The Bachelor's Susie Evans Gets Candid About Her Relationship With Clayton Echard

Susie Evans just opened up about her relationship with Clayton Echard, and according to "The Bachelor" alum, their whirlwind romance was one of the most difficult experiences she's ever had to face.

The former couple met on the popular reality dating show, and their relationship was unconventional to say the least. For starters, Evans was not Echard's first choice. Evans also didn't give Echard a chance to propose in the final episode, leaving him without a partner when the show ended. However, on the "After the Final Rose" special, they revealed that they ended up back together. "We needed to take a step back, and when we restarted our relationship, we set down a new foundation," Evans explained told People in March 2022.

Unfortunately, their relationship was plagued with issues, causing the two split less than a year into dating. "We know no healthy relationship comes without its struggles, but we've realized that we were not prepared for the external forces that hindered our ability to not only heal as individuals but also as a couple," they wrote in a joint Instagram post. Now, months after the breakup, Evans has opened up about what she went through.

According to Susie Evans, her relationship with Clayton Echard was doomed from the start. In a lengthy post on her blog, "Susie Was Like," the Virginia native admitted that she was in a "low place" before and after the split, and detailed how they were trying to force something that just wasn't a "natural fit" from the get-go. And while they had "joyous moments often," at the end of the day, she was "struggling and felt misaligned with the best version of [herself]." Later, she realized that trying to make their relationship work was "emotionally taxing and not good for the soul."

Evans also listed three of her key takeaways from her one-year relationship with Echard, which included discovering that "a partnership rooted in love alone doesn't always have the building blocks to grow tall and strong." She hinted that she and Echard weren't "aligned" with "crucial foundation pieces," which was why they eventually parted ways. Evans ended her piece with a positive note, saying that "Claisie" are "rooting each other on." She wrote, "just because something wasn't forever, it doesn't mean it wasn't wonderful."

Like his ex, Echard is also focusing on his own healing at the moment. "I'm not looking to date right now. I'm not mentally healed," he told E! News in October 2022. "I can't even fathom seeing anybody in that light right now. And so, I think I'm really just taking this time to focus on myself."