He claims he got the bad guy edit.
Clayton Echard felt he was unfairly “portrayed” during his season of ‘The Bachelor’.
“Watching [my season] back, I was ashamed and disgusted by my actions and the way I was portrayed or seen on TV,” Echard — who has been one of the least popular leads in recent years — told The Virginian-Pilot on Sunday.
He continued: “In the end I had to live with the fact that my story is what was shown. And that was hard because that’s not really who I am.
“I don’t feel like what I was on the show is who I really am, but I did those things, I became that person.”
The reality TV star, 29, called his season “a train wreck” and added that he was “shocked” that “drama was prioritized over the love story”.
During the infamous episode “Fantasy Suite,” Echard told his three finalists – Susie Evans, Gabby Windey, and Rachel Recchia – that he was in love with each of them.
However, when he revealed to Evans that he had slept with the other two women, she left the show.
Distraught by her departure, the former NFL player broke up with Windey and Recchia, who are co-leads in “The Bachelorette” this season.
Evans and Echard rekindled their romance and made their relationship public during the show’s reunion, “After the Final Rose.”
Echard isn’t the only “Bachelor” to criticize the show’s production.
Matt James, who was the “Bachelor” in 2021, also accused producers of cutting key talks about race.
The first black lead claimed that the franchise did not make a “joint effort to participate in that conversation”, even though he and the participants did.
“That opportunity was lost because everyone was scared and on their hands,” he told the Los Angeles Times in June. “I get it, but that’s the kind of thing that happens when you bring people of color into your space. If they are not willing to have that conversation, they should strongly consider not going there in the first place.”
“When that didn’t come across on the show, it seemed like I was missing content, I was missing depth,” he continued. “We had a chance to have those tough conversations, but the show missed the mark.”
“The Bachelorette” airs Mondays on ABC at 8 p.m. ET.