The Bachelor star Clayton Echard has described Season 26 as a "doozy" and "chaotic," so fans certainly have a dramatic season to look forward to.
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Clayton, a 28-year-old orthopedic sales representative and former college football player from Missouri, will be starring on The Bachelor when its 26th season premieres Monday, January 3 at 8PM ET/PT on ABC.
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Based on a trailer ABC recently released for the upcoming The Bachelor edition, there will be broken hearts and plenty of tears as Clayton apparently falls in love with three women.
"[Doozy] -- that's a good word to choose," Clayton said when looking back on his journey to find love and what viewers can expect to see on ABC in early 2022.
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Based on a promo for the new The Bachelor season, Clayton even considers taking a rose back from a woman during filming and asks host Jesse Palmer if that's possible.
"There's plenty of words that you can pick -- chaotic. It's wild to see the promos, obviously, I lived through it, but I'm ready to watch it back," Clayton said.
In fact, Clayton said he is "looking forward" to watching the season, which must mean there were many happy moments for him in between all the drama.
"There are certain things that [I didn't see]. I wasn't there 24/7 around all the women, so I'm gonna see things for the first time myself," Clayton shared with the magazine.
"And I'm excited to see what that looks like. Obviously, I heard a lot of the drama that I wasn't present for, but now I'm like, 'Okay, maybe I'll catch somebody that told me a story that maybe doesn't exactly match up with what I see.'"
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As for some drama Clayton certainly was present for, he apparently told two bachelorettes at a Rose Ceremony that he had slept with the both of them, presumably during his round of overnight Fantasy Suite dates.
During The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All episode for Michelle Young's season, a special sneak peek of Clayton's The Bachelor season aired and featured Clayton standing in front of two ladies, who appeared to be either his Final 2 bachelorettes or two of his Final 3 women.
"I just want you to know that what I'm about to say is not going to be easy to hear. I want to be fully, fully transparent, and I know it's not easy to hear, but I was intimate with both of you," Clayton confesses to the two ladies.
The situation apparently leaves Clayton feeling "so broken" as he stares at a diamond engagement ring, seemingly unsure of whom to give it to.
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Clayton was chosen to star on The Bachelor after failing to find love with Michelle on Season 18 of The Bachelorette, which just wrapped last week on ABC with Michelle getting engaged to Nayte Olukoya.
Clayton and Michelle formed a connection while filming The Bachelorette and her fifth-grade students selected him as the best choice among her suitors, but Michelle eliminated the buff former football player when selecting her Final 4 suitors for hometown dates.
Michelle said she felt something missing with Clayton, and following his ouster, he cried about how he wants to have a wife and children "more than anything" and would do whatever it takes to make that dream come true.
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The Bachelorette co-host Tayshia Adams previously told Entertainment Tonight why she feels Clayton will be a great leading man for the franchise.
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"He was very personable," Tayshia said of the bachelor while they got to know each other on Michelle's season.
"He seems super fun. I think he'd be a great Bachelor. He was someone that really had fun with all of the dates. I think if it is him, you're in for a little treat."
ABC announced the identities of the 31 bachelorettes who will meet and date Clayton on The Bachelor earlier this month.
Clayton's cast of women range in age from 23 to 32 years old and include a pediatric nurse, a bar mitzvah dancer, an architectural historian and a former Olympian.
Clayton initially announced that he "did find love" on the show in a November interview on Good Morning America.
"I was a little skeptical going into the whole journey, but I'm so pleasantly surprised that things worked out much different than what I had thought," Clayton shared at the time.
Clayton said he went into The Bachelor with "a checklist of sorts" in that he wanted to find a partner who is "funny, intelligent, driven, [and] put forth effort."
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"What I found is very quickly the women blew my expectations out of the water. They brought all of that and so much more," Clayton teased on GMA, adding, "I realized that, ultimately, I was going to find everything that I wanted and so much more."
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