Clayton Echard, the star of The Bachelor season 26, reacted to Claire Heilig saying that she hated him. Clayton and Claire, a 28-year-old spray tanner and cosmetic dermatologist from Virginia Beach, Virginia, appeared to hit it off when she came out the limousine. Later, during the cocktail party, Claire confessed to the cameras that she wanted the first impression rose, so she planned a tailgate party during which she and Clayton discussed football, played cornhole, and ate chicken wings. As Claire spoke to him, it became clear that she had had too much to drink, but Clayton seemed to be enjoying himself. During their time, another contestant, Mara Agrait, tried to steal Clayton away, but Claire asked her to wait. Claire told Clayton to sit and said, "Why are you stressing me out?" Mara kept standing there, so Claire told them to go. Clayton walked away saying that he wanted a rematch in cornhole, but Claire seemed annoyed.
After Clayton left, Claire returned to the cocktail party and began to speak her mind about him to the other women. When they asked her how their time was, Claire replied with, "not the vibe." They were shocked, and she said that she has a "very specific palate" and that Clayton was "a hundred percent too nice" for her. She called their time together a "catastrophe," and said, "he sucks" and "I would eat him and spit him out." She even looked at a pillow with his face on it that one of the women had brought and said, "no." The women were surprised and upset when she continued to say things such as "I can't be with America's sweetheart." She said that she was "too fiery" for him and his personality was "not for her." When she said that she "hated him," but admitted that she wasn't going to tell him, another contestant, Serene Russell, decided to tell him the truth. Clayton confronted Claire about her saying that she hated him. She said that she didn't hate him, but she felt that they hadn't clicked, and that she doesn't hate anybody. At the end of their conversation, Claire said, "I would love nothing more," presumably about leaving, and Clayton walked her out before the rose ceremony. Clayton then came back and told the remaining women that they could leave if they didn't want to be there, but he was happy to see that everyone wanted to stay.
In an interview with ET, Clayton reacted to Claire's behavior. He was able to watch the show back, so he now knows exactly what she said behind his back. However, he admitted that he could understand Claire's feelings, saying, "To now watch it back, she clearly had some frustrations with me. I understand looking back at that [that] we have very limited interaction. I think she felt that she was cut off. She felt that I didn't give her the time of day." Clayton went on to say, "I don't want to beat her up for it. There's a lot of emotions, a lot of stress, night one. I think that she was just frustrated. It is what it is." Perhaps being a contestant on Michelle Young's Bachelorette season helped him to understand how difficult the first night of the show can be for the contestants.
Claire was not the only woman to reject Clayton on night one. Salley Carson, who was supposed to be married the weekend that the show began filming, left before the limousine entrances. Samantha Jeffries, who had a memorable entrance as she arrived dressed in a bikini in a bubble bath, was not seen again after that. Clayton said that she went home, but he wasn't really sure what had happened. He admitted that the rejection shook his confidence a bit, but he tried not to take it personally. He said, "You start to play this game of like, why did they leave? What was it? Is it the way I presented myself? Are they just not physically attracted to me? But whatever the case, you just have to go back to, they are not interested for whatever reason, or they are not in the right head space, so just move on, don't think about it too much. It will eat you up if you do."
Even though Claire said that she hated Clayton, she seemed to be speaking from a place of frustration coupled with too much alcohol at the cocktail party. She must have felt rejected when Clayton walked away from her. Although she may not have gone about it in the right way, Claire's admission that she didn't feel a connection with Clayton was refreshing for viewers, who often find it difficult to believe that 30 women all begin falling in love with the same man on night one. Clayton can now focus on the remaining women, and Claire can continue her own search for love as well.
The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.
Source: ET