On to the next! Hours after the most dramatic Bachelor season of all time wrapped up, ABC revealed the season 16 cast of The Bachelorette.
One contestant may even look familiar! Matt James is best friends with former Bachelorette star Tyler Cameron. Matt constantly appears on Tyler’s Instagram and many times, Tyler has said that Matt should be the Bachelor. It looks like he’s taken that step.
The rest of the cast is new men who may not be the age fans were expecting. Clare Crawley marks the oldest Bachelorette to date — she’ll be 39 when filming begins — but only two of the men in the batch are older than her. In fact, 22 of the suitors are in their twenties.
“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,” Crawley said on Good Morning America when she was announced as the next Bachelorette. “I want a man who is strong, who is willing to take off the body armor, open himself up and be vulnerable. I think that [shows] some serious strength right there, so I want a man who can do that.”
The hairstylist has searched for love four times on Bachelor Nation. She first appeared on The Bachelor in 2104 and came in second place during Juan Pablo Galavis‘ season. Later that summer, she appeared on season 1 of Bachelor in Paradise and returned for season 2. In 2018, she took another chance on love on The Bachelor Winter Games and got engaged to Benoit Beauséjour-Savard, but the pair split in April of that year.
Now, she’s ready for a new opportunity. During the Tuesday, March 11, finale of The Bachelor, she explained that although this is her fifth try, she’ll “never give up” on searching for true love.
“To me, even more so as I developed more self-esteem, more self-worth, even more so I’m deserving of it, as everybody is,” she shared. After looking at a clip of her on Galavis’ season — in which she told him off after he blindsided her on the finale — she revealed she wouldn’t change that moment.
“I had been through some pretty terrible relationships, and I was that girl that let guys walk all over me, and I had never stood up for myself ever before,” Crawley said. “And it was just one of the greatest moments of my life to finally stand up there and say, ‘None of it is OK.’ And not just to him but to essentially every guy that ever hurt me before and took advantage of me. It was like, ‘No more.’”
Scroll through the gallery below to meet the Bachelorette contestants!
