Season 26 of “The Bachelor” is officially underway!

Clayton Echard’s journey kicked off with Monday night’s premiere, which had some high highs and low lows right off the bat.

Thankfully, Clayton had former Bachelor Jesse Palmer by his side as this season’s host. Jesse stopped by the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast, where he discussed how he thinks being a former Bachelor helped him help Clayton on his journey.

Jesse said, “It helped a lot being a former Bachelor, and one thing that I was lucky to do was have the chance to watch Tayshia and Kaitlyn over the last couple seasons. I thought they did an amazing job. A big part of hosting ‘The Bachelor’ is being empathetic and sympathetic to the emotional roller coaster that goes on throughout the entire journey.”

Jesse continued, “Being in that role, there’s just nothing you can do to prepare yourself for that. I think it’s just trying to help him navigate all the different feelings he was having throughout the course of the show. It’s also being there during the tough moments, like the difficult decisions and hurting other people’s feelings.”

And while Jesse had his own experience as the Bachelor, he knew this season was about Clayton’s journey, not his.

The former Bachelor said, “As a host, it wasn’t about me or my experience. I didn’t want to be the host that was like, ‘Well, on my season, I said this’ or ‘On my season, I would do this.’ I told him right from the get-go that if he had questions, I was happy to try to help him out, but I wasn’t always going to always be right there. Part of the magic of this is that you need to figure it out on your own.”

He added, “All of our journeys are so different. His season isn’t going to resemble mine at all or Peter’s, or Colton’s, or Matt’s. We all have our own path that we’re going to take and we’re different people.”

But through all the ups and downs, the most important thing for Jesse was to just be there for Clayton as he looked for love.

Jesse shared, “It can really feel overwhelming, so for me it was just about how I could best help Clayton find what he wants. And what he wants to find is love. He wants it so badly and wants to be married and have kids. He put a lot of pressure on himself in that environment because he knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

It really is, and we already can’t get enough of Clayton’s season! Tune in Monday nights at 8 p.m. on ABC to watch his journey unfold.

And to hear more of Jesse’s conversation on “Bachelor Happy Hour,” check out the full episode below.