Exclusive Interview
‘The Bachelor’s Rachel Recchia on Where She Stands With Clayton Echard After ‘Perfect Match’ Split
[WARNING: This post contains MAJOR spoilers from Episodes 1-6 of Perfect Match Season 3].
For the second time in three years, Rachel Recchia was dumped by Clayton Echard on a dating show. Following their dramatic breakup on The Bachelor in 2022, the exes tried to rekindle things on Season 3 of Perfect Match.
Although Clayton initially formed a connection with Juliette Porter, he was ready to give things another go with Rachel when she arrived in the villa during Episode 3. They matched, only for him to then let Rachel know his “intuition” was telling him they’d be better off as friends. So, where do they stand now?
“We’re fine,” Rachel tells Swooon. “He apologized, I apologized. I think at this point, I just cannot fight him anymore. I can’t have hard feelings anymore. I’ve had these for years. I think we just need to move forward, both of us.”
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She says they last saw each other about “a week ago” while doing press for the show. “He kind of was, like, very hesitant with me,” she shares. “I mean, we just really didn’t talk much.”
Prior to the show, Rachel and Clayton hadn’t seen each other for over a year. “It was just at an event where everyone was,” she says. “We kind of just talked about things a little bit, but it was still very much open-ended. I feel like I still definitely had questions and doubts in my mind, so this was the first time we really talked about, actually, everything.”
Rachel was one of Clayton’s final three women on The Bachelor, along with Susie Evans and Gabby Windey. He told all three of the women he was in love with them and revealed to Susie that he had slept with both Gabby and Rachel in the fantasy suite. After Susie left the show, Gabby and Rachel threatened to do the same, but Clayton convinced them to stay. However, he ended both relationships (at the same time) after Susie agreed to come back and give him another shot.
“I really always had questions from the show, but they were always left so unanswered,” Rachel adds. “No one actually gets closure. Sitting down with him, I basically just heard him tell me the things I always wanted to her. He was telling me we could give this another chance. I feel like I’ve had regret and I’ve had thoughts about our season of The Bachelor, so I didn’t want to walk away again and have regrets for both shows.”
Now, Rachel says she’s gotten all the closure she needs. “Especially watching it back and kind of hearing the things he was saying in his interviews, which I wasn’t privy to at the time,” she explains. “I feel like now I definitely have all the answers, and I know that the book is closed.”
Perfect Match, Season 3, Episodes 1-6, Streaming Now, Netflix
