Tino Reveals Why He Cheated On Rachel Recchia – “I Locked Myself in The Bathroom Before..”

Tino Franco is finally opening up about what went down with Rachel Recchia and he’s ready to tell all.

Telling his side of the story, he appeared on Nick Viall’s The Viall Files podcast on Thursday, October 20.

The 28-year-old also admitted that he is still in love with Rachel during the podcast interview.

“We can talk about almost anything at this point. Obviously, there are things that, you know, transpired between me and Rachel that as we’ve both said, are deeply personal. And we’re not going to touch it that. I think we can very easily go through the timeline without touching any of that,” he said.

“I do not stand by what I did at all. It was not cool. It wasn’t fair to Rachel. And it haunts me daily, still. It’s something I’m ashamed of. And certainly, like, wish I could have done it differently, like, a million times over.. I’m trying to go through and unfold and figure out why my insecurities, my ego could just take over my actions like that and just led me down this path to go to rock bottom.”

Were they on a break?

“I want to put it to bed — we weren’t on a break. I don’t know where that came from. We were not separated or anything like that,” Tino continued. “When I acted out, I felt like we were starting to check out. We were just in a really dark place. Like, it’s hard to describe because even looking back on it, it takes me to a place where, like, I really wish I just didn’t do that and just didn’t act out.”

Tino confessed that his insecurities and ego led him to cheat on Rachel. He explained that he went out with friends over the summer when they hit a rough patch in their relationship.

“When you go through hard times in a relationship, it’s hard to convince yourself that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

“I just kind of gave in. I just leaned in, and we kissed and that wasn’t fair to that girl, either. That wasn’t considerate of her feelings at all. Like, she didn’t want to be wrapped up in any of this,” he admitted. “And I realized really quickly, like, ‘I don’t know what the future holds for me or Rachel, but I know this is not who I am, and this is not what I should be doing. So I got out of there.’ And it was pretty haunting.”

He then went on to talk about the biggest mistake he made.

“Biggest regret, outside of actually doing it, was not telling her right away. I should have told her the day after, hands down. Rachel deserves all that time back, and I can’t give it to her. And all I can do is, you know, tell her I’m really sorry,” he said. “At the time, it just really felt like, you know, the relationship is kind of checked out of and I didn’t want to handle it, like, publicly and all that. I knew it was a one-time thing.”

“In the following weeks, I took therapy way more seriously because I was like ‘OK, what why did I find this toxic outlet? This is shameful. This is not who I want to believe I am and I won’t believe that.’ It’s a low-character moment, for sure. Worst thing I could have done to somebody in a relationship who I really, really loved.”

“I avoided situations that could have put me in the same shoes drinking, hanging out with the same friend group in those situations. I did all the steps I should have been doing before my mistake,” he said. “So didn’t tell her right away and time just kind of kept going along. And me and Rachel would talk every day. We kind of put together a game plan of like, ‘OK, do we want this to work?’”

“Rachel and I broke up about a month before the finale aired, so I stayed with the show one. She was phenomenal. She was a great listener. I just … I’m always gonna associate her with the traumatic experience, so I just felt like it’d be better if I moved on to somebody else. [I] wanted somebody if I really went south or something, they could make moves that some therapists can’t because they’re social workers, and they can’t prescribe anything. I’ve made a lot of really good progress in it. Honestly, I probably am, like, 15 years overdue to start this kind of process.”

About the show bringing in Aven to ask Rachel out on a date.

“That was mean, it wasn’t very nice,” he said. “The show, I would’ve thought with them knowing how much I’d been struggling, wouldn’t go there or do something like that. The whole day before, I locked myself in the bathroom of the trailer that they put me up in, so I wouldn’t have to do B-roll or anything like that. I was like, ‘I’m not doing it.’ I was crying in the bathroom because it was overwhelming being there. And that was pretty taxing.”

“I think I was just kind of like, ‘Why am I still out here?’ They could have a cute moment, like, why am I here?’ At that point, we’d been broken up for a month. I was at war with myself even going to AFR.”

“[Aven] texted me that night and just said, ‘Hey, I’m really sorry. That was tough.’ And then we talked on the phone the next day too. He’s a class-act dude. I don’t think he was at all trying to, you know, posterise me. I think he just went there with the intention of cheering up Rachel.”

Is he still in love with Rachel?

“That’s a loaded one,” he replied. “I really, really loved Rachel through the whole process. I still think about her every day. I think in the environment of the show, we really, really fell extremely in love. And it was something beautiful. But I think there is somebody who’s just more compatible for her out there. And that guts me even two months after the breakup. But if she ever needed something and needed to call me, I’d always answer. I’ll always care about her and appreciate our time together.”