Clayton’s First Impression Rose Winner Was Eliminated On The Bachelor

Teddi has been a frontrunner on Clayton’s season of The Bachelor since the very first night when he presented her with the first impression rose. “I have a connection with so many of these women,” the 28-year-old athlete said during the Season 26 premiere. “This one particular person just really kind of stopped me in my tracks.” But to the shock of viewers everywhere, Clayton sent the 24-year-old nurse home at the end of the Feb. 21 episode, right before hometowns.

Teddi’s elimination seemingly came out of nowhere, but devoted fans of the show probably remember a very awkward moment from her recent one-on-one with Clayton that could’ve signaled the beginning of the end. When the Highland, California native told the former football player that she is a virgin who is waiting to be in love to have sex, he totally fumbled with his response and said that he “never would have known.”

Inevitably, Twitter roasted Clayton for his reaction. “Currently trying to figure out what virgins are supposed to look like after Clayton said he ‘never would have known’ that Teddi was a virgin before she told him,” one fan tweeted after the Feb. 14 episode. “Not Clayton saying ‘I would have never known you were a virgin’ like he just gave her the world’s greatest compliment,” someone else wrote.

While it remains unclear if Clayton sent Teddi home because of her feelings about sex and intimacy, she knows that she deserves someone who will put her first. “I was not expecting that tonight,” she said into the camera after her elimination. “It sounded like it was me from our last conversation … I do want to be someone’s first choice, and I deserve that.”

Although she ultimately wasn’t the Bachelor’s first (or second, third, or fourth) choice, Clayton did gush over Teddi in an interview with Bustle earlier this season. “She’s incredibly beautiful, but I also loved the way that she carried herself,” he confessed. He also explained that while he personally doesn’t believe in love at first sight, he does believe in an initial spark.

“I believe that you can have that feeling that you’re like, ‘Wow, there’s something special about this person that kinda separates them from someone else,’” he said. “And then when I talked to her later in the night, I felt like I had known for more than one day. The conversation was so fluid. She’s a very phenomenal human being.”

Teddi, for her part, didn’t spend too much (or any) time sulking about her elimination. In January, well after filming wrapped, she wrote on Instagram that 2022 “might just be the best year yet.” Plus, it probably won’t be the last time we see her. Bachelor fans on Twitter have been campaigning for her to be the next Bachelorette. But if that doesn’t work out, there’s always Bachelor in Paradise.