When Zach Shallcross brought up his previous relationship on the most recent episode of The Bachelor, I immediatly thought to myself, “Rachel Recchia’s not gonna like him talking about her again.”
While on his one-on-one date with Gabi Elnicki in London, Zach said, “Last season, I thought that I knew someone, and then I learned that I didn’t.” And this isn’t the first time the tech executive has talked about Rachel this season.
While promoting The Bachelor prior to the premiere of Season 27, Zach pinpointed the problem in his relationship with the former Bachelorette as being a “lack of communcation.”
“There [were] a lot of question marks and a lot of guessing,” Zach said. “And for me, one thing that I pride myself on is the fact of having communication . . . And that lacked with Rachel and I last season.”
But Rachel really took me by surprise when she responded with a lot more maturity and understanding than I had expected. Us Weekly reported that the flight instructor asked fans to take it easy on Zach. She tweeted, “Let’s all be mindful and extend a little bit of compassion and grace towards the leads of the show.”
In an interview with Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti on their Almost Famous podcast, Zach had implied that Rachel was “acting” when filming was taking place, and she was a different person behind closed doors. He said, “[I]t was like, ‘OK, if this is you, then who was I with on this entire journey?’ This is my fear for this season — people putting it on for the camera. Like, are you here for, like, the followers or Instagram . . . or to be famous? Or are you actually open [to] the idea of finding love?” Zach remarked.
“I went through that with Rachel,” Zach added. As a result, his intention for his run as The Bachelor is to have open and honest communication with all the women.
RELATED: New Bachelor Zach Shallcross Addresses Being “Too Young” for Marriage
Rachel was surprised to hear that Zach was still talking about their “communication issues,” as she believed they had worked things through at the filming of After the Final Rose.
“I’m actually shocked at kind of the things I have heard — not only what I heard on your podcast, and mainly that — but even [what] I heard night one,” Rachel said during an interview with Ashley earlier this month. “All this talk about, ‘I want someone who’s authentic on and off camera,’ as if me choosing or feeling stronger feelings for other people somehow made me not authentic, or if us not aligning on certain important views, makes him wrong.”
The pilot also refuted Zach’s claims that she’d been “acting” while the cameras were on. “[I] very obviously wasn’t [acting.]” she said. “I genuinely cared about Zach so much that I wanted to give him this time [in the Fantasy Suite]. And I wanted to see if we [could] align.”
Rachel continued, “And when you get behind closed doors, you’re like, ‘OK, let’s honestly have a conversation.’ . . . Even after an apology, it’s still being painted like this. It just really is so hurtful.”
Rachel was briefly engaged to Tino Franco following the end of filming. The couple split while the show was still airing, amid allegations of Tino cheating.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK RACHEL WAS “ACTING” ON THE BACHELORETTE? DO YOU BELIEVE ZACH’S CLAIM THAT SHE WAS A “DIFFERENT PERSON” BEHIND CLOSED DOORS?
[Photo Credit: ABC/Dara-Michelle Farr]
