Love at first limo? JoJo Fletcher may have found love with Jordan Rodgers on The Bachelorette, but their connection wasn’t quite as instant as Clare Crawley’s with Dale Moss.
“I remember out loud saying like, ‘Whoa, it looks like she just got knocked over by his presence.’ And it was so visible to me,” the 29-year-old season 12 Bachelorette exclusively told Us Weekly about seeing Crawley, 39, meet Moss, 32, during the season 16 premiere. “It’s funny because when I saw Jordan come out of the limo, I obviously was super excited and like, giddy, and I knew he was the one that I wanted to talk to. But her reaction was, I literally feel like she fell in love in that moment. And it was so weird. I had never seen anything like it out of all the seasons I’ve ever watched.”
Fletcher got engaged to Rodgers, 32, during the August 2016 finale. The college football commentator crashed the reality TV personality’s recent chat with Us about her partnership with eBay.
“So it wasn’t love at first sight? What the heck?” Rodgers joked.
Fletcher quipped back, “It was giddy, lusty at first sight!”
She went on to admit that Rodgers had the “edge” over the other contestants.
“I knew that I was the most excited about him and he got my first impression rose. But I will say that I had to actively tell myself every single day, ‘Really take this one relationship at a time, don’t close yourself off, really explore all these relationships,’” she told Us. “I felt like I owe that to myself. I owed it to the process. If I was going to do it this way, let me explore it and go through it. So obviously, Jordan, you know, he still had my heart early on. But I feel like I did a really good job of really just trying to go through the process fully.”
When asked if she thinks the other contestants can tell when there’s a clear front-runner, Fletcher confessed it’s hard to notice.
“It definitely comes more apparent the further you go on … but with that, the further that you go on, the more you try to justify it [to yourself] like, ‘I’m just getting in my head, you’re psyching yourself out,’” she explained, noting that she knew Ben Higgins had a strong connection with Lauren Bushnell on season 20 of The Bachelor. “I knew that there was something with Lauren. It was something that I could visibly see, I think everyone saw it. But I was still thinking that my connection was strong and real.”
After Higgins said goodbye to Fletcher during the March 2016 finale, he got engaged to Bushnell. The twosome went their separate ways in 2017. While Bushnell is married to country singer Chris Lane, Higgins got engaged to girlfriend Jess Clarke earlier this year.
Fletcher added that Crawley’s case might be different. “I feel like with Dale, though, and from what I’ve seen be teased, it becomes very, very apparent to them. So, I mean, I’m excited to see how this whole shake-up goes down,” she told Us, seemingly referring to Tayshia Adams taking over for Crawley during the season.
While fans will see Fletcher fill in for host Chris Harrison on upcoming episodes of The Bachelorette, for now, she’s gearing up for the holiday season with eBay’s exclusive new certified refurbished category.
“I really do think with what we’ve gone through this year and money is tight, especially around the holidays, this is a really great option for people to look into. And I think people will love it,” she told Us. “I personally love it. … There’s all these different layers of trust that I feel like eBay gives you with this program. And I think it’s something that people will love and will really, really just use and appreciate as a gift for gifting season.”
The Bachelorette airs on ABC Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
