Solo! Clayton EchardAfter his divorce, he opened up about his dating life. Susie Evans — and the former Bachelor isn’t quite ready to find love again.
“I’m not looking to date right now. I’m not mentally healed,” Echard, 29, told E! NewsInterview published Thursday, October 6. “I can’t even fathom seeing anybody in that light right now. And so, I think I’m really just taking this time to focus on myself. … If I’m not healed, then I can’t allow anybody else to be a part of my life.”
Evans, 29, and Bachelor Nation star Evans dated for six years before ending their relationship in September. The couple met during season 26. The BachelorAnd sparked a romance until the Virginia native revealed that she wasn’t comfortable with the former football star being intimate with the remaining two contestants, Rachel Recchia and Gabby Windey.
Evans left ABC’s series and then returned to the ABC during the two-part finale, but turned down Echard’s final rose, choosing to go home solo instead.
On the After the Final RoseThey announced that they had rekindled their love and shared a special moment. “I loved him as a person before I ever fell in love with him,” Evans told host Jesse Palmer at the time.
Evans and Echard announced earlier this month that they would be moving to different states in the hopes of establishing a long-distance marriage. The couple announced that they were ending their relationship shortly after moving.
The retired athlete shared on Thursday that he and the beauty queen have “checked in” with each other after their breakup last month, noting that the twosome have a unique understanding of each other after their shared experience on The Bachelor.
“At the end of the day, we know what we’ve went through is different than what anyone else has experienced. So, we’ll probably be one of the only few people to really understand each other in that sense,” he said, adding that the two remain “on good terms” despite calling it quits.
“We obviously will always respect and have a love for each other, and I think that’s a really great place to be where it’s not a hostile ex situation,” Echard explained. “It’s more of like we’re very loving and caring, but we just want what’s best for each other and who knows what that looks like?”
Echard spoke. E! News that he doesn’t know if he could place his “trust and whole identity” in someone else’s hands again, the pair admitted that a reconciliation is still possible during an emotional conversation on the “Off the Vine” podcast earlier this week.
