Bachelor Nation
What Happened to ‘The Bachelor’s Clayton Echard & Rachel Recchia? Their Split Explained
It’s happening! Clayton Echard and Rachel Recchia will both be contestants on Season 3 of Perfect Match, which will bring them both back into the world of reality TV dating following their romance on Season 26 of The Bachelor in 2022.
Recchia was one of the contestants on Echard’s season of the dating show, and now that they’re about to reunite on television, we’re looking back at what happened between the pair. Scroll down for a refresher on their breakup!
What happened between Clayton Echard and Rachel Recchia?
Echard and Recchia formed a connection on The Bachelor to the point where she was one of the women in his final three, along with Gabby Windey and Susie Evans.
The former football player told all three women that he loved them, which ended up causing an explosive ending to the season following the third and final fantasy suite date of the show with Evans. After using the “L-word” with Evans, Echard admitted to sleeping with both Windey and Recchia in the fantasy suite. Evans was stunned and upset that he would tell her he loved her after being intimate with two other women.
During their dramatic conversation, Echard called out Evans for not bringing up this “deal breaker” beforehand, and he wound up eliminating her. Then, he filled Windey and Recchia in on what happened, leaving them devastated over the fact that he told three different women he was in love. Although they both threatened to leave, Echard convinced them to stay and meet his family.
Why did Clayton Echard and Rachel Recchia split?
The situation only imploded more from there. Echard eventually realized that Evans was the woman he wanted to be with, and since she hadn’t left to fly home yet, he met up with her and confessed his feelings. She agreed to give him another shot.
With Echard and Evans exploring their relationship again, he had to end things with Windey and Recchia, which led to a tear-filled conversation with the pilot. The women were rightfully pissed that Echard begged them to stay on the show, only to them dump them days later.
Evans rejected Echard’s rose at the final rose ceremony, but they reunited post-filming and dated for a few months before splitting in September 2022.
Are Clayton Echard and Rachel Recchia friends?
Echard and Recchia were not on good terms at After the Final Rose in March 2022. However, one year later, they appeared in the same TikTok video and sent fans into a frenzy.
After the video went viral, the pair confirmed that they were not getting back together romantically, but assured fans that they moved on from everything that happened on The Bachelor and were friends.
“The reality is that we have very high thoughts about each other and of course after what happened, how would we ever go about dating again?” Echard told Us Weekly. “She doesn’t have any interest in doing so and on my end after everything we went through, just being friends sounds very pleasant. Let’s just keep it at that. There was so much that went on, so I think it’s better that we just start from a clean slate.”
Meanwhile, Recchia told TMZ, “We are friends,” and said “a lot of time and healing” helped her reconnect with her ex.
Perfect Match, Season 3, Episodes 1-6, August 1, Netflix
