Clare Crawley took the express lane on this season of The Bachelorette, and now a witness behind the scenes is dishing on the unprecedented drama surrounding her exit. (Warning: spoiler alerts ahead.)
On a recent episode of Nick Viall’s The Viall Files podcast, ABC executive Rob Mills shares his thoughts on Crawley’s farewell, which took place only 12 days after filming began.
“I think that Clare was exactly what we thought she’d be, which is Clare: unpredictable,” Mills says of The Bachelor 18 runner-up. “[We were prepared for the unpredictable], but not this, though—this was crazy.”
This season of The Bachelorette already made history for its more-than-usual drama. First, the premiere was delayed by five months due to COVID-19. Then, production was relocated to a pandemic-friendly bubble in Palm Springs. But once cameras were rolling, Crawley wasted no time causing chaos. She immediately fell for contestant Dale Moss and made it clear that the other suitors didn’t stand a chance. As she told Chris Harrison from the first episode, “I definitely feel like I just met my husband.”
When Crawley refused to give out a rose after her second group date, Mills admits “it was sort of controversial … This was the time when we started thinking, ‘Oh my God, we’ve really got to start thinking about this,’ when she didn’t give out that rose and just gave it to herself.”
“You know as the lead, you have moments where you’re like, ‘I’m done, I’m out,'” he adds. “It was never, ‘Oh my God, what if they’ve met this person [early] and we’ve got to shut this whole thing down?'”
Mills says to stay tuned, though: viewers will get to see a little more of Crawley and Moss before they pack up (or, as some fans believe, they are sent packing.) After that, Tayshia Adams will come out of quarantine to step in as the replacement Bachelorette.