The Bachelorette stars Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia have opened up about logistics of the new season, and how they handled knowing they were going to be kissing the “same guys”.
The ICU nurse and pilot discussed how they communicated with each other in this season of the popular ABC dating show during a recent interview with Glamour. This season’s arc follows the duo as they both search for a paramour from a pool of the same 32 men.
According to the duo, there were some unmentioned ground rules that they had set throughout filming. Specifically, if it came to a situation where they both liked the same man, they would just “naturally” talk to each other about it.
“We have such a good relationship, and we had a good relationship coming into it,” Recchia explained. “We knew we were dating the same pool of men and that we would be talking to each other throughout the whole thing. So there was never a point where we were like, ‘Okay, so if this happens….’ It was just naturally talking to each other, as things came up.”
Windey agreed with her co-star’s sentiment and expressed how they are both very “understanding people,” before noting how “normal” it was to date the same men, especially at the start of the series.
“Of course we’re going to kiss some of the same guys,” she said. “Of course we’re going to have some similar interests. That’s just normal. Time really does progress, and the journey gets more complicated and deeper.”
“In the beginning, we were just taking one step at a time and seeing what would arise, tackle that, and move on,” she continued.
During the interview, Windey and Recchia also acknowledged that some of the men were a little afraid to kiss them on the first night. And while the reality stars said that they really wanted to “get to know” the contestants, they also felt like the men were concerned about kissing one bachelorette and then going on to “kiss the other” one.
“They were playing it safe,” Recchia said. “We did really want them to get to know both of us. I don’t think that necessarily means that if you kissed one, you could never kiss the other. Maybe that’s what they were thinking.”
Windey went on to note that there were such “low stakes” when meeting the men for the first time and that the men may not have been adamant about kissing the women because of their respect for her and Recchia’s “close” relationship.
“So I think that’s where Rachel and I were kind of like, ‘Oh, gosh, it doesn’t seem like these guys are really being as aggressive as we thought they were,’” she explained. “I think there was also an underlying sense of, ‘We also don’t want to interrupt Rachel and Gabby’s friendship.’”
“They really did realise how close we were and didn’t want to hurt any of us. It took them a little while to gain the security to really take it into their own hands,” she continued.
Regarding what’s to come this season, Windley shared that while she and Recchia went on “dates together” and “separately,” they also grew together as “women”.
“We kind of tried it all,” said. “You’ll see us on dates together, separately, all kinds of stuff. It was obviously well worth it. You’ll see us really supporting each other and watching us grow, as friends and as women during this experience.”
Recchia also said she and Windley have added a “new layer” to the show, as they will be talking to each other about their thoughts and where the “heads [are] at” throughout the process.
“It can be really isolating to be…the lead [of a show], and I think viewers might not necessarily know what we’re thinking all the time or where our head’s at,” she added. “This season they get to watch us talk about it and see it unfold. It adds a new layer I’m really excited for people to see.”
Windey chimed in to add how she and the flight instructor got to tell their “own story from [their] perspective”.
Along with photographer Susie Evans, Recchia and Windey were the final contestants on last season of The Bachelor, which saw Clayton Echard as the lead. Throughout the season finale, Echard expressed that he was “in love” with all three women. Shortly after that, Evans told him that she couldn’t get past his intimate feelings for Recchia and Windey and got eliminated from the program.
However, Echard ultimately couldn’t move on from Evans, so he decided to break up with both Recchia and Windey during the season finale.
Although he’d reached out to Evans to get back together, she turned him down. However, during The Bachelor’s “After the Final Rose” episode, it was revealed that Evans had contacted Echard when the series ended and that they were dating.
During that episode, Recchia and Windey also confronted Echard for how he treated them, before it was announced that the two women were going to be the leads of The Bachelorette.
Season 19 of The Bachelorette released its first episode on 11 July and will be airing every Monday night on ABC.
