Bachelor’s Clayton Echard Says He Hit ‘Rock Bottom’ Before Filming ‘After the Final Rose’
27.04.2022 - 20:31
/ usmagazine.com
Not so rosy. Former Bachelor lead Clayton Echard reflected on the complicated emotions he felt before taping After the Final Rose after his controversial season.
“Suse took this picture of me 1 day before After the Final Rose,” the Missouri native, 28, began in a lengthy Instagram post on Monday, April 25. “In this moment, I was at rock bottom. I knew what was coming and realized my reality was much further from what I had ever expected.”
The candid photo — taken by Echard’s girlfriend, Susie Evans — shows the former football player staring out the window of a darkened room. “As I looked out the window, I questioned who I was?” the reality star recalled. “What had I become? Where did everything go wrong? Why me?”
The medical sales rep’s season of The Bachelor was one of the most dramatic in recent memory, with Echard confessing during the finale that he slept with both Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia in the fantasy suites — and that he was in love with all three finalists. Evans, 28, left the competition, but she returned after Echard asked her to give him another change.
The Virginia native then rejected her beau at the final rose ceremony, but during After the Final Rose, the duo revealed that they reconnected after filming and are dating.
Throughout the season, Echard faced criticism from viewers and his contestants for some of the decisions he made, including keeping Shanae Ankney on after multiple women told him about how she acted when he wasn’t around. During AFTR, Windey, 31, accused Echard of “clearly pitting” the women against each other, while Recchia, 26, said she thought he told her that he loved her just so she would sleep with him.
“Six months prior, I was standing outside as the first limo pulled up and kept