The season premiere of 'The Bachelorette' saw many suitors make not-so-subtle digs at the former Bachelor.
Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia don't have any ill will toward Clayton Echard. ET's Lauren Zima spoke with The Bachelorette's leading ladies on Tuesday, and Gabby shared how she and her co-lead feel about their ex.
The two women appeared on Clayton's season of The Bachelor, which they exited after he confessed to being in love with his final three women and sleeping with both Gabby and Rachel. After Clayton's season wrapped filming, he reconnected with the third member of his final three, Susie Evans, and the couple is currently going strong.
"Overall, we do wish Clayton well," Gabby tells ET. "We are lucky to have this opportunity to move on and wish him nothing but the best."
While Gabby and Rachel don't seem interested in bashing their former beau, the suitors on their season didn't get that memo. During the limo entrances on Monday's season premiere, several guys brought up Clayton. One man came dressed as a clown, another joked about having a similar name, and a third hired a children's choir to sing about how much the medical sales rep sucks. On the episode, neither Gabby nor Rachel was amused by talk of their ex.
"Everything happened so fast -- the ending of Clayton's season, the beginning of our journey -- that it was the one way for the men to connect the two experiences," Gabby tells ET. "I think they were trying to relate to us on that."
"We hope it didn’t come off too harsh and hopefully [they did] just have a little fun with it," she adds. "It is the first episode, so it will hopefully go away."
As for if she and Rachel are over the situation with Clayton, Gabby assured that they are. "We promise!" she says.
Gabby's comments to ET came the same day that Clayton and Susie reacted to the hate directed Clayton's way while speaking to former Bachelorette Kailtyn Bristowe on her Off the Vine podcast.
"As I saw the episode, I was very happy to just feel that I’m like, you know, it’s not personal, it’s business," Clayton said. "... As I saw the show, the episode, and all of the attacks and the song, the choir they had -- I’m gonna go chase down those parents -- I honestly didn’t really get a reaction other than I just kind of laughed. I watched it and I thought, 'This too shall pass. Of all the things you've been through, this is relatively minor. So what?'"
"I get it. There's a connection to my story with these two women," he added. "I hope that as the weeks go on, my name will no longer be said and the story will truly become about these two women."
Susie, however, didn't have quite the same take, admitting that her boyfriend "handled it better, overall, than I did."
"I was annoyed. Like, come on," she said. "... He's the butt of most of my social media jokes. I can laugh at him and I can laugh at myself. But also, my fear is, like, 'Does this open the floodgates back up of all the hate and stuff?' So that’s where I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, really?’ But Clayton definitely was going with the flow."
After hearing his girlfriend's opinion on the subject, Clayton admitted that the teasing Gabby and Rachel made at his expense could "lead to cyberbullying."
"I’m not the biggest fan of how that was shown, but... it’s just the nature of the beast," he said. "I’m not gonna lose sleep over [it at] this point anymore… I’m not going to give people power that should have no power over me."
As for Gabby and Rachel's journey for love, the women each told ET that they're excited for viewers to see it all play out.
"It's crazy. It's a whirlwind," Rachel teases. "We're really excited for everyone to start to see our journey and get to be a part of it."
"We've been sitting with it for so long," Gabby adds, "so it’s a whole different part of the experience to be able to watch it back and be able to share it with everybody."
The Bachelorette airs Mondays on ABC. Keep up with the historic season by following along with ET's coverage of the series.
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