Clayton Echard Reacts to Ex Susie Evans’ Comments About His Character

Former Bachelor Clayton Echard is weighing in on Susie Evans’ comments about his character.

While discussing his paternity scandal on the Wednesday, January 22, episode of the “Almost Famous” podcast, cohost Ben Higgins read Echard, 31, a quote that Evans, also 31, said amid his trial. (After a woman claimed Echard was the father of her twins, a court ultimately sided with him in July 2024.)

“I wanna hear what you think of it. I want you to break it down for us,” Higgins, 35, said.. “She said, ‘Listen, Clayton might be a lot of things, but he’s not a liar. And that meant a lot to me.’” (Evans spoke out publicly in support of Echard on the “Viall Files” podcast in November 2023.)

After Higgins asked for his thoughts on the remark, Echard laughed. “Oh, Susie,” Echard said. “You know, I’m gonna hold off on that.”

Related: Susie Evans Was ‘Pissed’ for Ex Clayton Echard During Paternity Case

Susie Evans got candid about her thoughts on ex Clayton Echard’s public paternity saga. “When this was happening, I heard Clayton’s perspective,” Evans, 30, revealed on “The Viall Files” podcast episode on Tuesday, November 21. “And if there’s one thing I can say about Clayton is that he is not a liar. He is not […]

Echard, however, continued to share his thoughts. “I think that there were reasons why [she] and I broke up and there was equal, you know, there’s no blame to be dispersed out, but there’s reasons why it didn’t work from my point of view with the way that she acted and vice versa,” Echard said. “I haven’t really been in agreeance with a few of the times that she’s made small comments that carry a lot more weight. I think that that direct quote was one of them. So, I wish Susie the best.”

Echard admitted that he didn’t think Evans’ comment was “necessary in the way it was framed.”

“I also don’t think a few other things she said at some points, it felt like she was trying to make it seem like I was the whole reason that the relationship didn’t work,” he said. “That’s the way I would perceive it. I don’t know if she meant that or not but of course, if you’re bringing this up as a quote, you got to wonder why [it was] said that way. You could have just said, ‘Clayton’s not a liar.’ Why did you say, ‘He might be many things?’ So I haven’t been in favor and I’ve told her that.”

Echard claimed Evans is “aware” of “some of the ways” that she has phrased things, but noted “it is what it is.”

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“She can respond to that accordingly [as to] what she meant,” Echard said. “I never got an answer as far as what that meant myself, but I just moved on from it, let it go. We’re not perfect and at some points we all say things that in hindsight we probably shouldn’t have said, so I can forgive her for that if there was a need for it.”

After Evans sent herself home on The Bachelor season 26, Echard continued to pursue a relationship with Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia before calling it quits with both of them. It was revealed on the live After the Final Rose special that Evans and Echard rekindled their romance. The pair ultimately split for good in 2022.

Evans went on to pursue a relationship with former The Bachelorette contestant Justin Glaze. Less than a year after confirming their romance, Glaze shared in August 2024 that he and Evans had gone their separate ways.

While reflecting on Evans’ romance with Glaze, Echard shared that it didn’t bother him to see his ex move on with someone.

“I didn’t really feel any type of way about it,” he said. “When Susie and I broke up, we knew it was never going to ever be a thing again. … We were important in each other’s life to help each other get through a traumatic time, and she helped me grow as a person. But ultimately, like after we had those breakup conversations, and after the feeling subsided, it became very much just like, hey, you know what, we weren’t meant to be each other’s forever person.”

He continued, “So I knew that that day would come whenever she would date somebody new, and so when I saw it, it was like, yeah, I mean this day was coming. It was inevitable, and I didn’t really feel any type of way about it. I was like, ‘OK, good for her.’”