Zach Shallcross is finally revealing what happened in the fantasy suite with Rachel Recchia during The Bachelorette season 19.
Zach, 28, filmed a TikTok video on fiancé Kaity Biggar’s account after a fan asked him to set the record straight about his night with Rachel, 28.
“I’m sorry guys, it’s anticlimactic, really,” Zach began in the Saturday, August 17, video. “We just were not compatible at all. Like, we both couldn’t really see a future with each other and why just go to the next week try to figure it out then? We both knew it wasn’t it, so.”
After his admission, Zach had nothing but praise for his ex. “Rachel’s awesome,” he said. “We’re all still friends to this day, but yeah, nothing exciting unfortunately. Sorry.”
@kaitybiggar Replying to @a.prad not me springing this on Zach before his first cup of coffee. Dont you just love it when you can taste the beans? ☕️ 😉 🩷#thebachelor #thebachelorette #fyp #realitytv #relationship
While vying for the affections of Rachel during The Bachelorette season 19 in 2022, Zach made headlines for his rocky overnight date. After spending the night, Zach didn’t think he was seeing “the real Rachel” but instead the “Bachelorette version.”
“I felt like the ‘concerns with the age part’ was a complete blindside,” Zach said. “It’s kind of hard to wrap my head around it. I did really love you. I saw a future with you, but I need to go.”
After Rachel said she wished she could’ve “gotten there” with Zach, he left the series, and she handed out roses to Tino Franco and Aven Jones. While reflecting on his elimination, Zach said that Rachel’s response “felt so cold.”
“I thought, maybe, that I meant more,” Zach said in the car. “One of the things I fell in love with was she made me feel, like, special. And I cared for her and I question if any of that was real or if that was just an act.”
Zach and Rachel came face-to-face during a live segment of the finale, where he apologized for “making you feel like I called you out for your character.”
“That’s the last thing I wanted. I was kind of in shock and disbelief in what was happening between us. I am so sorry,” he said at the time, to which Rachel replied, “That was really hard for me to watch back.” Rachel added that her feelings for Zach were “real.”
When host Jesse Palmer asked for more insight into their overnight date, Zach noted that it felt “immediately off” between him and Rachel. “It started off very early in the fantasy suite … and it was just off. [We’re] two very different people,” he said.
Rachel ended the show engaged to Tino, but the pair called off their engagement after the show wrapped when he confessed to kissing someone else. Zach, for his part, was named the lead of The Bachelor season 27. He popped the question to Kaity in the 2023 finale.
