Clayton Echard breaks silence on Perfect Match backlash over how he treated Rachel Recchia
He ended things with her hours after choosing her
Clayton Echard and Rachel Recchia came face-to-face on Perfect Match after they broke up on The Bachelor several years ago. It was pretty awkward, but he’s now defending his own actions after he left Rachel in floods of tears during filming.
Basically, he matched with her only to decide to dump her just hours later, and obviously she got upset, as anyone would. “I’m glad they showed that… I was hoping they were going to. I don’t really think there’s a specific answer other than it was a feeling,” he told People.
“When I woke up, my heart dropped, and I felt this pit in my stomach, I realised, ‘That wasn’t the right decision,'” he explains. “At that point, I gave it the day, made sure that that was the correct feeling and that it didn’t go away. And it didn’t.”
“And so at that point I thought, ‘This is hard, but it’s only going to be worse if I try to drag it and take more time,'” Clayton continued, saying he knew he had to act quickly and “never had any intention of hurting her.” He said, “Unfortunately, there’s emotions attached.”
He said: “I think there’s going to be half people that understand, there’s going to be a large swathe of people that are going to attack me for it. But truthfully, I did what I thought was best, and I stand by that. So the negativity that comes my way, that’s fine.”
When Clayton ended things, Rachel asked him, “Why would you even put me in this position?” before telling cameras: “He literally did it again. This is the third time he’s done this to me. He does not give a s*** about me.”
Rachel has since told People: “I was doubting myself the whole time, but I think I never really got a full answer leaving The Bachelor. And there’s always been this ‘what if?’ Even for the audience, everyone still wonders ‘what if?’ I think I knew I was going to get my answer.”
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