More fallout from fantasy suites, coldly ending his relationship with Susie Evans after she expressed she wasn't comfortable with him being physically intimate with the other women on the show.
Throughout this season of The Bachelor, the Missouri native has carefully chosen his words and held back expressing his true feelings for the women vying for his final rose. But Clayton revealed Serene's exit during hometowns changed his approach with his final three women. As Serene questioned the Bachelor 26 lead about their sudden break-up, Clayton realized he needed to be more forthcoming with his emotions going forward. Recalling his split with Serene, Clayton told Entertainment Tonight, "That is when I realized that, because you're withholding this information, these feelings, these women are going to now start to question if what you have is genuine. That really did not sit right with me." The revelation led to Clayton putting all of his cards on the table during fantasy suite week. The bachelor went from not telling any of the women how he felt to professing his love for Gabby, Susie, and Rachel, but in eerily similar ways.
Now, Clayton is clapping back at those who claim he wasn't being genuine after giving the same "falling in love" speech multiple times. This season's bachelor explained on Kaitlyn Bristowe's Off The Vine podcast, "I compartmentalized, I guess, too well to the point where I was just all in with these women." Clayton said he honestly had fallen in love with all three women. "I'm only one person. I mean, I don't have a different vocabulary depending on who I'm talking to. So I felt these feelings of love and they were genuine — if anything I felt so similar with every one of the connections that that's why the same things were being said because I felt that way genuinely."
The podcast host has also jumped to Clayton's defense amid more backlash he's received from his messy split with Susie. After the episode, Kaitlyn took to her Instagram stories to offer her perspective as someone who has experienced The Bachelor as a contestant and lead. "I'm just going to speak from personal experience … when you're in that position, you are making a life-altering decision," the former Bachelorette said on her Instagram story. "You genuinely fall in love with more [than one] person, so why would you not be intimate with more than one person and when you're trying to find the person to spend the rest of your life with? Why do we judge so hard on this?"
But fans who disagreed with ABC's choice to cast Clayton as this season's bachelor are never going to be happy with anything the 28-year-old does. While he used similar rhetoric with all three women, it seems Clayton truly believed he was in love with them in the Bachelor bubble. Although he has unnecessarily hurt feelings along the way, Clayton has been apologetic. One thing Bachelor Nation might be able to agree on: A Bachelor lead who makes mistakes and fumbles through their journey delivers compelling television.
The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.
Source: Kaitlyn Bristowe's Off The Vine