How Will ‘The Bachelorette’ Season 19 Work With 2 Bachelorettes?

Here’s everything we know about how Gabby and Rachel’s unique season will work

ABC/Gizelle Hernandez

With Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia’s season of “The Bachelorette” right around the corner, we can’t wait for double the romance — and double the drama — but how will the series balance two leading ladies? In essence, how does “The Bachelorette” with two bachelorettes work?

When both women were announced as Season 19 bachelorettes during Clayton Echard’s “After the Final Rose” episode in March 2022, host Jesse Palmer did not provide details about how this season — which marks the first season that two leads will appear for the entirety of a season — would work.

“This is insane and I’m excited to do this journey with you. We did it once together,” Recchia said to Windey after the announcement. But what will two journeys for love in one season look like?

How will this season work?

While Palmer insisted that “there’s no set formula,” and “there are no rules,” in an interview with ET, how will having two bachelorettes work at a basic level?

According to an ABC News interview with Windey and Recchia, the women will start off by dating the same pool of 32 men, though they were tight-lipped about revealing how their journeys will continue. “We are each on our own journeys,” Windey told ABC News.

Photos from the first night of the season reveal that Windey and Recchia will meet the 32 men at same time as they enter the famed Bachelor nation. While the men initially greet the women together, additional photos from the evening hint that Windey and Recchia enjoy some one-on-one time with their suitors throughout the night.

Will there still be roses?

Yes! “There are still roses involved,” Recchia told ABC News, although it is unclear what the new format of the show means for rose ceremonies, which have been a pillar of Bachelor Nation since its genesis.

What if the women want to date the same men?

This question is perhaps the most anticipated situation of the season, and as such, Palmer, Windey and Recchia have been extra quiet about it.

“We have such a good friendship and we have great communication,” Windey told told ABC News, “This experience brought us so close together, we would never want to jeopardize our friendship. Having that foundation and respect for each other, no man would stand in our way.”

Recchia echoed Windey’s comments, saying “There was never a point when anything came in between us. We would never fall for a guy, I think, that would ever put us in a position to do so.”

Palmer also assured viewers that the women will “absolutely [be] supporting each other more so than competing.”

Has this ever been done before?

Kinda. Season 11 also began with two Bachelorettes, Kaitlyn Bristowe and Britt Nilsson, but the suitors voted to boot off Nilsson and crown Bristowe as the official bachelorette on the first night of the season. This season will mark the franchise’s first time having two bachelorettes for the entirety of the season.

Season 19 of “The Bachelorette” will premiere Monday, July 11 at 8pm ET on ABC.

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