‘The Bachelorette’ ‘s Rachel and Tino Get Engaged — Then Split Following Infidelity
Tino #Tino
Warning: This post contains spoilers from Tuesday’s finale of The Bachelorette.
Just like her co-Bachelorette Gabby Windey, Rachel Recchia entered the finale with one remaining suitor: Tino Franco.
Rachel, 26, wanted to let Tino, 32, know he was the last man standing ahead of proposal day.
“I feel like you truly are my perfect match,” Rachel said to the contractor. “You are the only one here. It’s you. I’ve been so excited to tell you.”
Tino lit up at hearing the news.
“You just made me the happiest guy in the world,” he said. “I just want you to know this is never going anywhere.”
Tino felt very sure about the future of their relationship. “I would literally bet everything I have and everything I am that me and Rachel are forever,” he said in an on-camera interview.
Craig Sjodin/instagram PROPOSAL DAY
Rachel woke up on her engagement day feeling both excited and nervous.
“I feel like he truly is the man of my dreams, but I’m just nervous because this is like the day I’ve been waiting for my whole life,” she said in an on-camera interview.
Still, she felt certain about Tino. “He’s never given me any reason to doubt him,” Rachel continued. “But no matter what, you still do have that little bit of doubt in your head.”
When she came face to face with Tino, Rachel only felt happiness.
“I don’t feel like I could be happier than I am in this moment because I am so madly in love with you and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you,” Rachel said to Tino.
RELATED VIDEO: Co-Bachelorettes Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia Open Up About Putting Themselves First This Season
They kissed, and then Tino gave Rachel a scare by teasing, “There’s something I got to say — this is never going away.”
Tino continued to tell Rachel how she made him confident and encouraged him to believe in fate.
“You’re the most beautiful woman in the world,” he said. “Your compassion, your wit, your charm, your intelligence make me fall in love with you more and more every time I see you. Every time we’re together you make me feel like the center of your universe and I’m here today to make sure you’ll be the center of mine. This crazy love is going to look too good to be true to some people, but it’s as real as it can be and quite frankly, the only person I care about understanding that is standing right in front of me right now.
Tino promised Rachel he’ll love her “’til the end of time”
“I want to dedicate the rest of my life to making you feel cherished and loved, the way you deserve. I’m so hopelessly in love with you. You’re the woman of my dreams and there’s only one more question to ask,” Tino said before dropping to one knee. “Rachel Recchia, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”
“I will, yes!” Rachel exclaimed. “A million times!”
Craig Sjodin/instagram
With that, Rachel extended the final rose to Tino, who had received her First Impression Rose when their journey began.
“We’re engaged!” they shouted after he accepted Rachel’s last rose.
Rachel gushed about how she “truly could not imagine spending my life with anyone else” and then she and Tino rode off on a white horse toward their forever.
RACHEL DROPS A BOMBSHELL
During the After the Final Rose live special, Rachel revealed she and Tino experienced “some difficulties” in the weeks following their engagement due to his past relationships that had come forward.
“I slowly was pulling on that string and revealing more and more. It really didn’t work out, he cheated on me,” she told host Jesse Palmer. “It’s just heartbreaking. This is the person I thought I was gonna spend the rest of my life with and start a family with.”
Back to the episode, Rachel called Gabby to come over after learning about Tino’s infidelity.
“It’s so far off what we thought this character was,” Rachel said to Gabby, 31.
Gabby agreed. Rachel continued to tell Gabby how Tino “literally was like, ‘I regret telling you.'”
“You can’t be forgiven when you’re not sorry for what you did, because you never were like, ‘I’m so sorry I did this,'” Rachel added. “It’s, ‘Oh my god, I should’ve never told you this.'”
Rachel also explained that Tino didn’t want her to tell anyone that he cheated. “You don’t want me to have support in this time? You just want me to sit by you at ‘After the Final Rose’ and act like none of this happened because you want me to protect your image,” she continued.
Gabby wondered, “You guys had never been on a break, right?”
“We never broke up,” Rachel assured.
Gabby backed Rachel up on moving on from Tino. “Honestly, f— him and kick him in the motherf—ing balls,” Gabby said. “You don’t deserve this.”
Sami Drasin RACHEL CONFRONTS TINO
Following the heartbreaking revelation, Rachel addressed the matter with Tino in person. The exchange was awkward, as Rachel demanded that Tino speak first.
“I messed up,” he said. “I kissed another girl, but the second I did, I knew I belonged with you.”
“There was a girl before this show, never went on a date, didn’t do anything before… show ends, nothing really comes of it. We run into each other at a bar, we have a lot of catching up to do. Then we had the premiere week where I called you and there was some stuff that I heard that week that you told me that I drew down in my journal because it hurt so much.”
Tino proceeded to read through things that Rachel allegedly told him that made him upset, but Rachel denied saying those things and argued that they all needed more context.
“The stuff you said hurt so much,” Tino said. “You said, ‘I don’t know how this is going to work,’ ‘I’m in a bad place’ and ‘I can’t put any effort into this.'”
“Yes, we were going through a hard time, but never once did we ever say we are broken up, we are not engaged,” she argued back. “I was going through a hard time and you know it had nothing to do with you, ever.”
After Tino attempted to explain himself further, Rachel told him, “You’re sorry about it or sorry you didn’t want to get caught?”
“Rachel, it was a one-time mistake and I realized immediately that I needed to be with you!” he told her.
Feeling they were talking in circles, Tino ended up walking outside, where he broke down in tears to producers. Rachel, meanwhile, sat inside in disbelief. “Just tell her to break up with me. Let me out,” Tino told a producer.
When Tino walked back inside, Rachel demanded answers but the pair continued to not see eye-to-eye. “You’re not taking accountability at all,” she said. “This is straight up shattering everything that you promised me.”
Tino tried to explain himself. “I was under the impression we were pretty much done,” he said. “But then we started on the right trajectory. You started seeing therapy. You did amazing. You did everything I asked. So as it went on, you know, I kind of just tried to forgive myself, bury it, just not get in your hair over something so tiny.”
That response didn’t satisfy Rachel.
Tino headed outside once again and Rachel followed him. Once they both made their way back in, Tino tried to salvage their relationship.
“Rachel, we can make it through this, we can,” he said. “I know we can. We are worth that. I’m sorry. I’ll spent the rest of my life making it up to you.”
Rachel didn’t accept his apology and took off her engagement ring. “I’m done,” she responded. “This is such a big deal for me. I wanted to do this one time.”
Back in the studio with Jesse, Rachel told him she “was confused” when she first sat down with Tino.
“I had felt as if I wasn’t told the full truth because when he told me first, he was just giving me little bits of information: ‘We were just texting, it was just this…'” Rachel said.
Ultimately, Rachel said she “wanted to understand where it was coming form.”
“Apparently, it was my fault that he cheated,” she continued. “It’s hard to have someone sit down and tell you that. I don’t feel like anyone deserves that.”
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The Bachelorette season 19 finale is airing live on ABC.