'Why did you pick me?' Susie remembered wondering after Clayton's season.
Susie Evans is opening up about her past relationship. During an interview on The Viall Files podcast, the reality star recalled feeling like Rachel Recchia was more compatible with Clayton Echard than she was.
During Clayton's season of The Bachelor, he confessed to sleeping with both Rachel and Gabby Windey, and told the women he was in love with both of them. That revelation prompted Susie to self-eliminate from the show, though she and Clayton rekindled their romance shortly thereafter. Susie and Clayton officially called it quits in September, six months after the season finale aired.
"You really don't know if you're compatible until you get out of there. I remember looking back and being like, 'You are way more compatible with Rachel,'" Susie said. "I remember thinking... 'Why did you pick me? You have somebody that you probably would have been really compatible with.' And other girls too, that didn't make it quite as far."
While Susie said she's unsure if Rachel and Clayton would work out as a couple, she maintained that Rachel is "more compatible" with her ex than she is.
Susie's comments came after Rachel and Clayton made headlines for their recent flirty reunion on TikTok. Rachel addressed the unexpected social media post on The Ben and Ashley I. Almost Famous podcast, revealing that she initially "had no idea what to expect" when she realized she would be reunited with Clayton.
"I think we knew we were gonna kind of be civil, but we were able to really actually have a good conversation and talk everything through as adults having both been through our own seasons," she said. "It's been really nice to see him as a friend now."
Later, during a separate appearance on the same podcast, Clayton said Rachel was "super sweet" when they were together.
"It just showed how far we've all come and how we're able to look past all the pain that had presented itself years prior," he said. "Of course, people on the internet like to gas everything up and see if there's something more than what there is there, so of course all these questions came and followed."
As for Susie, she discussed the challenge of finding love while on the show, and hinted that its process may have contributed to her split from Clayton.
"You don't get enough quality time with that person," she explained. "That privacy behind Fantasy Suites... that's the only time you get to truly be real and raw and not have to worry about the world judging you, but the show doesn't give you enough time to have those kinds of conversations. It feels very surface-y, I think, for a lot of it."
Producer involvement, she said, also makes you feel like your relationship is further along than it actually is.
"There were things that were said or done throughout the process, where I was like, 'That was so thoughtful. That was such a thoughtful thing to have happen.' And then after the process is over, you find out that that was somebody else's idea," she said. "... You're like, 'How does he know me so well?' It's like, no, these are people in his ear. It takes away from things where when we come out of there, I'm like, 'Wait, you don't know anything about my character. You don't know anything about who I am.'"
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