More than two years after his memorable split from former Bachelorette and ex-fiancée Rachel Recchia, Tino Franco is sharing his side of the story — which he claimed isn’t too dissimilar from what Bachelor Nation viewers witnessed.
“I think you guys saw everything, everything you need,” Tino, 31, said on the Wednesday, April 30, episode of the “Almost Famous” podcast. “There’s not a whole lot to really expand on. I mean, I don’t, like, love how everything went down. I don’t like that I hurt her feelings and kind of let down the group.”
Tino got down on one knee and proposed to Rachel, now 29, in The Bachelorette season 19 finale. Post-show, the pair struggled with their relationship — and Tino admitted to kissing another girl. As the exes hashed it out during the live After the Final Rose episode in 2022, Rachel’s runner-up, Aven Jones, appeared on-stage and asked her for a second chance at love.
“I think we can all agree I got a pretty noteworthy punishment for it, and we all, I think, are better off that that relationship ended when it did,” Tino reflected, before explaining that he was referring to Aven’s surprise appearance. “At that point we had already been broken up for a little bit, so I was kind of like, ‘Well this is none of, really, my business. I mean, we already broke up, so I don’t know why I’m here.’ But I think the fans took some pretty heavy offense to it. It certainly wasn’t, like, a nice thing, even though it’s not like it was actively my somebody I was involved with. I think at that point we hadn’t talked for a month.”
Bachelorette’s Tino Franco Jokes He Got an ‘Ass-Whopping’ by Viewers for Cheating on Rachel Recchia
From Tino’s perspective, he and Rachel were waiting until After the Final Rose to officially call it quits.
“I mean, in hindsight, s**t, I probably should have done that and hid under a rock for two months,” he admitted of how the eventual separation actually went down. “But for some reason, when you’re feeling insecure, you’re feeling a million different emotions, you act out.”
Tino admitted that it was a “bad decision” that he “didn’t feel right about.” He added, “It was close enough to cheating that I wanted to come clean about it.”
While Tino alleged that not a “single person” from the Bachelor franchise recommended that he “come clean” about his perspective, he claimed that he feels like he “can really hang [his] hat” on doing something “[he] didn’t like” and taking a “nasty punishment” for it.
“I wanted to kind of have that, like at least self image of myself like that. If I do something wrong, I’m willing to take accountability … and take the punishment for it,” Tino said. “And that was more important to me than kind of getting the sugar high of, I don’t know, maybe a couple thousand more followers and some brand deals.”
Tino has since moved on with a mystery woman whom he’s celebrating a 2-year anniversary with soon — and thinks she’s The One.
“She’s so good to me,” he gushed of his girlfriend. “I feel, like, blessed every day.”
