Tino Franco cheats on Rachel Recchia

The Bachelorette has lived up to its promise of the most dramatic season finale.

Moments after viewers saw Tino Franco propose to Rachel Recchia and swear to spend the rest of his life with her, he confessed to his new fiancée’s betrayal on a tense Monday night.

“I screwed up and kissed another girl,” the 28-year-old general contractor told the 26-year-old instructor during an emotional confrontation.

“The moment I did it, I knew I belonged to you, and that was the smallest thing ever, so I was just trying to… get around it,” he explained.

When Recchia pressed Franco for more details, he shared that he had kissed a woman he had met before going to the ABC reality series, but insisted that “never go on a date”.

Franco then pulled out a journal documenting his conversations with Recchia after the show about her wanting to return her engagement ring, apparently trying to blame her as their relationship was quickly falling apart.

The co-host of Bachelorette began pleading with his fiancé to “tell the truth”, saying that he “very” doubted he would only kiss the other woman.

After Franco burst into tears, Recchia said she was “done” with him and took off the ring.

After the commercial hiatus, the ex-couple met face-to-face for the first time since their break-up in front of the camera.

Franco again apologized for his actions, telling Recchia he couldn’t “imagine what [she was] passing over ”and praise her for“ always ”being“ so sweet ”to him.

“You were amazing and you didn’t deserve what I did,” he confessed, admitting that his “mistake was not [her] defect.”

As her family watched the audience, Recchia told Franco that “there is absolutely no excuse” for what he did.

“You broke my heart,” the ex-Bachelor participant added, calling the California native “unforgivable.”

Another surprising twist ended when Bachelorette host Jesse Palmer introduced Recchia’s runner-up Aven Jones, who asked an Ohio resident to come with him, to which she enthusiastically agreed as Franco stood up with a bewildered look. his face.

Franco was a favorite from the start of season 19 and even got the coveted first impression at the July premiere.

But Recchia and Franco ran into a road bump when his parents failed to give their blessing to the romance during their August dates in their hometown.

Even so, the couple had pushed forward with the engagement earlier in Monday’s final, and Franco told Recchia on his bent knee in Mexico that he “would love [her] till the end of time ”.