Clare Crawley chose not to attend The Bachelorette: Before the First Rose alongside several of her Bachelor Nation peers.
“I was super sick,” Clare, 44, said in a Thursday, February 5, Instagram Story, revealing her reason for skipping the reunion special. “The producers asked me to come, and I thought about it since it would be nice to see all the ladies.”
Clare, however, had a change of heart after allegedly being told “to rehash things from six years ago.”
“Hard pass,” she stated.
Taylor Frankie Paul will kick off her Bachelorette journey with a slew of former leads in her corner. Eighteen of the popular reality dating show’s alums will reunite on The Bachelorette: Before the First Rose, airing on ABC and Hulu on Sunday, March 15, one week before Taylor’s season 22 premiere. “It was crazy,” Joan […]
Clare served as the Bachelorette in 2020’s season 16, where she famously left the show after 12 days when she fell in love with Dale Moss. Clare and Dale, now 37, got engaged before their abrupt exit and were together on and off until 2021. (Clare is now married to Ryan Dawkins, while Dale recently split from Bachelor in Paradise’s Kat Izzo.)
Taylor Frankie Paul’s season 22 of The Bachelorette will commence with The Bachelorette: Before the First Rose special, in which the 31-year-old lead will gather advice from 18 of the show’s former cast members.
In addition to Taylor, the special will reunite Trista Sutter, Meredith Phillips, DeAnna Pappas, Ali Fedotowsky, Ashley Hebert, Emily Maynard Johnson, Desiree Hartsock, Andi Dorfman, Kaitlyn Bristowe, JoJo Fletcher, Rachel Lindsay, Becca Kufrin, Hannah Brown, Tayshia Adams, Katie Thurston, Rachel Recchia and Charity Lawson. Joan Vassos from the inaugural season of The Golden Bachelorette will also return to the Bachelor Mansion.
“It was crazy,” Joan, 63, exclusively told Us Weekly in December 2025. “It was like, ‘Oh my God.’ I feel like I know them, like, I’ve watched all their seasons, but never met so many of them in person. I’m hopeful for Taylor. She is a genuinely nice human who is unapologetically herself.”
According to Joan, most of the Bachelorettes are also in a group chat together.
“It centers around life events, like, somebody’s pregnant, somebody’s getting married, ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ — just what you send to your close friends,” she told Us. “You have this group of people that have done this weird thing that you’ve done. It’s a unique group.”
Clare won’t be the only ex-Bachelorette to skip the reunion. Jen Schefft, Jillian Harris, Michelle Young, Gabby Windey and Jenn Tran also presumably missed production, given they were not featured in the cast photo.
Taylor, who stars on Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, will be the first crossover star of Bachelor Nation, leading The Bachelorette without appearing on any previous series in the franchise.
“I’m most looking forward to meeting a handful of people that are outside my bubble,” Taylor exclusively told Us in September 2025, noting that her goal was to get engaged. “As my mom likes to say, I do fall in love quickly, and that’s also the reason I did it. I always call myself a lover girl because I, like, fall for people and I have done that in the past.”
Taylor was previously married to Tate Paul, with whom she shares two children. She later welcomed son Ever in 2024 with now-ex Dakota Mortensen.
The Bachelorette: Before the First Rose airs immediately after the Academy Awards on Sunday, March 15, on ABC and Hulu. Taylor’s season debuts the next week on Sunday, March 22.
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