‘The Bachelor’ Clayton Echard ‘Couldn’t Disagree More’ with People Saying He ‘Gaslit’ Susie Evans
This season of The Bachelor with Clayton Echard is nearing its end. Now, the Fantasy Suite episodes have landed Clayton in the hot seat. After a disastrous ending to his date with Susie Evans, Clayton wants to explain his side of the story.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for this season of The Bachelor with Clayton Echard.]
‘The Bachelor’ star Clayton and Susie’s hot springs date ended with icy words at dinner
In the March 8 episode of The Bachelor, Clayton and Susie traveled to some local hot springs in Iceland. Before the date even began, Susie told producers she wanted to get to the bottom of Clayton’s feelings for the other women. She hoped once she got an answer, she could relax and enjoy her date with Clayton. The couple embarked on a steamy adventure as they spent some time in the hot spring. However, at dinner, things begin to go downhill.
Clayton told Susie he was in love with her during dinner, but The Bachelor star was caught off guard with her reply.
“I adore you. I think you’re incredible, but there are things – and knowing there’s an engagement – there are things I feel like I can’t compromise. Tonight, I feel uncomfortable. I feel like I don’t even want to have this conversation, but I feel like I do need to tell you where I’m at, and my expectations that I’m not willing to let go of in this. I know you just told me you feel like you’re in love with me, but do you feel that way with someone else? Have you slept with another woman? Those are things I feel like would be impossible for me to move forward with an engagement. If I’m sharing your love with somebody else I don’t think I would be comfortable,” Susie explained.
A visibly irritated Clayton responded in a way that didn’t sit well with most fans. Several believed he gaslit her and invalidated her feelings, but others thought Susie was in the wrong.
Clayton maintains he did not gaslight Susie during their Fantasy Suite date
The Bachelor lead recently made the rounds with interviews. Clayton appeared on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s podcast and Almost Famous with Ashley Iaconetti and Ben Higgins. He remains adamant that he never gaslit Susie.
To Ashley and Ben, he said, “It’s tough because I’ve seen what everyone’s saying and they’re using some pretty descriptive terms, some pretty heavy-hitting terms that I couldn’t disagree with more. But I understand that it appears that way. I don’t agree that I was gaslighting because I looked that up, and it said gaslighting, the definition is to try and convince someone of a different reality than what is actually the true reality of the situation. … Gaslighting in my eyes is something where it’s you have bad intentions, you’re trying to manipulate somebody, and I was not at all trying to do that. My reality was in my head at that point.”
Clayton continued to express his frustration on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s podcast, ‘Off the Vine’
During the episode of Off the Vine, The Bachelor star Clayton also brought up how irritated he was with the things people continued to say about him. Clayton especially disagreed with those saying he was gaslighting Susie.
“I’m almost fuming at people using this term gaslighting. I am so angry at the fact that people were trying to say I’m a gaslighter because it couldn’t be farther from the truth,” he said. “I looked at the definition and it’s when you try to convince someone that their reality is not factual. And that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I did not try to convince her that her reality was not factual. I was just trying to convince her to give me another chance and understand where I was coming from. Not once did I say, ‘The way you’re thinking about this is wrong, you are in the wrong going this way.’ Never once did I do that,” the former football player said.
The preview for the next episode of The Bachelor hints that Clayton and Susie might reunite. However, Reality Steve says otherwise. Tune in to ABC on Monday for the special two-night event.
