Rachel Still Thinks Tino Lied About Cheating On Her

Some romances have more thorns than roses. During a fairytale-esque on-screen engagement filmed back in May, Tino Franco described his love with Rachel Recchia as “too good to be true,” and, um, he proved himself right on that one. (Spoiler alert: Despite what he claimed on the show, he did not “love [her] ’til the end of time.”) On the Sept. 20 “After the Final Rose” episode of The Bachelorette, Bachelor Nation learned that the couple split after Franco cheated on Recchia. And that’s not even the half of it. Following the Bachelorette finale, Recchia opened up about the messy situation to People, and her quote about Franco’s cheating is firm, to say the least.

ICYMI, Franco admitted to kissing another woman during his engagement to Recchia — though the former Bachelorette wasn’t sure he was telling the whole story. During the Sept. 20 People interview, Recchia recalled confronting Franco about his infidelity. “When I did sit down with him, I didn’t see much of him owning up to his actions or feeling sorry,” she explained. “I was still hitting lie after lie. And I just don’t know if I can continue a relationship when I don’t feel like there’s trust. I know that isn’t what I deserve.” 👏 👏

She sounded pretty confident that Franco only told her a fraction of the truth. “I think, in my personal opinion, it was probably going on for longer,” she said. “I do believe that I don’t have the facts.” Yikes.

Apparently, Recchia initially suspected something was off when Franco kept going on about drama with other cast members — specifically, past exes coming forward with unflattering text messages. “I couldn’t figure out why he was bringing it up so much,” she explained. “And I really wanted to talk to him about what happened in previous relationships: ‘Is there anything you need to tell me?’ And he told me, ‘No.’” Famous last words...

Recchia put the rest of Franco’s confusing story together herself. “Shortly after going home from that happy couple visit, he did call me, and I slowly worked out the details of some infidelity,” she shared. “It wasn’t something that he felt like he needed to tell me by any means. It was something I had to pull out.”

So what exactly went down? According to Recchia, she and Franco took space when they hit a “rough patch.” But that didn’t mean they were broken up. Recchia explained to People, “There was never ever a point in which we called off a relationship, called off an engagement, or we weren’t committed to each other in my mind.” Unfortunately, that didn’t stop Franco from kissing someone else during this “rough patch.”

Despite Franco’s infidelity, Recchia said she is still a hopeless romantic at heart. “I obviously still believe in love,” she shared, “and I really know it’ll come along when it’s ready. I am looking forward to this time to myself and to be able to reflect on everything and move forward.”

And actually... she might’ve walked out of The Bachelorette with a potential romance after all — just not the one she initially expected. Runner-up Aven Jones showed up to The Bachelorette finale, and he asked Recchia out right then and there. They left the finale stage together, so things seem to be off to a good start.

Recchia might not have any more roses to give out, but I’m still rooting for her and Jones. They both deserve a happy ending.