Former “Bachelorette” Rachel Recchia said she probably won’t join the cast of another “Bachelor” show after completing the franchise trifecta of “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise.”
“I think I’ve completed the trinity,” Recchia told TheWrap. “I did all three. I’m very lucky that I had the opportunity to do that.”
She added she would be open to returning to “Paradise” as a guest star, much like former “Bachelorettes” Charity Lawson, Hannah Brown and Katie Thurston, all of whom shook up the latest season, set to air its finale on Thursday. Thurston, who also reunited with ex-fiancé Blake Moynes, hosted a roast that Recchia said she “hated,” recalling “I just want to crawl and just not be a part of it.”
After coupling up with Brayden Bowers, Sean McLaughlin and Tanner Courtad, last week’s episode of “Bachelor in Paradise” saw Recchia rekindling her romance with Jordan Vandergriff, whom she first dated on her season of “The Bachelorette” before sending him home following an early one-on-one date.
“I truly think that my experience with Jordan really came full circle in ‘Paradise’ and we were able to get that first date that we never had,” Recchia said. “But I wanted him to explore and lead him where his heart needed to be, and he wanted to pursue Mercedes [Northup], and I’m really glad he was able to do that.”
Still, Recchia’s pick for one of the last rose ceremonies of the season appeared obvious, that is until Jess Girod decided to pair up with Courtad and Northup gave her rose to Vandergriff, leaving the former “Bachelorette” to choose between her old connection with Bowers and Taylor Pegg, with whom she had yet to develop a bond.
After taking a moment for herself, Recchia decided to leave the beach for good in a move that she said was “emotional,” but felt like the “right thing to do.”
“When I came to ‘Paradise,’ if there was a moment where I knew it was my time [and] that there was really nothing else there for me, I was going to take that time to go on my own … if I didn’t have a connection,” she said. “That moment when Jordan and Tanner both received roses, I knew that was sort of the end for me.”
While Bowers had also expressed interest in building a connection with Girod after she and Moynes broke up, Bowers was forced to leave the beach after not receiving a rose from Recchia.
“I think Brayden was ready to go as well,” she said. “He also knew that was his moment when he didn’t get a rose from Jess, so I think, ultimately, we were all just doing what we thought was best in the moment.”
Looking back on her time on Clayton Echard’s season of “The Bachelor” to her own season of “The Bachelorette,” Recchia recalled that she has “had to watch some really ugly sides of [herself], some parts [she] didn’t like,” but noted her growth from the start of her journey with the franchise to now concluding her time on “Paradise.”
“I think I really did the work on myself going into ‘Paradise’ and I was able to feel very confident and be able to stand on my own,” she said, referencing her statement during Episode 9 of feeling like she was standing on her own feet for the first time. “I think that was my moment of being proud of myself for how far I’ve come.”
Recchia noted that while “Paradise” was a wildly different experience than “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” it was her “favorite,” saying, “I’ve made so many friends [and] memories truly that I would never be able to make if I you know weren’t on the shows if I didn’t take this experience.”
In particular, Recchia said she enjoyed the group aspect of “Paradise” that avoided the isolation of being a lead on “The Bachelor” or “The Bachelorette.”
“I was lucky that I had Gabby with me on my season but being a lead on the show can be very, very isolating for everyone else and ‘Paradise’ was so great because we got to spend all day with each other and I got to bond with girls from Zach’s season who I would have never met.”
Early into the season, bartender Wells Adams told TheWrap that Recchia struggled against her urge to protect her fellow beach-goers as the season’s “mama bear” — a sentiment with which Recchia thought was accurate.
“I think just having so much experience having done this as ‘The Bachelorette,’ I can see so many things that maybe people aren’t seeing in the moment,” she said. “I wanted to protect them and help them, which might have sometimes hurt me, but I just was happy that I got to help them along the way.”
The Season 9 finale of “Bachelor in Paradise” premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
