Why Did Susie & Clayton Break Up After The Bachelor? She Revealed the Real Reason After He Was Accused of Cheating

Before there was Susie and Justin, there was Susie and Clayton. But why did Susie and Clayton break up after The Bachelor Season 26 and what happened after the final rose? She revealed the real reason for their split, and it doesn’t seem to do with their post-show cheating scandal.

Clayton Echard and Susie Evans met on The Bachelor Season 26, which Clayton was the lead of. They broke up in the final three after Clayton revealed that he had sex with both Susie, as well as his runners-up, Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia. After breakng up with Gabby and Rachel, Clayton asked Susie back, and the two revealed that they were back together during the The Bachelor Season 26 “After the Final Rose” special.

They broke up six months later. So what wrong and why did Susie and Clayton break up after The Bachelor Season 26? Their off-screen drama was just as juicy as what happened on TV.

Why Did Susie and Clayton break up after The Bachelor?

Susie and Clayton announced their split in September 2022, six months after The Bachelor Season 26 finale aired. “With incredibly heavy hearts, we wanted to share that we have decided to go our separate ways. For anyone who has ever loved, knows this was a painful decision to make and not one taken lightly,” they wrote in a joint Instagram post at the time. “We understand that there will likely be a lot of questions about this decision — social media is definitely a highlight reel and much of our experiences together we have kept private as I’m sure most can understand. But we will share this — although this last year together has brought us so much joy and so many laughs, there has also been a significant amount of pain. We know no healthy relationship comes without its struggles, but we’ve realized that we were not prepared for the external forces that hindered our ability to not only heal as individuals but also as a couple.”

The post continnued, “We both are focused on continuing to work on ourselves, so we can be the best version of ourselves.”

Clayton and Susie ended their post by confirming that they still “support” each other despite the end of their relationship. “This is not an easy time for either of us but we stand in support of each other and hope to see the other go on to find happiness and healing,” the post read. “Although Claysie is no more, we hope that our communities can support us individually as we move forward with love and respect for each other. Thank you to all of you that supported our relationship. It means so much more than you will ever know. ❤️”

As for why Clayton and Susie broke up, Susie hinted in a post to her blog, Susie Was Like, in November 2022 that she and Clayton split because they didn’thave the “building blocks” as friends before dating. “What I found in my last relationship is that a partnership rooted in love alone doesn’t always have the building blocks to grow tall and strong,” she wrote. “So before you go and fall in love with just anybody, keep in mind that finding a partner that aligns with you on those crucial foundation pieces will more likely set your relationship up for long-term success. This doesn’t mean shutting down a budding romance at the first sign of a difference of opinions.”

She continued, “But if you fundamentally don’t align with someone, it’s better to know that upfront to decide if it is worth moving forward before your feelings and love grow deeper. This goes in line with the advice we all know and love to ignore: ‘Don’t date potential.’ I believe that it is our responsibility to be loving partners and foster room for individual growth within our relationships. I don’t believe it should ever become our responsibility to grow someone up or into a person they aren’t quite ready to become yet. So yes, patience is a beautiful thing in relationships, but keep in mind people can only meet you as deeply as they’ve met themselves.”

She also hinted that she fell out of love with Clayton once they became more removed from their experience on The Bachelor. “When I was on the show, I was asked daily, ‘Are you falling in love?’ Even then, I really felt like that question was almost entirely irrelevant because I knew falling in love would be the easy part,” she wrote. “My mom has told me for as long as I can remember that love is a choice. Over time, most of the butterflies settle down, and sometimes even the most romantic relationships start to feel a little mundane. The hopeless romantic in me is begrudgingly typing that out because I do believe in romance and keeping the spark alive!”

She continued, “But both can be true and both are healthy. That being said, when you get to the nitty gritty of a relationship and the excitement of your new partner starts to become the norm, that’s when you realize that love is not just a giddy, wonderful and joyous feeling within you when you spend time with your partner. Love is deciding to work through conflict, communicate kindly, trust in your partner, and work on intimacy, emotional security and being there for your person when they are at the lowest of lows.”

Five months before Clayton and Susie announced their split, Clayton was also accused of cheating on Susie with a TikTok user while he and Susie were still together. TikTok user Sasha Narang posted a video on April 9, 2022, accusing Clayton of cheating on Susie. “um so I think I just ended the bachelor’s marriage last night (i had no idea) (wtf),” Sasha captioned the video, which had more than 700,000 views before it was deleted.

In the video, Sasha claimed that she met Clayton at a bar in New York City on April 8, 2022, where he approached her. “So I’m responding, we’re kind of flirting. Then he proceeds to ask me, ‘Do you watch The Bachelor?’ And I go ‘No,’ cause I’ve never seen it before,” she said. Sasha went on to allege that she and Clayton continued talking and later hung out with each other. “He was very, like, sneaky, meaning he was very adamant about being quiet. Right when it was time for me to go he made it very clear I couldn’t stay over,” she continued. Sasha also claimed that she messaged Susie and provided “evidence” of Clayton’s infidelity. “I DMed her. I told her everything. I was very transparent because I felt incredibly terrible. I never wanted to be caught in the middle of this,” Sasha said. She also sent Susie a screenshot of an Uber order with Clayton’s alleged address.

“The only evidence that I have—I didn’t take any photos with him. I’m actually banned from Snapchat, and that would have been the only way to have, like, a selfie.,” she said. “But I took a photo of Uber that he called for me, so it has the address. And I sent it to [Susie] when I was like, I don’t know if it’s a hotel or an Airbnb. Ideally, it’s his apartment, so maybe she recognizes it. But if not, regardless, she can easily find out where he stayed and that’s your proof. So yeah, I just ended the Bachelor’s marriage, I think, and it’s not my fault. It’s his fault. What the hell is wrong with men?”

That same day, Clayton took to his Instagram Story to deny Sasha’s claim that he cheated on Susie. “People that make these false accusations should be held accountable,” Clayton captioned a video. “Trying to gain clout by ruining a relationship is embarrassing and extremely immature.” In the video, Clayton alleged that he was at a gym in Arizona with his brother, Nate Echard—not in New York City, as Sasha claimed. “I can’t even believe I’m addressing this, this is ridiculous, but let’s just make this as easy as possible,” Clayton said in the video.

To prove his location, Clayton showed the Significant Locations section of his iPhone settings, which showed that he was in Arizona on April 8, 2022, the same day Sasha claimed that they met. He also shared a screenshot of his DMs with Sasha, where he continued to deny they were together. “Your proof isn’t proof lmao,” Sasha wrote, to which Clayton responded, “Good luck, Sasha. Hope you learn a valuable lesson through this. Not all publicity is good publicity.”

“Yes. Penny farthing,” Sasha wrote back, to which Clayton responded, “Ok, well my video shows I was in an AZ gym at 8pm MST, which is 11pm EST (your time). So even if I hopped right on a private jet, I wouldn’t make it to NY until 2:30 am EST (flight from AZ to NY is 4 1/2 hours). So that disproves you saw me at 2 am EST. Like I said, good luck.” “Someone take her phone. Don’t keep digging this hole!!” Clayton captioned the screenshot.

In a statement to Insider, Narang doubled down on her claims. “I expected a response and was told to prepare for massive backlash from the fan base. I underestimated this. I’m just as confused as everyone and truly didn’t understand the relevance of this guy. If I had, I would have gone about this differently,” she wrote.

She continued, “However, that doesn’t change my story. Again, I do not watch the show nor have I ever kept up with it and I had no idea who this guy was until two nights ago. The name that was revealed in the comments was not posted by me, I was out with my friends who are as shocked as me and they were feeding into the comments and responding for fun. All the comments they made have been deleted. I am doing my best to handle this.” 

Two years after her breakup with Clauyton, and news broke that Susie was dating Justin Glaze, the runner-up from The Bachelorette Season 17 with Katie Thurston. Susie and Justin went public with their relationship in January 2024 before splitting in August 2024. Fast forward again to June 2025 when ABC announced that they were both on the cast of Bachelor in Paradise Season 10.

Bachelor in Paradise streams on Hulu.