Double the drama!
“The Bachelorette” announced Tuesday that Rachel Recchia and Gabby Windey will star as co-leads for Season 19 of the ABC series.
“For the first time ever, we will have two ‘Bachelorettes’ for the entire season,” host Jesse Palmer said during the “Bachelor: After the Final Rose” special.
Palmer, 43, explained that the show is still figuring out the logistics of the two fan favorites dating the same men.
“I’m so happy for her, I truly am,” Recchia, 26, said of Windey, 31. “It’s crazy. This is insane. I’m excited to do this journey with you. We did it once together, and we’ve been through the most crazy experience together.”
Windey echoed her gratitude to go through the process with a friend by her side.
As for what each woman is looking for in their future partner, Recchia shared that she wants someone who is “supportive and someone that loves me,” while Windey expressed her need for someone who is “emotionally intelligent, mature, [and] who can challenge” her.
Both Recchia and Windey competed for Clayton Echard’s heart on Season 26 of “The Bachelor.” The two became fan favorites as the season progressed, especially after Echard, 28, dumped them at the same time.
During the fantasy suite dates, Echard told both women that he loved them and also chose to sleep with both of them. Echard then confessed this to Recchia and Windey, and after begging them to stay and meet his parents, he broke up with them simultaneously and chose to pursue Susie Evans – whom he loved the “most.”
“When you say you love someone, you’re assuming responsibility to protect them, to care for them and to not hurt them, and you didn’t do any of those things,” Windey told Echard in Tuesday’s episode.
Recchia also did not hold back her feelings, saying Echard’s season was the “most completely selfish journey.”
“Watching that back, there was no empathy at all for me or Gabby — but you not shedding a single tear, and watching myself, I can’t even imagine how you could do that, and I just think it’s so disrespectful,” Recchia told him.
“The Bachelorette” previously had two “Bachelorettes” — Kaitlyn Bristowe and Britt Nilsson — star on Season 11, but the male contestants voted for Bristowe to be the sole lead. There were also two women during Season 16, as Tayshia Adams completed the episodes after Clare Crawley left early on.
However, Palmer clarified that both Recchia and Windey will star on the “entire season.”
“The Bachelorette” returns July 11 on ABC.