Clayton Echard is opening up.

The Bachelor stopped by the “Talking It Out with Bachelor Nation” podcast and had a candid conversation with co-hosts Mike Johnson and Bryan Abasolo.

Clayton shared how the online hate he’s been receiving since he was announced as the Bachelor has impacted his mental health and self-confidence.

The Bachelor started off by saying, “Something I brought up with Michelle during her season was that I struggle with feeling like I’m good enough. I always have felt like I need to be doing more and I need to one-up myself. No one was putting that pressure on me other than myself. When I got the call to be the next Bachelor, I thought that I must be doing something right if they saw that potential in me and I tried to stop questioning if I was good enough.”

But as the negativity started to pour in, Clayton said he started to question himself again.

He explained, “The target got placed on my back and people were wondering why I was the Bachelor, and I was being picked apart for every single thing. I heard a podcast say that I’m just very ‘average’ and I remembered hearing that thinking, ‘Am I ever going to be good enough in the eyes of the fans? Is there any way that I can be good enough?’”

Clayton expressed wanting to reach out to some former Bachelors and Bachelorettes for advice on how to navigate this because maybe hearing from someone else who has gone through something similar might take some pressure off him.

Clayton shared, “It’s constant hate, and I feel like I can never measure up to what America wants. I don’t know what they even want. I’m not some perfect human being, but will I ever be good enough in the eyes of the ‘Bachelor’ fan base?”

The Bachelor shared that a lot of his struggle with self-worth stems from his childhood and feeling like an outsider.

Clayton said, “I would go to parties, but I didn’t really fit in. I was there, but no one tried to have conversations with me. I just didn’t really have the social skills, I was awkward, and I was bullied a lot. I didn’t get big until college, so I was bullied throughout high school.”

He also said that he constantly felt like he was living in his little brother’s shadow, especially when it came to sports. His brother made the varsity football team as a freshman while Clayton was still on the junior varsity team as a junior.

And while he said his confidence has come a long way since then, this experience as the Bachelor is new territory and the response has caused his confidence to waver.

Bryan and Mike thanked Clayton for his candidness and reminded fans that on the show, you’re only seeing a very small part of who someone is.

To hear more of Clayton’s conversation on the “Talking It Out with Bachelor Nation” podcast, check out the full episode below, and don’t miss part two of their discussion next week.