Just when Clayton Echard thought the fallout from his controversial Bachelor season 26 finale was over, Monday’s The Bachelorette premiere thrust them back into the spotlight.
If you recall, Gabby Windey and Rachel Rechia were devastated when Clayton simultaneously broke up with both of them, following his admission that his heart belonged to Susie Evans.
A number of Rachel and Gabby’s suitors brought up the ugly incident during their introductions on Monday, including one contestant who hired a choir to sing, “Clayton Sucks.”
“I think people are coming to see what we’re up to and it feels like now, even more than when the show first aired, I’m getting a lot of heat,”Susie told Kaitlyn Bristowe during the couple’s appearance on Tuesday’s episode of her Off the Vine podcast.
“My fear is, like, ‘Does this open the floodgates back up of all the hate and stuff?’ So that’s where I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, really?'” she added.
Clayton, on the other hand, is confident “It will pass,” but he also thinks the Bachelorette producers took the attacks a little too far.
“I do think it was cyberbullying or an attack or it’s going to lead to cyberbullying,” he said. “So for that, I’m not the biggest fan of how that was shown, but…it’s just the nature of the beast. I’m not gonna lose sleep over this point anymore.”
At the same time, Clayton and Susie were grateful that Gabby and Rachel weren’t encouraging of the criticism.
“They said that on [Monday’s] episode, ‘We don’t really want to be bringing his name up, this is about our journey.’ So yeah, I get it. There’s going to be some crossover, but it won’t last.”
The Bachelorette airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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