Where Is Clayton Echard Now? The Former Bachelor Star Is Dating Susie Evans

Clayton Echard’s Bachelor season finale in March did, indeed, live up to the hype of being “the most dramatic ending in Bachelor history.” To recap: after a disastrous set of fantasy suite dates that led Susie Evans to go home, Clayton convinced both Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia to stay and continue their relationships with him, reassuring them he was in love and even going as far as to introduce them both to his family.

However, after learning that Susie was still in Iceland, Clayton told his parents he wanted to win her back, and the two met for a chat. They rehashed their breakup, and Clayton asked her to stay. Susie voiced to Clayton that she was appreciative of his explanation, but that she wasn’t ready to make a decision. With little hesitation, Clayton then misguidedly decided to break up with Gabby and Rachel at the same time. To the surprise of no one, it didn’t go well. In fact, Gabby and Rachel spent most of the episode justifiably and critically taking down Clayton.

Still intent on ending up with Susie, Clayton got host Jesse Palmer to deliver her a note in which he apologized and asked her to meet him in the countryside. She found him there waiting with a ring, in hopes of both rekindling their relationship and taking the next step. After Clayton confessed his love for Susie, she had her chance to make her decision. However, she explained that she didn’t feel the same way.

“I don’t feel like the kind of love you have for me right now is the kind of love I have for you right now. I’ve made the decision to leave Iceland alone,” she said. “I’ve thought this through, I don’t think I’m your person, and I don’t think that you’re mine.” Clayton said that he was willing to wait for her to catch up, but Susie clarified that she wasn’t interested in continuing their relationship at all. “I feel like it’s over,” she said, before asking him to walk her out.

However, as Palmer teased multiple times leading up to the finale, their journey didn’t end there. Clayton revealed that the “last person” he ever expected reached out to him after filming ended, and lo and behold: it was Susie. She then came out onstage and revealed that she and Clayton were very much in love and had been dating for the last four months. Though the two didn’t get engaged (Susie said that if anyone was going to propose, it would be her), Clayton said he’d quit his job, sold his condo, and was moving to Virginia to be with Susie before offering her one final rose.

After the former contestant was mentioned in the first episode of The Bachelorette’s Season 19 premiere during limo arrivals, fans may be wondering what he’s been up to since.

Where is Clayton Echard Now?

So... did those big plans end up happening? Yes! Clayton and Susie regularly post photos from their dates and life together in Virginia Beach.

They’re also active on TikTok, where they’ve playfully responded to shady comments from contestants on Gabby and Rachel’s Bachelorette season.

He noted in an Off The Vine podcast episode in July that he tried to laugh off the demeaning comments. “As I saw the episode, I was very happy to just feel that I’m like, you know, ‘It’s not personal, it’s business.’”

“And I’m happy with where I’m at today. I’m pushing the things I want to push on. I’m chasing my true purpose and passion in life, finally, for the first time, and I think through all the muck, and everything that I went through, here I am because of this entire environment,” he explained. “So as I saw the show, the episode and all of the attacks and the song, the choir — I’m gonna go chase down those parents — I honestly didn’t really get a reaction other than I just kind of laughed.”

Though he tried to look past it, he also noted that it didn’t need to be featured in the season premiere.

Though he quit his job to move in with Susie, Clayton has since created his own fitness and nutrition app, Coaching with Clayton. So even though the couple isn’t engaged (and, according to Susie, doesn’t plan to be anytime soon), they definitely seem to have settled into a happy East Coast routine together.