March 22, 2023 • bachelor insider
Clayton Echard Shares Thoughts on Zach’s Fantasy Suites Episode: ‘Give Him Some Grace’
Getting candid.
On this week’s episode of “The Bachelor,” fans saw Zach promise to not have sex during Fantasy Suite dates and then fail to keep his promise.
After his date with Gabi, Zach revealed that they were intimate during their overnight date, and he said he felt like sharing this information was the right thing to do.
Now, former Bachelor Clayton Echard is sharing his thoughts on the episode and how Zach handled the tricky situation.
Clayton took to his Instagram Stories and said he had some thoughts to share after watching the Fantasy Suite episode.
Clayton said, “I think it’s important to just put this out there for you all to understand maybe the other side of the coin that’s not often spoken about. I know Zach made some actions and said some things about revealing what had occurred with one woman to the other woman. There was this talk about how he should have had that conversation in privacy. There is no privacy. The only privacy is [Fantasy] Suites before that, after that, there’s no privacy, you don’t get off camera time.”
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The former Bachelor went on, saying, “Then there’s the discussion of well, maybe he should’ve waited until the show ends. That’s fine and a very real possibility, but there is risk in withholding that information. You go through the rest of the process, everyone’s super happy, you get engaged, and then all of a sudden, you have to tell them what happened.”
Clayton explained that sharing what truly happened after the fact can really only go two ways.
He said, “They can either say, ‘Hey, thank you so much for letting me know this. I’m really appreciative that you didn’t say this on national television.’ Or they could say the opposite, which is, ‘Why didn’t you tell me that sooner? Had you told me this, I would have made different decisions and I wouldn’t ultimately be here. For something as big as an engagement, I wish you would have told me this because it would have affected my decision-making ability.’”
Clayton shared that this situation is a very real concern that leads thinks about, and while he said he can’t speak for Zach, that’s why he felt like he had to say how he was feeling right then and there in the moment.
Clayton also shared that some people think the leads should do a better job at not expressing their feelings to multiple people and while he totally gets that, he thought he wouldn’t do that but revealed why he did.
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The former Bachelor said, “What happened was that the women started to open up to me and they realized I wasn’t reciprocating and then I started getting questioned. They would say they expressed themselves and yet I don’t know how I was feeling and that made them put walls up. Some even considered leaving and I didn’t want to lose somebody I cared about, so I started to share how I was feeling and didn’t withhold my emotions. It’s a really tough spot to be in, and as the lead you can try to withhold to protect everybody, but you may end up losing people if they don’t know where you are standing.”
Clayton explained that while it would be amazing to just know right away who you are in love with and who you will pick at the end, it’s not that easy and no one has ever been in this situation before.
And Clayton concluded his posts by asking fans to give Zach a little grace as his journey unfolds.
He said, “Did Zach do things perfectly? No, no one of us ever does it perfectly, like hardly ever. There’s time after time again, many of us have failed in that process. So just give him some grace as all I ask. He’s trying his best.”
Clayton added, “It’s easy to say you shouldn’t do these things when you say sitting watching it from a TV, but it’s another thing when emotions are involved.”
