As The Bachelorette premiered, featuring Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia as the leads, Clayton Echard’s name came up quite a bit.
While the women want to move on from Clayton’s season and the heartbreak they endured, that was hard when the male contestants kept bringing up Clayton’s name to roast him.
Clayton was also watching the premiere with his chosen winner from his season, Susie Evans.
While he laughed off the shade, he did have some things to say about how his own season went down during filming and airing.
Clayton Echard speaks out about getting the villain edit as the lead of his season
Now that his season is over and done with, Clayton is still facing the repercussions of some of the choices, decisions, words, and actions from his time on The Bachelor.
In fact, Clayton was one of the least favorite leads in many years, alongside Peter Weber. But now, Clayton is speaking out about how he felt watching his season back.
Clayton declared, “Watching [my season] back, I was embarrassed and disgusted by my actions and the way I was portrayed or seen on TV.”
He continued to say, “Ultimately, I had to live with the fact that my narrative is what was shown. And that was hard because that’s not really who I am. I don’t feel that what I was on the show is who I truthfully am but I did those things, I became that person.”
Clayton also discussed that his season was such a trainwreck, but he was also extremely disappointed and astonished at how his love story took a back seat to all of the season’s drama.
Clayton Echard’s season of The Bachelor
As fans watched Clayton’s season unfold, Shanae Ankney’s drama took over much of the show while she was on. Her words and actions most definitely took precedence over what was going on in Clayton’s world during the show.
Moreover, toward the end of the season, after telling all three of his finalists, Susie Evans, Gabby Windey, and Rachel Recchia, he was in love with them all, and sleeping with the first two, Gabby and Rachel, was a point of contention for Susie.
After telling Clayton that she couldn’t move on with him if he had told the other two women he loved them and/or had slept with them, fans watched as Clayton allegedly started gaslighting Susie and then sent her home.
While Clayton ultimately ended up with Susie, viewers also watched as he broke the hearts of Gabby and Rachel, albeit simultaneously, as he brought more controversy to his name.
With all things said and done, Clayton ended up getting his happy ending with Susie, but not without much drama, contention, and hardships. Moreover, Gabby and Rachel are both getting their own shots at love through this journey on The Bachelorette.
The Bachelorette airs on Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.