Clayton Echard and Susie Evans’ Post-‘Bachelor’ Interviews: Everything We Learned About How They Got Back Together and More

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

Clayton Echard and Susie Evans’ Post-‘Bachelor’ Interviews: Everything We Learned About How They Got Back Together and More

All’s well that ends well? Clayton Echard and Susie Evans’ Bachelor love story was anything but conventional, but the season 26 couple are now confident in their relationship. “The only comments I see that I agree with are the ones that say, ‘Clayton had every right to explore these relationships and Susie had every right to walk away,’” the 29-year-old former Miss Virginia said on the Wednesday, March 16, episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast, referring to the pair’s initial breakup during fantasy suites. “That's how we feel, we both felt that we both were valid. It’s really hard right now to see everybody basically taking sides because we're, like, ‘They don't know we're together!’” Clayton and Susie got into it during the overnight dates after she learned he slept with and was falling for Rachel Recchia and Gabby Windey. After they broke up, however, Clayton admitted he still had feelings for Susie during the Monday, March 14, episode of the ABC show — after he convinced Rachel and Gabby to continue with the journey. He officially ended things with his other two finalists when he learned Susie was still in Iceland and while they didn’t leave the show as a couple, Clayton and Susie have since reconciled. [sendtonews type="float" key="P7kI1lOf55-2832512-14453"] “People are taking sides … They're being divisive. And they're claiming these absolutes and we were four months past it. And we're together and we both see each other's perspective,” Susie told Becca Kufrin and Serena Pitt on Wednesday. “And we both have given each other grace where we've needed to. … We have high standards, and I would not be dating Clayton if he were a bad person, or if he were, you know, disrespectful when we had arguments. I wouldn't stick around for that. I left him in Iceland, like, I wasn't afraid to say, ‘No, I don't want to be in this relationship.’ Because I didn't know if it was good for me. But it is good for me.” She concluded: “I just want to ask anybody that is supporting me right now — just know that, like, I'm making this choice, and it's best for me. So please support us together and support Clayton as well.” Clayton agreed. “I've faced a ton of heat just from the start — just for even accepting the role,” he said. ”I've kind of just been used to this. And I hope that through us being together, this doesn't bring a lot of heat on her. I do expect there to be some blowback because people are going to be frustrated that she took somebody back like me, but the fact of the matter is that again, those people making those comments and assumptions don't know who I am. She does, my loved ones do, her loved ones do, and they are very much supportive of us as a team.” Scroll through for everything we have learned from Clayton and Susie after Tuesday’s finale:

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

Clayton Echard and Susie Evans’ Post-‘Bachelor’ Interviews: Everything We Learned About How They Got Back Together and More

All’s well that ends well? Clayton Echard and Susie Evans’ Bachelor love story was anything but conventional, but the season 26 couple are now confident in their relationship. “The only comments I see that I agree with are the ones that say, ‘Clayton had every right to explore these relationships and Susie had every right to walk away,’” the 29-year-old former Miss Virginia said on the Wednesday, March 16, episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast, referring to the pair’s initial breakup during fantasy suites. “That's how we feel, we both felt that we both were valid. It’s really hard right now to see everybody basically taking sides because we're, like, ‘They don't know we're together!’” Clayton and Susie got into it during the overnight dates after she learned he slept with and was falling for Rachel Recchia and Gabby Windey. After they broke up, however, Clayton admitted he still had feelings for Susie during the Monday, March 14, episode of the ABC show — after he convinced Rachel and Gabby to continue with the journey. He officially ended things with his other two finalists when he learned Susie was still in Iceland and while they didn’t leave the show as a couple, Clayton and Susie have since reconciled. [sendtonews type="float" key="P7kI1lOf55-2832512-14453"] “People are taking sides … They're being divisive. And they're claiming these absolutes and we were four months past it. And we're together and we both see each other's perspective,” Susie told Becca Kufrin and Serena Pitt on Wednesday. “And we both have given each other grace where we've needed to. … We have high standards, and I would not be dating Clayton if he were a bad person, or if he were, you know, disrespectful when we had arguments. I wouldn't stick around for that. I left him in Iceland, like, I wasn't afraid to say, ‘No, I don't want to be in this relationship.’ Because I didn't know if it was good for me. But it is good for me.” She concluded: “I just want to ask anybody that is supporting me right now — just know that, like, I'm making this choice, and it's best for me. So please support us together and support Clayton as well.” Clayton agreed. “I've faced a ton of heat just from the start — just for even accepting the role,” he said. ”I've kind of just been used to this. And I hope that through us being together, this doesn't bring a lot of heat on her. I do expect there to be some blowback because people are going to be frustrated that she took somebody back like me, but the fact of the matter is that again, those people making those comments and assumptions don't know who I am. She does, my loved ones do, her loved ones do, and they are very much supportive of us as a team.” Scroll through for everything we have learned from Clayton and Susie after Tuesday’s finale:

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

How Susie Felt Going Into Fantasy Suites

“I came to terms with whichever direction that conversation was going to go. I was very much just trying to be level-headed, like, I know how I feel. If he's in love with somebody else, I don't want to share his love,” Susie said on Wednesday’s episode of the “Viall Files” podcast. “And I kind of thought he was. I went into that week under the assumption that [it wasn’t] me. I can see the way he looks at Rachel, I can see the way he looks at Gabby, like, and I know them. And it's hard. … [But] I was like, ‘If he does know that it's me and he's taking these relationships to the next level, then, like, that's not what I want.’”

Susie added that all three of the women had “different perspectives” on how the overnight dates should be handled.

Credit: ABC/John Medland

What We Didn’t See During Fantasy Suites Fight

“We both sat there for a long time, both of us. … I wouldn’t say empathetic, but I think that he was sitting there, and I could see the panic. And I could feel the panic,” Susie told Nick Viall. “And I was like, ‘Oh, s—t, like, this is not what I expected.’ And I could just feel this energy coming from him. I could see it on his face, this realization that he made this assumption and that he had no clue. Like, I felt like he was, maybe, naive in the moment to think that this would be a conversation that would come up about fantasy suites. And I think we were both naive, if I'm being honest, in that moment. … And Clayton asked me, ‘What is it about me becoming physically intimate that you can’t get past?’”

Susie added that she was surprised in the moment by the question. “He genuinely did believe that he was in love with all three of us. And I think the best way to say that is deep feelings,” she said, noting that Clayton thinks she’s “too rational” when it comes to love. “I was always taught by my mom — she's like, ‘Love is a choice. It's an active choice, you nurture it, you grow it, you protect it.’ … That's been one of the biggest, like, growing moments for Clayton and myself — defining love and what that looks like, through the whole process.”

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

Why Clayton Thought Susie Wanted to Be the Bachelorette

In interviews following the March 8 episode, Clayton said he felt Susie was looking for a way out and wondered whether she wouldn’t fight for their relationship because she wanted to be the Bachelorette. Susie told the season 21 Bachelor that it helped to understand his “truth in that moment” when they were getting back together.

“Not that it warrants the way he treated me. But I have grace for, like, that mentality — he genuinely was like, ‘You obviously just don't care about me.’ I think he thought that was gonna be a moment of like, ‘I’m taking back control of my love story. I'm not gonna let you hurt me.’ We both realized that it's like, that couldn't be further from the truth. Like, we both cared a lot about each other.”

When it came to Bachelorette discussions, Susie said no one from production talked to her about it. “There was no pressure to do anything after the show for me,” she said, agreeing with Nick that producers could have made it “difficult” for them to reunite.

“They didn't try to stop you guys from being together at all?” he asked, to which Susie simply responded, “No."

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

Why Susie Declined the Final Rose

“I feel so naive to say this because I have seen the show. I've been watching for, like, three years now, and I did not know I was walking into even a rose ceremony. I know that sounds crazy,” Susie told Becca and Serena about the finale. “I didn't know that there was going to be a final rose at that point. … I was in just this crazy state of mind.”

When it came to walking away from Clayton, the videographer added, “I was afraid of accepting that rose and then being, like, there's going to be pressure — I’m going to put pressure on myself to stay with Clayton. Not necessarily the show or the fans or anything, but I know myself and if I accepted that rose in Iceland, I just knew I was gonna have pressure to stay with Clayton through, you know, AFR, and whatever. … The only way I can protect myself and honestly, our relationship now, is to step away and do what I have to do. We had to heal from things that happened in Iceland, we had to take time to, like, move past things.”

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

How They Got Back Together

Susie was the one to reach out to Clayton via Instagram DM. “I didn't reach out with the intentions of restarting a relationship or knowing where that conversation was going to go,” she said on the “Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast. “But I think we both had been through a lot. And we both loved each other a lot. And I just wanted to reach out and ask for one more conversation with him.”

On “Viall Files,” she added, “When I reached out to him, I was just, like, ‘Hey, we haven't really had the capacity, the time, the environment to really put things out there and for you to be able to tell me what happened that night — was that normal? Is that what it's like if we fight or if you're to have a fight with somebody?’ But we were able to really, like, get to the bottom of that.”

After several FaceTime calls about their compatibility and talking until they fell asleep every night, Clayton said he wanted to put a label on things. Susie, however, noted that she was the one who officially asked him to be her boyfriend right around the time the show started airing.

“We sat down with our journals one day when we were just like, ‘Let's compare notes, like, where's your head at here?’ And there were no surprises, like, we really talked about everything,” she said about rewatching the series.

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

How Their Families Feel

Clayton said his family was “absolutely shocked” when he and Susie reconciled, but now both families are happy. “We’ve been on so many Zooms [and] FaceTimes with them and, you know, it’s like we're all hanging out virtually. And they're all excited to meet her in person. So everyone's pumped at this point,” he said on the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast.

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

Clayton's Joint Breakup With Gabby + Rachel

“When I first broke that news to them about Susie and what occurred with her, I saw how the two of them reacted, or they were, you know, they were distraught, but then toward the end, as I was hanging out with the final two roses, they were holding each other consoling each other,” Clayton told Serena and Becca. “And them being together in that moment seemed to be beneficial…. It kind of seemed like they were able to lean on each other. And so after that point, when I realized I was gonna break up with the two of them and I needed to do that in order to fully pursue Susie, I went back to that moment in my head. And I thought, ‘Well, in that moment, the last time you did this, they were there for each other, they were hugging each other, they were just reassuring each other.’ … And it was tough. … My hope was that they could console each other and then once they wanted to talk to me individually, we could step aside and talk privately.”

On “Viall Files,” Susie added, “The breakup with Gabby and Rachel — that broke my heart. And then, yeah, I got to see him on stage with them and that also was just hard to watch.”