‘The Bachelorette’ features co-leads this season

(CNN) - For the first time in the show's history, Season 19 of "The Bachelorette" is featuring two women looking for love.

On Monday's season premiere, Gabby Windey, 31, an ICU nurse and Rachel Recchia, 26, a flight instructor, met the 32 men cast as their potential matches.

"It was a huge learning process for everyone because it was such new territory," Windey told People in a recent interview. "But the experience Rachel and I had as Bachelorettes was so special and memorable. I don't think we would have had it any other way."

The women are actually friends in real life, they met as contestants on Season 26 of "The Bachelor."

"It's just really amazing. We both get to have our own journeys and our own stories, but still have each other along the way," Recchia said. "I think Gabby and I just went into it talking to each other and knowing that throughout everything, we just had to have communication. And that really just worked for us throughout the whole thing."

Doesn't sound like double the drama but the season is only getting started.

"The Bachelorette" airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.