Coming up roses! While Bachelor Nation couples, including Thomas Jacobs and Becca Kufrin, JoJo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers and Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell, celebrated their love on Valentine’s Day, Clayton Echard’s journey to find The One continued.
The season 26 lead spent his holiday watching the episode and live tweeting with fans. During the Monday, February 14, installment of the series, Clayton sent controversial cast members Shanae Ankney home — much to the delight of the other women in the house.
“Woah! What a wild ride it’s been,” the 29-year-old Ohio native began via Instagram on Monday. “Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend the day with my dad, my first love, and I’m so thankful for this special relationship in my life. As we were making donuts and hauling a$$, I took some time to reflect on this journey of a lifetime. I want to thank all of ‘my homies at home’ and my family for supporting me through this journey.”
Shanae then addressed her critics.
“For those of you who don’t know me, I wanted to share a few things. If you choose to judge me on the five hours of footage you’ve watched, I’m sad you didn’t get a look into the real me,” she wrote. “And if you were so quick to say you would never be ‘so mean to someone’ while simultaneously sending me hateful messages so ugly I wouldn’t repost – that doesn’t make you better than me. My realness isn’t for everyone — real never makes everyone happy. I made a promise to myself a long time ago that my heart won’t ever be guided by anyone else but me. There are big things in store and for now, I’m just going to eat shrimp and continue to be my authentic self.”
She concluded: “Clayton, good luck to you and I hope you find what your heart is looking for. It was an honor to be part of your journey!
”
While Clayton kept his tweets light during Monday’s broadcast — joking about the names of drinks and foods in Croatia — he previously apologized to Elizabeth Corrigan for sending her home over Shanae after the latter poked fun at the real estate agent’s ADHD.
Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt, who met on season 7 of Bachelor in Paradise during summer 2021, also tuned into the episode, with the “Click Bait” host calling Rachel Recchia as the front-runner.
“Did Clayton just tell Rachel it’s HER in a cryptic way??” he tweeted. In another post, he revealed his and Serena’s post-show plans, writing, “We’re watching anchorman after this. It’s gonna be great.”
Scroll through for a breakdown of how Bachelor Nation couples celebrated on Valentine’s Day: