This season’s bachelor, Zach Shallcross, says he wants to handle the infamous fantasy suite differently for his season. Shallcross shared his decision with host Jesse Palmer in a preview for the upcoming weeks of “The Bachelor.” Shallcross said, “This week is viewed as sex week. As against the grain as it might seem for Fantasy Suite or overnight night suite, no sex.”
The fantasy suites typically happen after the hometown visits narrowing down the women to the final three. On both “The Bachelorette” and “The Bachelor,” the couples usually choose to be intimate with their potential partners because no cameras are around. Palmer told Shallcross would be tempted, and it seems like Shallcross might have issues sticking to his rules. In the clip, you can see Shallcross kissing someone on a bed as his voiceover says, “This is an act of love, not lust.”
After that, several women cry, as Shallcross says, “I could lose a lot of the women from this.” Then, viewers see Shallcross crying as he says, “It was a beautiful moment. It feels robbed.” Before fans look ahead to Fantasy Suites, though, more of the journey is set to unfold. The group will head to Budapest, Hungary, where Zach will decide which four hometowns he’ll visit.
Shallcross has his history with the fantasy suites. When he was on Season 19 of “The Bachelorette,” he was eliminated by Rachel Recchia. The morning after their overnight date, he said he was “blindsided” by her change of heart. During a confessional in the episode, he said, “I don’t know what it could be, but Rachel’s concern came out of nowhere. I think it’s bulls—, to be honest. She was putting on a front. That scares me. That scares me a lot.”
In various interviews after the split, Zach said he felt there was “a total lack of communication” between himself and Rachel. “She treated me like a complete stranger,” he recalled on Ashley Iaconetti and Ben Higgins’ “Almost Famous” podcast in January. “We were both sitting there next to each other, and just like, this can’t be true,” he added. “Like, does she even care about me in the same way I feel for her or even at all? It was tough.”
After he was eliminated, Shallcross was announced as the new bachelor for Season 27 during “The Bachelorette” season finale.