When Zac Clark was part of Clare Crawley’s clan on The Bachelorette season 16, little did he know he’d eventually become “the one” for a different woman altogether. As Tayshia Adams entered his life, she, along with those watching, felt herself getting closer to Zac due to his charming personality and courageous past. The Bachelorette star managed to win everyone over by showing his vulnerable side as he revealed his former struggles with addiction. Here’s taking a look at The Bachelorette 2020 winner and his inspiring journey from being a helpless addict to a celebrated addiction specialist.
Popularly known as Zac C. on season 16 of The Bachelorette, the Haddonfield, NJ native was first seen warming up to Tayshia as they threw coins into a La Quinta fountain to make their wishes. Perhaps, Zac, 36, wished for Tayshia’s “yes” at the season finale, which made him want to open up and pour his heart out to his future wife. “I want to know more about you,” Tayshia said when he revealed how one day after graduating college, he felt dizzy and found out he had a brain tumor. Zac went into surgery the next day and was also introduced to pain medication and drugs, thus making the experience “life-altering” for him. Zac, unfortunately, got married immediately after, got into the wrong company, was arrested, and got a DUI. His wife eventually left him. However, this gnarly experience had an even darker background, which Tayshia’s fiancé revealed as he addressed a gathering at Alvernia University in 2014.
According to ReadingEagle, Zac spoke about “15 years of lying," which he set off on after having a swig of Miller High Life in high school at a Christmas Eve party with older guys. “I am a degenerate alcoholic and drug addict,” Zac called himself, as he recalled having “prescription medicines” from the home of someone who died. Later on, as Tayshia’s partner played baseball in college, which he called “a front,” he also “drank heavily” and “bought Adderall” from girls who had a prescription. But then, Zac went through the surgery that exposed him to powerful drugs, such as “Dilaudid and morphine,” which he could now go and ask doctors for legitimately. Even as Zac prepared for his first marriage, The Bachelorette champ’s first thought was how he could access drugs on his 10-day honeymoon in St. Thomas. Moreso, just to get his hands on some heavy-duty painkillers, Zac also asked doctors to get his gall bladder removed.
What followed was a gnarly “eight-month drug binge” where The Bachelorette’s Zac shot heroin intravenously, smoked crack, and inhaled nitrous oxide until he got arrested for “possession of crack and driving while intoxicated.” But life turned around soon enough for Mr. Clark, who, after having stolen his father’s checks “to go do whatever,” met a bank-teller he calls “an angel.” The lady called Zac's father when he tried to cash the checks and said, “Your son’s here. It’s not good." Zac's dad showed up and took Zac home in what turned out to be the ABC celeb’s moment of clarity.
Today, a co-founder of Release Recovery, a recovery program that he started in 2017, The Bachelorette’s Zac recently met Rhonda Jackson, the teller who saved his life. “You never know whose life you might be saving. Thank you, Rhonda, for saving my life. There are no coincidences....” wrote Zac in his heartfelt post to the PNC bank employee, mere days before winning season 16. Zac’s story of how he struggled and managed to survive through it is worth many retellings, but it also proves why Tayshia, aka everyone’s favorite The Bachelorette, handed him her heart and her final rose.
Source: Bachelor Nation, ReadingEagle