On March 2, eight days before Peter Weber’s tumultuous season of The Bachelor concluded on March 10th, it was announced on Good Morning America that the Season 16 Bachelorette would be Clare Crawley.
Filming for Crawley’s season was supposed to begin filming on March 13 and conclude on in early May. The season premiere was scheduled to air on May 18. However, filming for The Bachelorette Season 16 has been put on hold indefinitely as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Although the 32 potential contestants were revealed on March 11, Bachelor Franchise host Chris Harrison and Crawley have stated that some of the men already cast might change and the latter encouraged men to submit applications for the show during the hiatus. Just like they did the previous year, ABC released photos of the contestants who could be part of this year’s Bachelorette Cast.
While we don’t know when production for Clare’s Season of The Bachelorette will resume, I cannot wait for whenever her season airs. It has been six years since the hairstylist from Sacramento made her Bachelor Franchise debut as a contestant on Juan Pablo Galavis’s season of The Bachelor. She ended up finishing as the runner-up as Galavis gave his final rose (no engagement though) to Nikki Ferrell, the other finalist.
Since appearing on Season 18 of The Bachelor, Crawley has appeared on some of the franchise’ s other spinoff shows. For those of you new to Bachelor Nation and aren’t familiar with her, don’t worry! This article covers everything you need to know about our next Bachelorette, from her biggest moments in the franchise to what she’s up to today.
Now, with all of that being said, here are 10 Things To Know About The New Bachelorette Clare Crawley:
Although she doesn’t have any children, Crawley is a mom to two adorable dogs who she absolutely loves. She has a Maltese mix named Elbie and a golden retriever named Honey. Elbie and Honey hold a huge chunk of Crawley’s heart as both appear on many photos on her Instagram account. (Crawley’s Instagram handle is @clarecrawley).
The Bachelorette Season 16 will be Crawley’s fifth appearance on any Bachelor Franchise show. As I stated earlier, her first appearance on the franchise came in 2014 when she (in the photo on the right) was a contestant on Juan Pablo Galavis’s (in both photos below) season of The Bachelor, where she finished as the runner-up behind Nikki Ferrell (the woman with Juan Pablo on the left in the photo below), the recipient of Galavis’s final rose.
Crawley later appeared on the first two seasons of Bachelor in Paradise (BIP), which aired during the summers of 2014 and 2015. She quit the show Week 5 in Season 1 due to the drama that ensued after fellow castmate Ashlee Frazier made some nasty comments about her to Zack Katler, who Crawley dated during BIP Season 1. Crawley returned the following season for another shot at love but was eliminated in Week 4.
Her fourth appearance on The Bachelor Franchise came in 2018 when she was part of the cast of Bachelor Winter Games, which brought contestants together from several international versions of the franchise. I will get more into detail on how Crawley did on Bachelor Winter Games at #7 below.
On Season 15 of The Bachelorette last year, Hannah Brown, Crawley’s predecessor, produced one of the franchise’s most iconic moments when she lifted the rose podium to move it after villain Luke P. showed up to the rose ceremony and refused to leave (Brown sent Luke P. home prior to the rose ceremony during the dinner portion of their overnight date).
Besides Brown picking up the rose podium, another moment that can also be argued as one of the most iconic moments in the history of the Bachelor Franchise is when Crawley told Juan Pablo off at the final rose ceremony after he made a crude remark to her during their final date. Watch the clip below and check out this iconic moment.
After Crawley’s epically told off Juan Pablo, fans were hoping that she would be named the lead for The Bachelorette Season 10. However, she lost the gig to Andi Dorfman (the photo below is a promo for Andi’s Season of The Bachelorette), who finished third behind Nikki and Clare on Juan Pablo’s Season. Prior to The Bachelorette Season 10 Announcement, Clare and Andi were my top two choices that year and I would have been happy regardless of which one of the two ended up getting it.
During an October 2018 appearance on Olivia Caridi’s Mouthing Off podcast, Crawley confirmed that she’d “definitely” talked with producers about becoming the Bachelorette lead and went through the interview process. However, according to Crawley, she simply wasn’t in the right emotional state to be The Bachelorette at the time.
Crawley is the youngest of six sisters and they are a tight-knit family. The new Bachelorette told Good Morning America that she knows that her five older sisters will provide her with lots of feedback and that she doesn’t mind. “I’m the baby, so I’m their little baby sister,” she said on Good Morning America. “They’re always gonna have opinions.”
Her father passed away from brain cancer in 2004 and it broke her heart to know that her dad wouldn’t be there to see her get married. Crawley told US Weekly in 2018 that she and her father shared a special moment before he died, stating: “Before my dad passed away, we had our own little like father-daughter dance at home, when we knew he was going to pass away. After that, the wedding wasn’t important.”
During Juan Pablo’s Season of The Bachelor, Crawley stated that she was, “[Looking for a man] who is just like [her] dad: strong, loving, gentle, compassionate and just a real genuine, kind man.”
During her interview on Good Morning America after she was announced as The New Bachelorette, Crawley also added on to the qualities she’s looking for in her husband, stating: “The most important thing is I want a man that will take off his armor. I want a man who is strong, but is willing to take off the body armor, open himself up and be vulnerable, and I think that is some serious strength right there.”
On Bachelor Winter Games, she got into a love triangle with Canadian Benoit Beausejour-Savard and German Christian Rauch (who looks like he could be Juan Pablo’s brother). Ultimately, Beausejour-Savard quit the show and Crawley was eliminated soon after. However, on the After the Final Rose special, they revealed they’d gotten back together off-screen and Beausejour-Savard proposed to Crawley during the episode.
Although Crawley gleefully accepted his proposal, the engagement didn’t last as the couple announced their spilt in April 2018. Despite the breakup, Benoit and Claire are still great friends with each other. This was evident when Benoit congratulated his ex-fiancee on becoming the new Bachelorette and wished her good luck on Instagram.
Crawley made Bachelor Franchise history when she was announced as the Season 16 Bachelorette on Good Morning America on March 2. At the time of the announcement, she was 38-years-old and would have turned 39 in the middle of filming had production not been put on hold due to the coronavirus.
Regardless of filming being put on hold, she became the oldest Bachelorette in the show’s history, taking over the record from Season 13 Rachel Lindsay, who was 32-years-old (Lindsay turned 32 in the middle of filming for her season) when her season of The Bachelorette aired in 2017.
Traditionally, the women who become The Bachelorette lead finished in the top four on a previous season of The Bachelor. Hannah Brown, Crawley’s predecessor, made history last year as she became the first-ever Bachelorette lead to not have placed in the top four of a season of The Bachelor (Brown, who appeared on Colton’s Season of The Bachelor, was eliminated a week before Hometown Dates and finished seventh overall).
Of the 13 women were The Bachelorette before Crawley and Brown, three finished the season of The Bachelor they were on as the winner; two (technically three) finished as the runner-up; five finished in third place; and three finished in fourth place. With Crawley as the Season 16 Bachelorette, she became the third (technically fourth) former runner-up of The Bachelor to be the Bachelorette lead.
Previous Bachelor Runner-Ups who later became The Bachelorette lead were Season 1 Bachelorette Trista Rehn, the runner-up of Alex’s Season (Season 1) of The Bachelor) and Season 12 Bachelorette Jojo Fletcher (the runner-up of Ben Higgins’s Season (Season 20) of The Bachelor. Fans can also count Season 4 Bachelorette DeAnna Pappas as a previous Bachelor Runner-Up who became The Bachelorette lead, but note she finished as co-runner-up of Brad Womack’s first Bachelor Season. Womack rejected both Pappas and Jenni Croft, the other finalist, at the final rose ceremony and picked no one.
Fans of the Bachelor franchise know that contestants have to bring their own wardrobe and do their makeup when competing on the show. However, the women who make the final two get their makeup done professionally and get to keep the dress (which they pick from a rack with various options from Cary Fetman, the show’s stylist.) that they wear to the final rose ceremony.
The dress that Crawley wore is one of the most beautiful final rose ceremony dresses in the show’s history. Recently, Crawley revealed on her Instagram Story (see the screenshot below) that she still has the dress (go to #2 above to see a photo of Crawley wearing the dress) in her closet for two reasons: “1) Cary hand-beaded this and it meant the world to me. 2) It was the most empowering moment of my life.”
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