Susie Evans has revealed she has "regrets" from her relationship with ex-boyfriend and The Bachelor's Season 26 star Clayton Echard.

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Susie is currently dealing with the aftermath of her August split from The Bachelorette 17 alum Justin Glaze, but it's not the first time she's been through a public breakup.

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Prior to getting romantically involved with Justin, Susie had dated Clayton for well over a year.

"I have regrets from how the last one went to be honest, even though I feel like I was mostly private about that too," Susie, 31, said during a recent appearance on "The Ben and Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast."

Susie and Clayton had announced their breakup in September 2022, and then they attempted to remain friends. They even posted funny TikTok videos with each other and attended the same events.

"Even the little bit that you give to people -- like the way people recap it or put their own twists on it, or make assumptions -- it can just be perceived in a way that you don't want it to be," Susie explained to the podcast's co-host Ben Higgins.

Clayton had chosen Susie -- whom he called a "once-in-a-lifetime woman" -- as his winner on The Bachelor's 26th season, which aired in early 2022, over Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia.

But Susie left the show during Fantasy Suites because he had slept with, and also professed his love to, the other two women.

Clayton and Susie began communicating after filming ended in late 2021 and sparked up a romance in the real world. They publicly announced their relationship in March 2022 on The Bachelor: After the Final Rose.

Susie opened up about whether she could ever see herself getting back together with Clayton during a May 2023 appearance on the "Bachelor Rush Hour With Dave Neal" podcast.

Clayton told Joe Amabile on the "Click Bait with Bachelor Nation" podcast at the time he'd be open to appearing on Bachelor in Paradise and had his eye on Jess Girod.

"I think Jess was pretty cute," Clayton revealed. "She's a pretty cute girl... If you want the click bait, she's somebody who I'm like, 'Hey, there could be some interest there.'"

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But Clayton confirmed no women from Bachelor Nation had reached out to him or made a move.

"I don't know if there's a giant red flag waving above my head, but no one [is romantically interested]," Clayton said with a laugh, adding how his DMs "have been dry."

Susie and Justin -- who had competed on The Bachelorette's seventeenth season starring Katie Thurston -- met in November 2022 and claimed for a year that their close relationship was strictly platonic as fans were constantly shipping them as a couple.

However, the pair confirmed in late January that they had begun dating, and they went Instagram official on January 24.

Susie and Justin then joined forces in their social-media influencing, posting hilarious videos and ads of each other.

But rumors Susie and Justin had split began to swirl in July because the lovebirds were noticeably posting less couple's content on social media.

In November 2023, Susie joked during an Instagram Q&A session how she was "trying" to move out of the friend zone with Justin after a summer romance she had fizzled out.

But the pair claimed they didn't want to risk their friendship for the sake of taking things to the next level, in case their relationship didn't work out in the long run.

Susie and Justin's flirty dynamic apparently changed from friendship to something more intimate in October 2023, and so they kept their romance under wraps for several months.

Justin explained to E! News of their dishonesty earlier this year, "We've always wanted to just kind of protect our privacy, which sounds funny to say because we went on the show where our romantic connections are far from private."

Justin elaborated, "But we wanted to just protect our peace, and control our narrative and not put any pressure on our relationship."

Earlier this summer, breakup rumors began to circulate online about Susie and Justin, who chose not to address the speculation until Justin publicly confirmed their split during the August 27 episode of Ben and Ashley Iaconetti's podcast.

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After Justin revealed his relationship with Susie is over, Susie appeared on "Almost Famous" and said their split has been a "painful" experience for her.

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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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