Bachelorettes Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia are already making waves on Season 19 of “The Bachelorette” after they chose to cancel the first rose ceremony and send three men home instead.
“We really knew that we didn’t get a chance to know these guys well enough to make a decision just based on a limo entrance,” Recchia told TheWrap in an interview Tuesday.
As the season makes history for the franchise’s first time having two bachelorettes for the entirety of the season, it also began with a whopping 32 men for the women’s first night of romance. But instead of handing out roses to the suitors they would like to continue dating, Windey and Recchia chose to eliminate the contestants with whom they knew they didn’t have a romantic connection.
“We didn’t even talk to half of them, or maybe just half,” Recchia said. “We knew there was no way to truly make an informed decision that night, and it just seemed like the best thing to do.”
According to Recchia, the idea to cut the rose ceremony was brought up by Windey, who embraced the season’s flexibility to accommodate the two leading ladies’ needs. As for the decision to send three men (Roby along with twins Justin and Joey) home instead, Windey said the pair made the decision to not “string anyone along.”
“Rachel and I were speaking throughout the night and we didn’t get to talk to as many of the men as we liked,” Windey told TheWrap, noting that the conversations in which the women talked to Roby and the twins together were some of the only overlaps of the evening.
“We got to talk because we didn’t want to send one guy home without the other one talking,” Windey said. “And we had just decided we weren’t really feeling that romantically and didn’t want to string anyone along, we know that time is of essence on this journey. And then it’s only fair to be honest with them. So that’s why we decided to to cancel the rose ceremony and send them home, is just to make sure that we’ve gotten to know each and every one of the guys.”
Aside from limo entrances — which saw the men bringing a ginormous meatball sandwich and two adorable chicks into Bachelor Nation — the women mentioned they still had so many men to get to know going into the second week.
“The Bachelorette” Season 19’s opening episode premiered Monday and is available to stream on Hulu.