Clayton Echard Calls His Season of The Bachelor a 'Train Wreck': I'm 'Embarrassed and Disgusted'
Clayton Echard doesn't look back on his time on The Bachelor fondly.
"It was a train wreck, honestly, of a season," he told The Virginian Pilot.
Echard's season, which aired earlier this year, was highly scrutinized by viewers. The 29-year-old ended up reserving his final rose for Susie Evans, but she couldn't "get past" learning he was intimate with fellow contenders Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia, currently ABC's two leads on The Bachelorette.
Evans, 28, ultimately chose to leave the competition over what Echard thought was her dropping a "bombshell" on him, resulting in a heated exchange between the two.
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Fans also slammed other decisions Echard made throughout the season, including keeping Shanae Ankey in the competition after she mocked Elizabeth Corragain for having ADHD. Echard later apologized for how Corragain was treated, and for not knowing the context of the pair's tension.
"Watching it back, I was embarrassed and disgusted by my actions and the way I was portrayed or seen on TV," he told the publication. "Ultimately, I had to live with the fact that my narrative is what was shown."
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The reality star added: "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."
RELATED: Bachelor Clayton Echard Apologizes to Elizabeth Corrigan for Sending Her Home Over Shenae Ankney
Echard dealt with criticism from fans from the moment his season aired. This, in fact, proved to be very challenging for him to endure.
"The hatred by way of numbers was really hard for me to overcome," he said. "Had it just been a few messages I would've passed it off. Had it been hundreds of messages, I might have questioned it. ... But for me, it was thousands of messages, and in a very short period of time, so it became very overwhelming."
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In the end, Echard was able to make it work with Evans. The pair reconnected shortly after filming the ABC series.
Echard told the news outlet that finding Evans was a perk of being on the show, but he'd "never, ever do it again."
The Bachelorette, starring Windey and Recchia, airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
