Clayton Echard Almost Quit and Went Home 6 Times on the 1st Night of ‘The Bachelorette’: ‘I Barely Spoke’ the Whole Night

Clayton Echard first appeared on Michelle Young’s season of The Bachelorette. He finished in eighth place, so it was pretty surprising when he was named the next Bachelor.

Echard’s season was pretty messy. He told Susie Evans, Gabby Windey, and Rachel Recchia that he loved them. He then proceeded to break up with Gabby and Rachel together, which did not make them, or Bachelor Nation, too happy.

Clayton Echard | John Fleenor/ABC via Getty Images

The two women Echard rejected were not heartbroken for long as they became the first co-Bachelorettes. The Bachelor ended up with Susie, but it didn’t last very long.

Why Clayton Echard almost quit ‘The Bachelorette’

“I was one of the quietest dudes. I barely spoke,” Echard told Us Weekly’s Here for the Right Reasons podcast about his first night on Michelle’s season. The Bachelorette contestant was afraid of saying something “dumb” or doing anything negative,

“I didn’t want to bring negativity my way. And so I literally just sat back and I was like, ‘I am gonna be as cautious as possible because I don’t want to shoot my mouth off and all of a sudden be the center focus of some drama.’”

He went on to say, “Night one, I almost left six times more so because I felt outta place. Guys [were] coming down the steps for their intros and what they were wearing, and they seemed so comfortable acting ridiculous. … I thought, ‘These guys are so comfortable in their own skin, and I’m not, so how can I be here amongst these men?’”

Clayton Echard was surprised to be named ‘The Bachelor’

It turns out that Echard himself was caught off guard when he was named The Bachelor.

“They showed me at the beginning [of Michelle’s season], and they showed me at episode 6 when I get sent home or whatever it was. Everyone’s like, ‘That’s it? You just force-fed us on that last episode. He got a letter from the kids [and] he cried once, and now he’s the Bachelor?’ Why is he more deserving than these other men?’ And I got that.”

He went on to say that he didn’t think he deserved it more than the other men, but it wasn’t his decision. “I was just asked, so I just accepted it. But then I found out very quickly that people put me up here as far as what they wanted me to be or what they expected out of me.”

The former Bachelor also said he didn’t like the tagline he was given for his season, “Everyone loves an underdog,” because it made him feel the high expectations. “I felt every bit of those high expectations,” Clayton told Us. “And it didn’t help when my tagline came out, and I was the underdog. I didn’t pick that. I was like, ‘Why am I the underdog?’”

What are Clayton Echard’s thoughts on being ‘The Bachelor’?

Echard said that he “got lost in the moment” when he was The Bachelor, “Because I was like, ‘I want her to be in my life, but then I want her to be in my life. This is so incredible. I’ve never been happier. I’ve never felt so much love. I’ve never felt so valued.’”

He then realized that what he was doing wasn’t right. “And then all of a sudden, like, the next thought came in like, ‘What are you thinking, dude? There’s three women here, you have to end this.’”

He added that he “freaked” out toward the end of the show and cried on camera when he realized he was going to hurt someone (or two), but he had already taken it too far. “I poured my entire heart into all this. … I’ve probably went farther than I should have, but I got lost in the moment,” he explained.