Netflix’s latest reality show, Perfect Match, is back for its third season, and it’s already brought on so much drama on and off screen. While the final episode drops on August 15, cast members like Louis Russell, Amber Desiree “AD” Smith, Ollie Sutherland, and Hannah Burns have been making headlines for several reasons. The most recent contestant to join the ongoing list is Bachelor Nation alum Clayton Echard, who got candid about his edit in the season’s first nine episodes.
While he “really enjoyed” the experience of appearing on the Netflix reality series, Clayton told The Viall Files host Nick Viall that he had a different reaction when watching the show.
“Unfortunately, I’m not too happy with the edit,” he admitted during the August 7 episode of the podcast. “I’m not going to sit here and dodge responsibility, but I just thought it went differently. I thought it could have been portrayed differently.”
Of course, he pointed out that these kinds of shows are “always missing context,” and acknowledged that producers “only [have] so much time to use when they air these episodes.”
Though Clayton was originally matched with Siesta Key star Juliette Porter, things changed when his ex from his Bachelor era, Rachel Recchia, walked through the door.
“When she walked in, it was a rush of emotions. All the feelings that you once had, they come back up,” he shared, admitting he felt hopeful that it might work out between them this time around. “Maybe now this is the right timing for us. So that’s what all went through my head.”
He only realized they weren’t a match after he had asked her to pair up with him, explaining, “How I got to that point was through the conversations we had, my intuition, the things that I’m looking for in life, prior experiences, the conversations her and I had. There were things that were said that I said, ‘Yeah, this isn’t going to work.’”
The former Bachelor explained that his edits across several TV shows portrayed his connection with Rachel differently from how he experienced it IRL.
Rachel Recchia and Clayton Echard on season 3 of Perfect Match.
“The edit made it seem like Rachel and I had a stronger connection when I felt that my lived experience, I had a stronger connection with Susie [Evans],” he explained of his time on the The Bachelor in 2022. “So when people kept saying it, though, it started to infiltrate my mind.”
“I’m willing to say that maybe I was wrong, like maybe I wasn’t seeing the right things because I didn’t have the emotional intelligence,” he added of reuniting with Rachel on Perfect Match. “So maybe I need to listen more to what the majority is saying and give it a second chance and I guess this is my second chance.”
Clayton’s appearance on the pod comes after Rachel’s recent visit, where she admitted how she feels around her former flame. “Every time I’m around Clayton, I go back into a state of absolute delusion,” she dished, later adding, “I wasn’t going to bring my Bachelorette reputation into it. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.”
The first nine episodes of Perfect Match are now streaming on Netflix.
