"I would admit if I was the one that did it," she adds. "I would totally own it, because I've said it before on my Twitter... I wanted Tayshia as the Bachelorette."
The twists keep coming.
The Bachelorette got an unprecedented shakeup this year -- and the twists just keep coming. Clare Crawley, who was announced as the Bachelorette in early March (before production was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic), was replaced with Tayshia Adams roughly two weeks into filming, ET learned on Aug. 3.
As ET previously reported, and as fans saw over the first few weeks of the season, Clare's journey to love was the shortest of any lead in the show's history. After just a few encounters with frontrunner Dale Moss, she was ready to "blow up The Bachelorette," as host Chris Harrison famously said in that promo, halting her season and getting engaged. That's when Tayshia stepped in, arriving to meet the rest of Clare's men and embark on her own journey to find the man of her dreams.
However, now that we've seen Tayshia's arrival, fans still have plenty of questions about the drama to come: Are we done with Clare and Dale's journey? Will all of Clare's men stay to try and find love with Tayshia? Why were other Bachelor Nation alum also spotted filming in Palm Springs?
ET went straight to the source, asking Clare, Tayshia and Chris Harrison to dish all they could on the unique season. "What we really learned was at the end of the day, it is about the stories. It's about the romance," Harrison explained, describing the season as a "pressure cooker."
As the drama continues to unfold, ET is breaking down everything we know about what went down, and what fans can expect to see play out on screen.
How They Built the Bachelorette Bubble
As Harrison noted, The Bachelorette was one of the first large-scale reality shows to return to production amid the coronavirus pandemic -- creating their own filming "bubble" at the La Quinta Resort & Club in Palm Springs, California, where Clare, her suitors and the entire production staff stayed for the duration of filming.
"It was a Herculean task by an amazing team and god bless them all. I don't think there's another team in television that could have pulled this off," he praised. "I can't give enough credit to the team and the crew that made this happen, but with that said, once we were in the bubble, it was a very interesting and different way to shoot the show."
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, there was no traveling this season. All dates were filmed at La Quinta, with producers coming up with "some amazingly creative ideas of how to reimagine the same space over and over."
As for Tayshia's arrival mid-season, she told ET she was in quarantine "48 hours" after receiving a call from producers early on in Clare's season.
"They did share with me that, you know, if things were continuing to move the way that they had, that Clare might have found her love already," she recalled. "It happened like a flash."
What Happened With the Cast
After planning for the unique, pandemic-related circumstances, Clare's season then went through another shakeup, as some of the contestants were recast. On July 15, ABC officially announced the 42 men who could have a chance at Clare's heart.
Of that list, 25 were new names and 17 stayed from the original contestant pool. There were 15 men that were cut from the original list, including, of course, Matt James, who was announced in June to be the next Bachelor. Clare's new group of suitors range in age from 25 to 40 with the majority of the men in their 30s -- following calls from fans to see more age-appropriate men for Clare, which Harrison supported.
"We went back to the chalk board and back to the drawing board and decided, 'Hey, let's really make an effort to find some guys that are more in line with where Clare is in her life,'" the host said. "It wasn't that we didn't respect Clare from the beginning, people have to understand how this works and the timing of all this. We can only do so much and still keep on our production calendar."
The 31 guys in the final cast they ended up with are "phenomenal," he added.
"I don't know if I've ever been so impressed with a group of men," he added. "I think you're going to have some real superstars come out of this season. And Clare, honestly, is a lucky woman. She had an embarrassment of riches as far as this group of guys go."
Clare was equally impressed, telling ET ahead of the season that she was sensitive to the fact that it's an unusual season of the show, especially for the cast and crew members who stayed on lockdown in Palm Springs for the duration of filming.
"My whole goal in all of this was for everybody to know and understand that even though I'm the Bachelorette and this is my personal journey to find love, it's also their personal journey to find love as well," she shared. "They went through all of the testing that I went through, they put themselves on the line, they put their jobs on hold, they put their families on hold, all to find love."
As fans have seen in promos, there will also be some new contestants added to Tayshia's potential pool of suitors after the journey begins for the season's second Bachelorette. "There's some new faces and it's going to get really juicy the second that happens," Tayshia shared. "Just wait and see."
What Happened Online Before Filming Began
Due to the coronavirus production shutdown, rumors circulated that Clare had contact with some her men before filming resumed -- with fans speculating that's what may have led to her falling for a suitor so quickly. Before heading to La Quinta Resort & Club to start filming in July, Clare had admitted to looking up some of her guys on social media. In a normal season, she would have surrendered her phone before the cast was announced, but since production was shut down for four months amid the coronavirus pandemic, Clare and her original cast were all sent home, with their phones returned to them.
"She definitely took a peek," Harrison said. "But we also had the opportunity to continue to cast her show. So coming in to night one, she really didn't know who was going to be there."
Whether Clare DMed any of those men wasn't a consideration for Harrison. "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 offered. The host also noted that this season especially "there are no rules."
Producers like the element of surprise, but getting to know someone ahead of time might be beneficial to the leads -- and fans will find out exactly how much Clare knew her men when the show premieres.
"Did Clare have contact? You will definitely find out once the show starts. We definitely have those conversations, for sure," Harrison said.
And while Tayshia admitted to ET that she looked up Clare's group of men before The Bachelorette's COVID lockdown, she went into her run with a mostly clean slate.
"I looked at them when they were first released for Clare, so that was months ago," she recalled. "Because of quarantine, everything got moved back. But I did not look them up after that, and I was really happy I didn't because I didn't really know what I was walking into. I had forgotten about everybody at that point."
Why Clare Exited the Show
Harrison told ET early on that Clare wasn't "wasting time" this season -- and that certainly seemed to be how things played out. A source told ET in August that Clare ended her journey early on good terms with producers, and now we know that she made the decision to shut things down and pursue her relationship with Dale.
"She came into this unbelievably sincere and serious about finding love, finding a man, and it really wasn't about the pomp and circumstance for her. It wasn't about all the pageantry. It was about coming in and finding somebody, and I really respect the fact that this woman knows exactly what she wants and she is not afraid to go get it," Harrison said.
"I did not quit," Clare reiterated to ET. "I stayed the whole time. I went, I did what I was gonna do there, I showed up. I didn't quit anything."
However, the Bachelorette's chemistry with Dale was obvious to everyone watching -- including her other suitors, who started to get frustrated at the lack of available time and attention Clare seemed to have for them.
"I definitely am not disappointed in Clare," Harrison assured fans as the season progressed. "I'm not mad at Clare, none of this is a bad thing. If Clare's falling for somebody, and that's where this goes, then great. The whole purpose of this is to help Clare find love... If I do it in record time, that should go on my record. That should be a good thing. There shouldn't be a negative to this."
At the same time, Harrison admitted, "The guys aren't dumb. If you're dating somebody and you're trying to get to know somebody and you feel brushed off, you feel like they're kind of ignoring you, you feel like she's bringing up another guy nonstop... they're going to notice this, and so it was a little off-putting."
"I don't blame them for being frustrated in this situation. They came for what they thought was a certain journey and they're not getting that experience, and so I understand their frustration as well."
What Clare Told ET About Dale
Ahead of The Bachelorette, Clare opened up to ET about her instantaneous draw to Dale, the 32-year-old former NFL player who inspired that jaw-dropping promo moment where Clare told host Chris Harrison that she thinks she "just met my husband" -- during the limo entrances!
"It was one of those intangible, goosebumps all over the body [things]. Like, what just happened?" Clare recalled to ET of meeting Dale for the first time. "For me, being a confident woman, I honestly stood there all night and I was like, 'Great to meet you, I'm excited,' like, each guy, I was so into, I was so happy to meet them, and then with Dale, I felt like I was just a blubbering mess...I was like, 'What did I just say? Did it sound OK? What just happened?' For me to be caught off guard and for me to be at a loss for words -- I think that definitely says a lot."
"That feeling that I've never felt before... just standing in front of a man, connecting on that level, and it being electric between each other - I've never felt that instantly like that before," she continued. "I had never felt it before, and I never even knew what to expect with those feelings. When you have not experienced it or felt it, you don't know if it exists, but when you feel it, you know exactly what that feeling is."
Clare and Dale's connection was so clear from the get-go that Chris Harrison actually asked Clare if she wanted to meet the rest of the guys who hadn't yet made limo entrances. She said she did -- but also told ET she had "a lot of conversations" with producers about her interest in Dale.
"Definitely a lot of conversations are had behind the scenes of like, 'This guy caught me off guard on that,' and 'That guy is a hard no,'" she said. "You can already tell [on Night One] who has your attention and who doesn't."
Clare's physical and emotional connection with Dale was "electric," she described -- adding that it was something she'd never felt before so instantly.
"That was something that you can't really anticipate with anybody, you don't know," she shared. "[But I didn't know] like, was he feeling that? Are we on the same page?"
"Usually in my experience as relationships goes, there's always somebody that's ahead of the other person," Clare said. "It's really rare that you connect on that same page at the same time, so it was just -- it was one of those magical things that I guess just happens."
For his part, Harrison said he had "never seen a lead fall that hard that heavy on Night One."
"I've had lead say, "Wow, I'm really blown away. I really like that person,' and end up with that person in the end, but it was not a just out and out, 'Let's just stop this right now'-type of a feeling," he explained. "I kinda thought, 'This'll be good because we won't be going in this direction in just another week or two, and this'll be interesting that she was falling so hard for this guy and felt so strong, yet here we are on this other path.' That tends to be what happens."
"That's not what's happening here, and that was just the tip of the iceberg, and it's only gone more severe in that direction," he continued. "So, I go back to that and I wanna go, 'Wow, OK, maybe she was onto something and maybe she really did feel that strongly.'"
What Happened to Clare After She Left the Show
Clare was seen for the first time since the switch on Aug. 11. Photos exclusively obtained by ET showed the hairstylist in an interesting location -- on set. Bachelor franchise contestants and leads are usually released from production and have their phones returned to them when their time on the series has come to an end; it's unclear if Clare returned to the La Quinta Resort, or if she simply never left.
Now that their relationship is public, Clare and Dale have also been interviewed and spotted out together, and Clare was seen wearing her massive diamond engagement ring while in her hometown of Sacramento, California.
As for the social media "likes" on Twitter that seem to suggest Clare believes she was "forced out" of The Bachelorette? According to Harrison, the Bachelorette had "complete control" of the season.
"This season of The Bachelorette was completely about Clare. It's all about Clare, and she will decide where we go from here. It's totally, completely up to her," the host explained, noting that producers didn't approach the season with a "Plan B" in mind.
"It was all really about Plan A, and it was all about, 'What do we do with this season with Clare, and where do we go with that?'" he said. "Really, it was about Clare and her decisions."
Why JoJo Filled In For Chris
A source told ET on Aug. 13 that Harrison missed a few days of filming this season of The Bachelorette to take his son to college. "This was a pre-planned event done totally in coordination with production," the source said. "There were no surprises."
ET also confirmed that for Bachelorette JoJo Fletcher stood in for Harrison for some parts of filming -- and the choice makes sense given her history with the host.
"I did step away. And I will just say a very good friend that I reached out to was nice enough to come in and help out just a little bit," Harrison explained to ET. "You'll see for how long once the show starts, but clearly it's something that I had a hand in and was aware of the entire time."
Harrison is friendly with Fletcher; he had her and fiance Jordan Rodgers on an Instagram Live from his personal page in March, where they talked about their wedding, which Harrison was set to attend before it was postponed due to the pandemic.
Why Other Bachelor Alums Were Spotted Filming
In addition to Fletcher, Bachelor stars like Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon, Wells Adams and Hannah Ann Sluss were also photographed where the show was filming in Palm Springs -- leading some to speculate that perhaps the franchise was filming Bachelor in Paradise. However, according to Iaconetti, that's not the case.
"This is not happening. These are truly just rumors. This is just The Bachelorette filming down there," she told Ben Higgins on their Almost Famous podcast on Aug. 11. Iaconetti said she didn't want to spoil too much of what was going on with Bachelorette filming, but it's possible former contestants were simply there to make cameo appearances on the season, as has happened with many past cycles of the show.
Harrison seemed to agree, saying, "We saw a lot of people on set. Becca [Kufrin] and JoJo [Fletcher] and Wells [Adams] was on set... We brought a lot of friends in to help us out this season."
ABC and Warner Bros. rarely comment when filming is still underway for any Bachelor franchise show.
What We First Knew About the Tayshia Adams Switch
The rumors of the switch-up came after Clare appeared to return to social media and like a tweet about Tayshia becoming the Bachelorette. Clare's account quickly unliked the tweet, but that -- combined with rumors about Clare's departure and Tayshia quarantining at the show's base in Palm Springs -- was enough to catch fans' attention.
However, Harrison told ET that the social media activity was much ado about nothing. "I can, for sure, 100% tell you that was not Clare, she did not have her phone," he said. "I know this because I was with her and I know the person that was with her, and she definitely did not have her phone, because I know where her phone was. So, I know it wasn't her, for a fact."
According to Clare, she had a friend monitoring her social media accounts for her while she was on lockdown filming her season, and the friend accidentally liked the tweet.
"The truth is I don't even know [why it happened], her and I have not even talked about it," the Bachelorette told ET. "I didn't even think it was that big of a deal, I think slip-ups happen. Whether she meant to or didn't mean to...we haven't even talked about it."
The Bachelorette played coy about Tayshia stepping in for her on the ABC dating show -- but did reiterate she's previously backed Tayshia for the role.
"I wanted Tayshia as the Bachelorette... like, I support her," Clare shared. "I think she's beautiful, I think she's a very grounded woman, a woman who knows what she wants. I completely support that, I supported her....I've wanted to her to be the Bachelorette forever. I always was for that."
Fans got their first look at Tayshia's Bachelorette entrance after week 3, in a steamy promo shot of her exiting a pool -- the first time ABC and Warner Bros. came close to officially commenting on the switch.
"We thought this may take a turn pretty early on," Chris Harrison confessed of Clare's season. According to the longtime Bachelor franchise host, there wasn't really a "lightbulb moment" that alerted producers to the fact they may have to make adjustments as Clare expressed her feelings for Dale -- it was a "culmination of things."
"We thought, 'Wow, this is really coming to a head quickly,'" he recalled. "I think our first thought was, 'Well, this will continue on and it'll ebb and flow like normal seasons,' but when we realized there was only ebb and no flow, we thought, 'We need to look at what we are gonna have to do.'"
What Tayshia Previously Said About Being the Bachelorette
Tayshia, who was initially in the running to be the Bachelorette this cycle alongside Clare and Tia Booth, told ET just days before Clare announcement that she'd love to get the gig.
"I don't know if I can say yes or no!" Tayshia said with a laugh, when asked in late February if she'd had official conversations about being the Bachelorette. "I plead the fifth!"
"I have to say, anything that comes my way, I am ready for," she shared. "I am ready for love!"
Tayshia, a 30-year-old former phlebotomist from California's Orange County, entered Bachelor Nation on Colton Underwood's season of The Bachelor, and went on to appear on Bachelor in Paradise last summer. She connected with John Paul Jones on the show, and they pursued a relationship after filming, but announced their split last October.
"Honestly, I don't know much about John at this moment, but I wish him the very best," Tayshia said.
About four months after her breakup, Tayshia said she was ready to reenter the dating pool. "I am officially ready to date. I can't say I have been in the last couple of months because I've just been so busy working on myself, but just recently, I've started embracing the fact that there are guys out there that I'm kind of into," she told ET. "So, I think it's opened some doors for me."
"Now that I am a single woman and I am available to date really whomever I please, there are some attractive men in Bachelor Nation, but also outside of Bachelor Nation," she continued. "I'm honestly open to anything."
What We Know So Far About Tayshia's Time as the Bachelorette
After the switch was finally made official, Chris Harrison was officially able to rave about the new Bachelorette: "She was always a fan favorite, she was always a favorite of the producers, and so she was always on the top of our list."
"She's incredible," he raved of the Orange County native. "Not only is she stunningly beautiful, but she's kind, giving, she's an unbelievably sweet girl. She's somebody I've actually gotten to know and gotten to be friends with over the last couple of years."
Tayshia is the kind of woman "the show is predicated on," the host explained. "[She] is this amazing woman who seemingly has it all, except she can't find love. She really wants to find love and she's dated and she's trying and it's just not happening," he added. "She is that diamond in the rough that any guy would be lucky to fall in love with."
However, one concern is that most of Tayshia's men were initially planning to fall in love with Clare, which left the new Bachelorette with some worries about their hearts and minds being in the right place to fall in love with her.
"That was definitely a fear of mine, that they weren't going to be able to switch their mindset but they do welcome me with open arms," she shared. "You will be seeing that and how excited they all were and how fun it's going to be.
When asked how many guys she ended up falling for, the Bachelorette admitted, "Way more than I thought [I would]."
"I didn't know it was possible to fall in love with multiple people," she added. "But when you just really lean into the journey and really be vulnerable, you never know what can happen. And it happened to me."
Tayshia admitted that she says "I love you" during her season "multiple times" and even dons a wedding dress at one point -- but she played coy when asked if she's currently in love or engaged, saying only, "possibly!"
She said her season is full of "ups and downs" and fans will get to experience the roller coaster of emotions along with her. "There's lots of happiness, but there's also some sadness in it."
"The one opportunity I had to think about [going in] was, my heart was ready," she added. "With those intentions, I sort of went with it and it worked."
What Tayshia's Said About Her Journey as a Black and Latina Bachelorette
Tayshia's casting comes three years after the franchise cast its first Black Bachelorette, Rachel Lindsay, and on the heels of their first Latina lead, Clare. She's previously spoken about how seeing Rachel's love story onscreen inspired her to apply for the franchise, and said her own experience on the show has been a "beautiful journey."
"Not only am I the second African American Bachelorette but I'm biracial -- I'm also Mexican -- so it is just an amazing opportunity to have been given a platform for women that are like me to see somebody represented and for me to find love and just show what that looks like," she added. "I am happy to have that platform to do so."
"I was also given the opportunity to date people that I might have not had the opportunity to," she said of her season, "and that's the part for me that I- honestly, I keep saying I am so blessed, because I met some fantastic men."
In June, the Bachelor franchise acknowledged its "lack of representation of people of color," and included a pledge to make significant changes moving forward. So far, it's on a good path. All leads in the last year have been people of color. Peter Weber is Cuban, Clare is Mexican, Tayshia is biracial and Matt is Black.
"I think that just goes to show that people are trying," Tayshia said. "The world is changing, as it should. Love comes in all different shades and colors and it looks like this. So the fact that you are starting to see that on television displayed is a step in the right direction."
The Bachelorette airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
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