It’s been nearly a month since the finale of The Bachelorette (has it been that long already?) — or as co-lead Gabby Windey called it the “big fat dumpster.” Meanwhile, her co-star Rachel Recchia is picking up what’s left of her self-esteem and attempting to move on with her life.
“I’m not actively trying to date at all, but I do feel like I’m not in a position where I’m, like, so broken that I need months to heal. That’s the consensus I’ve seen online — ‘she needs to heal,’” Rachel admitted. “I’m OK. I’ve been doing the work. And I’ve been broken up with [Tino] since before you guys knew. So I do feel like I am in the spot where I do want that, but I’m not, like, on the dating apps . . . I don’t want to start doing that yet. Because it’s so sad to me that’s where I’m at, honestly . . . Going [two] full seasons and then to end up right back where you started? That’s where it’s frustrating.”
While Rachel confessed that she would be the Bachelorette again if she was guaranteed to find her person, the season 11 co-lead quipped, “If I was single and they said they’d pay me a million dollars to do it. I don’t know if I could do it again,” US Magazine reported.
Following her disastrous appearance on the Bachelorette finale, Rachel talked about how hard it was to watch herself make so many “dumb” mistakes on-screen.
“It’s crazy how watching yourself back, like, forces you to grow and learn. And watching myself back, I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, I made so many mistakes,’” Rachel said. “And I so badly want to stand there [and] be like, ‘I was perfect, I stand by my decisions.’ I watched myself be so dumb — over and over and over again. And I’m like, ‘You have to learn something from that.’ So it has been a learning experience, for sure. And there’s so many things I feel like I can take from it. If it’s not a relationship, at least just like lessons for the next one.” The next one?!
When asked what she would tell her past self, Rachel shared a similar sentiment about making mistakes.
“I would go back to, like, right when The Bachelor ended, because I feel like, at that point, I had, like, no direction. I had no idea what was happening. I would just be like, it’s OK.’ And then also be like, ‘Don’t be a dumbass on your own season. Get your s—t together!’” she confessed. “I feel like I could have went back and told myself so much — like night one, I wish I could just whisper in my ear and just be like, ‘Don’t.’ Period.”
After it came out that Rachel had started following Katie Thurston’s former Bachelorette contestant Greg Grippo on Instagram, the flight instructor admitted, “I would definitely flirt with Greg . . . I followed him and then he followed me back.”
Greg was a competitor on Season 17 of The Bachelorette, but left voluntarily during episode 7. He said at the time, “It felt, like, a little too scripted and felt like, ‘Alright, we need to play by [the rules]’ — I had no problem going into, like, the fantasy suite and there being two other guys there. I wasn’t looking for the show to end. I wasn’t at all. I wanted us to communicate on a mutual level in those moments.” He also admitted to not feeling a “mutual love” with Katie at the time.
Sounds like he just wants to date and get to know someone away from the cameras and all the “rules.” Jump in there, Rachel! You just never know until you try.
TELL US- DO YOU THINK RACHEL AND GREG WOULD MAKE A GOOD COUPLE? WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THEM GET TOGETHER?
[Photo Credit: ABC/Dara-Michelle Farr]