having -- just details into the cheating and how deep and intense it was emotionally and things like that," Rachel shared.
"I could sit here and air out dirty laundry, but at the end of the day, people saw what they needed to see, which was the fact that we were in a bad place and instead of getting out of that bad place, we ended up where we were."
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Rachel seemed willing to possibly forgive Tino for his cheating at one point, but he failed to provide her a good explanation for his actions and deliver a genuine, heartfelt apology.
Rachel clearly wanted Tino to express extreme regret, but instead, she believed he kept pointing the finger at her, allowing the audience to believe that her behavior caused his confusion and ultimate unfaithfulness.
"I think I definitely knew in the moment of our fight that it was the right call, no matter how hard the decision was," Rachel recalled to ET.
"I had no idea what defense he would be on coming in during our first reunion. To see him still in the same place, and we were both running around in the same circle again going nowhere, it really just kind of affirmed that it was never going to work out."
Rachel noted while Tino had put "a beautiful ring" on her finger in Mexico, it "definitely" wasn't "worth the price" she "had to pay for it."
"We never will know the full story," Rachel noted. "I won't even know the full story. It's, at this point, just over and I think we all just have to kind of accept the facts that we have."
But Rachel said she doesn't "regret anything," adding, "Every decision I made was the absolute right decision for me in the moment."
"There's so many things I could have changed. I was so far from being perfect... [But] we did the best we could and really tried to follow our hearts the entire time," she concluded.
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On The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose, host Jesse Palmer said someone was waiting backstage, "demanding" to speak to Rachel.
Rachel's The Bachelorette runner-up, Aven Jones, then surprised Rachel onstage, while Tino was still sitting next to her, and asked her out for a drink so they could "catch up."
Rachel said she'd absolutely love to, and then she dished on whether she's willing to give Aven another shot during a Wednesday appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan.
Rachel previously told People how she'd like to "get to a point" with Tino "where we are at peace" and she wants to "move on with my life."
"I obviously still believe in love and I really know it'll come along when it's ready," Rachel shared. "I am looking forward to this time to myself and to be able to reflect on everything and move forward."
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