Former Bachelorette Clare Crawley Opens Up About Being Sexually Abused by a Catholic Priest as a Child

America was first introduced to Clare Crawley through The Bachelor franchise. She was a contestant on Juan Pablo Galavis’ season, two seasons of Bachelor in Paradise, and one season of Bachelor Winter Games. She became the lead of the 16th season of The Bachelorette, where her season ended prematurely after meeting her season winner, Dale Moss. They got engaged after knowing each other for 12 days. Since then, the reality stars have gone their separate ways. While Crawley’s season might have ended early, during her time in the lead role, she shared a bit about her past, particularly the toxic relationships she’s been in.

Recently, Crawley appeared in an episode of Red Table Talk: The Estefans, where she opened up about being a survivor of child sexual abuse.

Clare Crawley first posted about being sexually abused as a child on Instagram

On July 27, Crawley took to Instagram to share her decision to remove her breast implants. In the post, she revealed that she’d been sexually abused as a child.

“As a child of sexual abuse, my young adult years were spent in unhealthy relationships feeling unworthy of the good ones,” she wrote. “It was a vicious cycle because the more I chose the wrong men who treated me poorly, the more I believed I wasn’t good enough. Enter the breast implants. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to get them, but the truth is it was money that would have been better spent on therapy to heal my wounded heart. I ended up spending the money on therapy anyway.”

A week after Crawley had her breast explant surgery in Aug., she appeared on Red Table Talk: The Estefans to speak more about her story. In the episode, Gloria Estefan revealed her own traumatic childhood experience with a sexual predator.

Clare Crawley was abused by a Catholic priest

Crawley said she was about “five or six years old” when the abuse started.  

“I was in first grade, and one of the biggest things in going to school for me was that I was just painfully shy,” she said. “I wouldn’t speak up, I would never raise my hand.”

So her parents had her attend counseling sessions with a priest at her Catholic school.

“I don’t think there was any counseling that was done,” she said. “It was a one-on-one time to be a predator.”

For years, Crawley didn’t tell anyone “because… this was somebody you respected, they can do no wrong.”

“This was when you didn’t hear about sexual abuse in the church, nobody talked about it,” she said.

Then, when she was in fourth grade, Crawley told one of her sisters about what had happened to her. Immediately, her sister informed their parents. Her family reacted with “panic.” Ultimately, Crawley’s parents decided to sue the church.

“The church essentially said, ‘We will do whatever it takes to keep this quiet … we will move him out of the church,’” said Crawley. “But when the church said that they had moved him out of the church, they had moved him to one church over. Another parish … And he did it to more children. And the church allowed him, knowing that he was a predator, to perpetuate what he was doing.”

‘This is not my burden to carry anymore’

Crawley says what happened to her when she was a little girl “still affects my relationships.”   

“I had relationship, after relationship, after relationship that I chose with men who didn’t value me because I never felt good enough,” she said.

But she’s done “being silent.”

“These predators bank on us being silent,” she said. “These predators bank on us not saying anything and not opening our mouth. And that gives them that power … And that’s why after 39 years, instead of letting it affect me negatively I thought, ‘How do I take the power back?’ Because for so long the weight that I was carrying was unworthiness, embarrassment, feeling not worthy of the church standing up for me.”

Crawley is also done carrying the weight of the abuse.

“And now I thought, ‘You know what, this is not my burden to carry anymore,’” she said. “What I am going to carry is being a survivor, being proud that this is not mine to hold onto.”

How to get help: If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 for free and confidential support.