Things ended suddenly for Zach Shallcross and Rachel Recchia on The Bachelorette, when they broke up after their night together in the Fantasy Suite. But now Zach’s getting another chance at love, as he’ll be the one handing out roses as the next Bachelor.
“I’ve taken the lessons I’ve learned and want to apply it for myself and find my person now,” Zach tells People. “Heartbreak is never fun, but it didn’t deter me. And I’m ready to go again.”
Zach even met his first batch of women during the live finale of The Bachelorette and handed out his first rose (although he couldn’t remember all the women’s names). The tech executive says he knows what he wants in a partner.
“There’s really two main things that I look for, and first is how kind and compassionate they are. I think that’s something that’s pretty rare nowadays,” Zach says. Women everywhere should be offended by that generalization. “The other thing is having someone that loves to do fun, adventurous stuff with me, whether it’s traveling [or] trying cool foods.”
Zach hopes audiences will be able to see more of his fun side on his season.
“I think what people maybe didn’t see on The Bachelorette, but what they can expect [to], is I love to have a good time. I’m actually [a] pretty fun, goofy guy,” Zach says. “I like to think I am a romantic, but it’s not all serious with me. I like to have a good time.”
Zach learned just how much of a romantic he can be while dating Rachel. “One of the biggest lessons I learned was I’m a guy that typically wears his heart on his sleeve,” he says. “If you can show your emotions and not be scared about it, I really think that’s an important attribute, but in my case, I think I fell in love really hard and really fast, and I didn’t necessarily take a step back and look at the entire situation from her perspective.”
So going into his own season, Zach plans to be “a little initially cautious and making sure that [I’m] understanding the whole situation and don’t fall too quick.”
Zach and Rachel split following their overnight date, after he felt like he saw a different side of the Bachelorette. He also thought Rachel questioned his readiness for an engagement at his age, even though he’s only four months younger than her.
At the Rose Ceremony following the Fantasy Suites, Zach pulled Rachel aside and said he wasn’t seeing “the real Rachel.” He also claimed that he’d shown his absolute love for her, but didn’t feel his feelings were reciprocated. He then chose to eliminate himself from the competition, rather than continue with someone who wasn’t genuine. Ouch.
While Zach says he has no regrets about the way things ended with Rachel, he stands by his being ready for marriage.
“My take on that is when you know, you know,” he says. “I don’t think that there’s anything where there’s an age limit on when you decide you want to fall in love and get married. If you are ready and you feel well equipped with yourself, you love yourself, you trust yourself and you want to share that with someone else, it doesn’t matter how old you are.”
Zach intends to have conversations from night one with the women on his season to determine if they genuinely want to get engaged at the end of the process.
“That’s the No. 1 thing that is important to keep in mind because you don’t want to wait until it’s too late to find some hard truths,” he says. “What I’m going to focus on is having that open line of communication and hopefully building that trust to where they can always feel comfortable of letting me know where they really feel. I never want any of the women to feel caught off guard or blindsided.
One thing Zach says he won’t tolerate: Drama. Ha! Has he seen this show?
“I know it’s kind of inevitable when you’re in a house with 30 others, and there’s going to be arguments or conversations that don’t go that well, but I’m not a fan of the drama,” Zach says. “If there’s a lot of drama going on in the house, what it tells me is that they’re not really serious and why they’re there is probably more for finding internet fame or whatever it is. So I’ll probably be pretty quick to cut that out.”
Or maybe it’s just 30 women all fighting over the same guy. I think the producers want it that way, cause it would be pretty boring if everybody got along.
Even knowing the journey ahead won’t be entirely smooth, Zach is looking forward to his turn as The Bachelor. “I’m more excited than anything,” he says. “I just want to start already.”
TELL US- DO YOU THINK ZACH’S AGE (26) HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH HIS MATURITY? DO YOU THINK HE’S READY FOR MARRIAGE? DO YOU THINK IT’S POSSIBLE FOR 30 WOMEN TO LIVE IN A HOUSE TOGETHER, WHILE ALL DATING THE SAME GUY, WITHOUT DRAMA?
[Photo Credit: Craig Sjodin/ABC via Getty Images]
