Leaning into the process! Clare Crawley’s season of The Bachelorette was controversial from the start — including her unprecedented introduction to contestant Blake Moynes.
Moynes, 29, skirted the rules by reaching out to Crawley, 39, ahead of filming, but the show’s leading lady wasn’t mad about it.
“I know that there are these rules that we have to abide by, and it’s out of respect for the process,” the hairstylist exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, October 13. “And it actually helps the process when you don’t have communication beforehand and there’s no preconceived notions or anything like that, but this season was just so unique in itself that I think everything kind of went out the window.”
The Canada native reached out to the Bachelorette after she posted an Instagram Story about struggling with her mom being in the hospital, which according to Crawley was a noble reason for breaking protocol.
“The reason he reached out was, I mean, warmed my heart. You could tell,” she told Us, referencing Moynes’ efforts to comfort her during her mom’s Alzheimer’s and dementia battle. “The reason he did it was for my mom and I would never in a million years be mad at anybody who had that as their core reason for reaching out.”
She added: “Break all the rules you want. I told [him], ‘Well, if that’s your goal in that then break all the rules.’”
The former Bachelor Winter Games star, who previously admitted to Googling her contestants, revealed why she didn’t cross the line and contact any of her suitors ahead of filming amid the coronavirus pandemic shooting delays.
“There was never, never a moment where I was going to reach out or I wanted to reach out because I knew that this was going to happen eventually where I was going to get the chance to meet these guys,” Crawley said. “I didn’t want to kind of prejudge anybody and shoot myself in the foot by having these conversations and putting that at risk.”
The reality star explained that “you only really know when you meet them in person” if you’ll hit it off.
“It can actually be [good to be] around their pheromones, to see them in person to know [for sure], do we have that connection?” she said. “So, if I was to start something up with a guy beforehand, it would just be doing myself a disservice cause, like, what if that … I’d be putting it all on the line for that? I mean, that makes no sense to me.”
Having been a part of Bachelor Nation for years, Crawley knew that pre-show connections could negatively affect her end goal of finding a husband.
“I have this opportunity and I didn’t want to blow it and didn’t want to not appreciate what it was,” she told Us.
Fans saw how Crawley addressed Moynes’ choice to go against the rules during the Tuesday, October 13, premiere on ABC.
“So, over quarantine, it was really hard for me. And I didn’t want to bring this up, but there are these weird rules that we have to follow for the show of not contacting somebody, and you were the only guy who reached out to me the entire time,” the hairdresser said when speaking with him. “So, you broke the rule that you’re not supposed to contact somebody.”
Crawley also thanked Moynes for his kind gesture, despite the fact that it wasn’t technically allowed. During the premiere, fans also got a peek at the California native’s instant connection with frontrunner Dale Moss and what’s to come this season.
Us confirmed in August that Crawley left the show after 12 days of filming because she found love with one of the suitors. Tayshia Adams was then asked to fill in as the Bachelorette and given her shot at finding a forever love.
The Bachelorette airs Tuesdays on ABC at 8 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Emily Longeretta
