Just a number! Clare Crawley thinks her age will work to her advantage when she starts her journey as the season 16 lead of The Bachelorette.
“I feel like a lot of people put [age] out there as this negative thing, but for me, it just is more years under my belt, more learning and knowing what I want, what I don’t want and what I won’t settle for,” the reality star, 38, said on Good Morning America on Monday, March 2.
So, what is Crawley looking for in a husband? “I want a man who is strong, who is willing to take off the body armor, open himself up and be vulnerable,” she told Lara Spencer. “I think that [shows] some serious strength right there, so I want a man who can do that.”
The Sacramento, California, native announced on Monday that she will be the next Bachelorette. Rachel Lindsay was previously the oldest lead at 32. When Crawley begins filming her season, she will be 39.
The hairstylist finished as the runner-up on Juan Pablo Galavis’ season of The Bachelor in 2014. She later competed on Bachelor in Paradise seasons 1 and 2 before joining the cast of The Bachelor Winter Games, on which she met and fell in love with Benoit Beauséjour-Savard. However, she and the Bachelorette Canada alum, 33, called off their engagement in April 2018.
A source told Us Weekly exclusively on Sunday, March 1, that “the Bachelorette casting team turned away numerous guys in their early 20s for the upcoming season solely because of their ages,” indicating that an older woman had been selected as the lead.
Crawley said on GMA on Monday that she found out she was the next Bachelorette on Saturday, February 29, just two days before ABC publicly announced the news.
“So unexpected,” she said. “I cannot believe it. I mean, six years later. What is happening?”
The Bachelorette season 16 premieres on ABC Monday, May 18, at 8 p.m. ET.
