‘Bachelor’ Clayton Echard Says His Dad Is Pretty Upset With Him

For a guy not used to the spotlight, Clayton Echard is getting a crash course. The newest star of ABC’s The Bachelor was on a rose-themed float (naturally) at this year’s Rose Bowl Parade when he spotted a spectator wearing a sweatshirt featuring his alma matter, the University of Missouri. “One person was wearing a Mizzou hoodie and I freaked out,” Echard tells Glamour. “I think he freaked out, too. He was like, Why is this guy pointing at me and screaming?”

You may have heard Echard mention once or twice (or maybe a lot) on the premiere of The Bachelor that he’s from Eureka, Missouri, a small town outside of St. Louis, and just a midwest guy. But memes and jokes aside, it’s a big part of the 28-year-old’s story. 

“I think I was mentioning that so often because growing up in Missouri my entire life, I don’t have a ton of experience traveling around seeing different things,” he admits. “I’m a guy who this is all new to. Everything is new to me. I’m just so used to being in this little bubble of Missouri my entire life and now I’m just out of my element doing all these wild things.”

Wild is an understatement. Not only is he dating multiple women—and apparently falling in love with at least three of them—but he’s doing it at a mansion outside of Los Angeles, with trips to lavish locations in Europe and Canada as well. 

Even so, Echard seems to have a good handle on his new life, even if his parents don’t exactly approve of the way he went about a few things. But that’s The Bachelor for you, and the orthopedic sales account executive is determined to make it work for him. So, with one episode under his belt, we Zoomed with Echard in Los Angeles to find out what’s going on with first impression rose-recipient Teddi, if we’ve seen the last of Salley, and why he broke his own rules.

Glamour: What surprised you most when you watched the premiere episode, since you’re not privy to a lot when you’re filming?

Clayton Echard: The shock was all the drama I wasn’t present for. I would be filled in by the women throughout my journey. With Claire, I had Serene come and say, “Hey, she’s saying she hates you.” Of course, when I hear that, I just met all these women night one. It’s like, do I believe Serene or do I go talk to Claire? On night one, you don’t know anybody. I have to take everything with a grain of salt in some aspects, but I also have to realize, okay, now I’m going to start getting to know these women.

Did you ever find out what Claire’s deal was? Was she just saying that she hated you to stir up drama, or what?

Well, I don’t think she hated me. I’d be really very shocked if someone could hate someone after meeting them for five minutes. I think she was frustrated and my thoughts are, as people saw on night one, we didn’t have a lot of time together. It might have been all of  two or three minutes. Mara came walking in and stole me away. I think Claire was very frustrated by that, because she was hoping to have more time so we could get to know each other. While I get that, there’s also the other side of it where I didn’t even get to talk to some of those women night one. I talked to them out the limo, but I didn’t get to go sit and talk with them later in the night. Those women were still very appreciative and weren’t saying hurtful things. For that, I thought it was a little out of line for her to go to the extent and say that. When I heard it, I thought this is already bad juju. I don’t want to deal with this. Night one, I have so many other incredible women here. We just need to go our separate ways.

I’m still impressed you seemed to know everyone’s name because most of the women looked alike to me; I could barely remember who’s who.

It’s a lot. You’re hearing all these stories. The great thing is, they had different stories. They weren’t all from the same backgrounds. I thought there was a lot of adversity amongst the women. Because of that, I could start associating particular past experiences in these women’s lives and put a face to the name, and then also take that experience and put that to the name so I was able to remember them all. But night one, that’s a lot. It’s so hard to get to know everybody in one night.

Have you seen the memes saying Susie looks like a mix of Hannah Brown and actor Debby Ryan?

Oh, yeah. I see everything, I think. I read everything online, much to my own detriment. I see it all. Yes. I saw those comparisons, people compared me and Jesse Palmer to each other. I’ve been compared to other individuals. Everyone’s just having fun with it. It’s cool to see everybody’s having a good time and enjoying poking fun at me and everybody else.