The rules have been broken!
Clare Crawley wasn't flying totally blind on her first night as the Bachelorette. In ET's exclusive sneak peek of Tuesday's season premiere, the 39-year-old hairstylist reveals that a contestant reached out to her before filming.
Whether Crawley had contact with any of her contestants is one of fans' biggest unanswered questions ahead of the premiere. ET learned in August that the Sacramento native's time as Bachelorette came to an end after she fell for a contestant roughly two weeks into filming. Tayshia Adams was brought in as a new lead, but fans couldn't help but wonder whether Crawley's shortened time frame was due to a pre-season connection with one of her men.
Contact between leads and contestants before the show starts usually isn't an issue, as the Bachelor or Bachelorette surrenders their phone to production before their cast is announced. However, production of Crawley's season shut down in March, just days after the cast was unveiled. Filming didn't pick back up again until July.
As ET's clip reveals, one contestant, Blake Moynes, took advantage of that time. "During the quarantine, Clare posted on Instagram on a Story that she was really struggling right now because of what her mom was going through in the hospital," he tells the camera on night one. "So, I want to check in if she's OK."
However, it doesn't look like Crawley was that touched by the gesture. As fans know, she's a stickler for rules.
"So, over quarantine, it was really hard for me. And I didn't want to bring this up, but there are these weird rules that we have to follow for the show of not contacting somebody, and you were the only guy who reached out to me the entire time," she tells Moynes in the clip. "So, you broke the rule that you're not supposed to contact somebody."
Watch the full clip in the video player above.
In a recent interview with ET, host Chris Harrison teased that fans would find out on the premiere if Crawley had any contact with her contestants prior to filming.
"Did Clare have contact? You will definitely find out once the show starts. We definitely have those conversations, for sure," he said.
"She admitted to me that she started looking through and getting an idea of what these guys stood for who they were -- not a terrible idea, and maybe that's something we incorporate into the future of this show,'" Harrison added.
The Bachelorette premieres Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. See more of what to expect this season in the video below.
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