The Bachelorette alum Clare Crawley believes producers were planning her early exit before she left the show.
“One-hundred percent. That’s my feeling,” Clare, 45, said on the Tuesday, October 27, episode of the “She’s All Bach” podcast. “I had seen Tayshia [Adams] before there was even discussion of Tayshia being there or swapping out or Clare leaving. I had seen Tayshia on the property. That was the first [sign].”
The reality star continued, “I could go on, but there were so many things where I was like, ‘What is going on here?’ At the time, it didn’t make sense to me and didn’t add up to me.”
Clare was announced as the lead for season 16 of The Bachelorette in 2020. She almost instantly fell in love with contestant Dale Moss and left the show early. Tayshia, 36, came in to finish the season as Bachelorette.
When asked by podcast host Stefanie Parker whether she felt pushed out, Clare answered with a “yes.”
“There’s video of me with Chris Harrison, and he’s like, ‘You can’t go on,’” she claimed. “I don’t know if they aired this part, but the conversation was, ‘I want to see this through to the end. I know what I signed up for. I’m here. I have a great group of guys.’ … I did not have a choice to stay.”
Us has reached out to ABC for comment on Clare’s latest podcast interview.
Clare has her theories about why production may have wanted Tayshia to be the lead after all. She recalled sharing feedback about certain group dates that may not have been welcomed by producers.
“I was difficult for them, for production,” Clare admitted. “I made their work more difficult. I think they wanted Tayshia in there, and I’m sure she made better TV and a great Bachelorette, but I can only be me, and that’s the best I got.”
To this day, Clare also questions some of the men producers cast to be on her season.
“I really think they didn’t cast a lot of the guys for me at all,” she said. “Noah [Erb], for example, as if I would ever date somebody his age. Nothing against him personally, but I would never.” (The pair shared a nearly 14-year age difference.)
She added, “I was insecure in that way of like, I didn’t think those guys were there for me. … It was just the human side of me.”
Away from the cameras, Clare and Dale, now 38, did not work out, but she fell in love with Ryan Dawkins and the pair got married in February 2023. They are parents to a daughter named Rowen, 2.
“Finally got my wings, and they have unlimited energy and call me mama,” Clare wrote via Instagram on October 24 with a video of her daughter. “Spent years praying for this 🦋.”
Prior to starring as the Bachelorette, Clare competed on Juan Pablo Galavis’ season of The Bachelor in 2014 in addition to Bachelor in Paradise and The Bachelor Winter Games.
