The Bachelorette winner Tino Franco says Rachel Recchia blindsided him with their on-camera breakup because he had gone into their meeting thinking they mutually wanted to work things out.
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But Rachel revealed on The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose, which aired in late September, that she called off her engagement and split from Tino because he had been unfaithful to her and failed to fully explain himself or offer a sincere apology for the other relationship, which allegedly climaxed with a kiss.
Rachel -- who also recently disclosed when Tino's cheating occurred and when she learned about it in post-finale interviews -- felt Tino was trying to place blame on her for his own mistakes considering they had been in a bad place at the time of his infidelity.
During Thursday's episode of Nick Viall's "The Viall Files" podcast, Tino recalled details of his split from Rachel and how their on-camera breakup was supposed to be a "Happy Couple" visit, at least in his mind.
After he cheated, Tino admitted to Nick that he didn't tell Rachel right away. In fact, the reality TV stars were talking on the phone every day and even hung out in person before he dropped the bomb on her.
Tino apparently broke the news to Rachel that he had kissed another woman during a three-hour phone conversation when their relationship was back on track and "at an all-time high."
"I said, 'I love you so much and I want to get past this.' And she was very maturely, like, 'Let me think about this.' A couple of days went by... I said, 'Take a week, take a month, take what you need. I'm the one who messed up,'" Tino shared.
Tino said eventually, he and Rachel discussed seeing each other again and allegedly working things out in person.
"When I heard that, my eyes lit up because I was like, 'Okay, we're going to work this out.' And then obviously everybody filled me in that there were going to be cameras there," Tino explained.
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Tino admitted he was "freaking out" a little bit at the thought of being taped.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"But it's a show. So I was like, 'Okay.' I don't know who wanted [the cameras] there, but it was just the reality of it," Tino recalled.
"I'm sure she reached out to her people, as she had every right to do... I made the mistake. However we moved forward from there, when I told the truth, I knew I was to some degree losing negotiation power of how it's handled."
Tino and Rachel allegedly exchanged "a couple texts" before their "Happy Couple" visit.
"The general consensus of when we were going into that house meet-up was, 'We're not giving up on this. We're coming in to work on it,'" Tino said.
Nick asked, "So when you walked into that, you didn't think it was going to be some breakup situation?"
Tino explained, "I really hoped and thought -- I tried to go in as confident as I could. I thought we were going to get to a point where [Rachel would say], 'Look, you F'd up and you've got to make it up to me because I've seen how great we can be together.'"
Tino had anticipated Rachel would say, "We'll see if we can get through this."
Tino admitted he's "lost a lot of sleep" asking himself "what if?" about that house meeting, which ended with Rachel breaking up with him for good.
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"But generally speaking, I look back on it and I'm like, 'What if I did this? What if I didn't say this?' So it's been really tough."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
Tino acknowledged how he would've loved for the couple to get past his cheating.
"But what I did wasn't cool," Tino noted, "and I totally respect her decision."
Tino has since received hate and backlash for how he had handled himself during that breakup conversation with Rachel.
The Bachelorette fans have criticized Tino for reading from his journal because it seemed like he listed out all the things Rachel had done wrong. Tino also made a mysterious phone call outside when Rachel was desperately seeking answers and affirmation.
On his journal, Tino explained, "I wanted to be as articulate as I could and not be stumbling over my words, which I did anyways. It's so funny that people are like, 'Oh, you keep a list of mean things about your fiancee?'"
"And I'm like, 'There are so many nice things written in there about her,'" Tino insisted. "I mean, you could really follow the path of it, like, the relationship's trajectory and my therapist was just saying, like, journal your thoughts so you don't think about them all day, so I could, like, focus at work."
Tino said watching the finale back, he had "created a contentious environment," which is definitely not what he was going for.
"If I knew it was going to go over like that, I should not have brought that [journal]. I was just trying to articulate my thoughts and what I was going through the best I could," Tino pointed out.
"I was just really frazzled. Some would say I looked sweaty and on drugs... and I wasn't on drugs. I don't even think I had a drink in days."
And Tino confirmed he had spoken to one of his "closest friends" -- his "support system" throughout The Bachelorette process -- on the phone outside in the middle of his breakup conversation with Rachel.
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Tino recalled telling his friend how he had "really f-cked up" and "didn't know what to do."
"I would've spent a week there... and talked as long as we were moving towards, like, 'We both really want this.' It was tough to see how frazzled, sleep deprived and insecure I was feeling at that time," Tino said.
"So I called him and needed a voice of reason. But watching it back, it was, like, so ridiculous. Because then I walked around the house because the mic -- once they saw that I ripped it off -- they started following me, so I was walking so they couldn't hear me."
Tino concluded that he "messed up" and Rachel had "every right" to break up with him but he wishes they didn't need to televise everything.
As shown on The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose, Tino attempted to apologize to Rachel for "the emotional betrayal" and breaking her heart, but it wasn't enough to convince Rachel to give him another chance.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
