The Bachelorette alum Tino Franco has opened up about how he believes producers punished him for hurting Rachel Recchia after the pair got engaged on Season 19.
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But Rachel revealed on The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose, which aired in September 2022, that she dumped and called off her engagement to Tino because he had kissed another woman at a house party. Footage showed the pair verbally sparring and Rachel appearing crushed.
"I think you guys saw everything, everything you need," Tino, 31, said of the demise of his relationship with Rachel during the Wednesday, April 30 episode of "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast."
Tino insisted to podcast co-hosts Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti that there wasn't "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 reflected.
"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's alleged "punishment" was when Rachel's The Bachelorette runner-up, Aven Jones, asked Rachel for a second chance live on After the Final Rose right in front of Tino. (Tino revealed that an executive producer later apologized to him for orchestrating that low blow).
"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,'" Tino said.
"But I think the fans took some pretty heavy offense to it."
Tino acknowledged Aven and Rachel's onstage moment "certainly wasn't, like, a nice thing" for producers to do to him, even though he was no longer "actively" involved with Rachel.
"I think at that point we hadn't talked for a month," Tino shared.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWTino insisted he didn't want to blame anyone else, including Rachel, for how things ended, and he declared, "I want to make sure I own my side of it."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
But then he noted, "There is a huge time gap from what [The Bachelorette viewers] see from when things happen."
Tino also explained how he and Rachel were not in a good place post-engagement and so he thought their relationship was already over when he was unfaithful to her.
At that time, Tino also recalled being in an "emotionally heightened" state of mind.
"I thought we were just waiting until After the Final Rose to announce, 'Hey, we're not together and we're moving on,'" Tino said.
Tino claimed it felt like Rachel wanted to break up with him but she decided they should "limp" their way over to After the Final Rose and publicly announce their split there.
"In hindsight, I should've cut it off right there and hid under a rock for two months," Tino confessed.
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While Tino admitted he had made a mistake by kissing another woman, he said the events that transpired on After the Final Rose were "absurdly humiliating" and "hell on Earth."
"And then I went on to overreact the way that I did. There is my half, her half, and then the truth... [but] I hate that I made her feel like we were concrete in this relationship and I did what I did," Tino explained.
"My feelings at the time certainly weren't aligned with that, but I hate that I made somebody feel like that."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
Tino therefore concluded that the way producers' reacted to his betrayal "fit the crime" and he understands why he was punished.
"I was cheated on a long time ago, and it's literally the worst thing ever. I hate that I did that," Tino acknowledged, "and that I ever made someone feel like that."
Tino said there was just so much going on at the time and so he wasn't himself and "slipped up."
Ben applauded Tino for at least telling Rachel about the kiss and taking accountability for it.
"It was a bad decision that I didn't feel right about. It was close enough to cheating that I wanted to come clean about it," Tino explained.
"I don't think a single person from The Bachelor franchise ever told me that I should have told the truth or come clean about it to this day, but I'm glad I did."
Tino elaborated, "I took a nasty punishment for it, but I wanted to have that self-image of, 'If I do something wrong, I'm willing to take accountability... and take the punishment for it.'"
"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."
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Tino revealed he's been dating a woman for two years and he thinks she's The One.
"She's so good to me... I feel blessed every day," he gushed of his "exceptional" girlfriend.
Tino added that maybe his new relationship is God's reward for his effort in becoming a better man after the Rachel cheating scandal.
Rachel, meanwhile, appears to still be single, but fans have been shipping her with The Bachelorette alum Blake Moynes for quite some time. She and Blake recently looked cozy together on an African safari.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
