'The Bachelor' alum Clayton Echard reveals why he cut ties with Rachel Recchia

The Bachelor alum Clayton Echard has revealed why he has no desire to be friends with Rachel Recchia after their stint on Perfect Match.

After they filmed Perfect Match's third season, Clayton noticeably unfollowed Rachel on social media.

Since viewers saw Clayton dump and hurt Rachel on Perfect Match -- and not the other way around -- fans have been speculating why Clayton had made the bold move to cut ties with Rachel.

"Because there were some things said," Clayton shared during a recent appearance of "The Viall Files" podcast. 

"Her and I basically made up the next day. I apologized to her and she apologized. It wasn't shown."

Clayton claimed that he and Rachel "made amends" after their emotional split on Perfect Match.

"We ended up hanging out, like, a day or two once production ended at the resort," Clayton recalled.

"And then we did pickups, and one of the things that she said -- which aired -- was the part about, you know, 'I'm looking for a man that's kind and takes care of me, [which is] the opposite of Clayton.'"

Clayton alleged, "That was said after her and I made amends, and I didn't like that, to be honest with you."

Clayton told Nick Viall on his podcast that he thought things "were cool" with Rachel post-show.

"And then you go ahead and take a shot at me on-camera two days later? That bothered me," Clayton admitted.

"I just felt like, 'You told me one thing, but then when it comes time and the cameras are back in your face, you took an unnecessary shot.'"

Clayton reiterated how he "just didn't like that" and Rachel's "words do hurt" him.

"People are going to side with you when you say that, and they're going to be like, 'Yeah, [Clayton] sucks.' So that was why," he concluded.

Despite some initial resistance and hesitation on Rachel's part, she accepted Clayton's request to match on Perfect Match's third season.

But after a single day of being matched, Clayton changed his mind and told Rachel that he was following his intuition and couldn't continue dating her, even though he really didn't want to hurt her.

Clayton explained to Nick of why he had dumped Rachel, "Ultimately, I said, 'Look, my vibe and your vibe is not matched.' A few years later, I wanted to see, 'I've changed and you've changed, so will our vibes match?' I'll say this: the lifestyles that we have wouldn't match."

Clayton admitted "there were other things as well" that turned him off.

"I don't feel comfortable saying more than that publicly," Clayton noted, adding that Rachel probably wouldn't receive his reasoning well.

"I think she would feel like they are an attack, if I were to say it -- coming from me. So I feel like it'll be something that she'll understand maybe over time."

Clayton acknowledged he was being cryptic and "mysterious" -- but not intentionally.

Clayton said it was a deep-rooted matter, and he added, "It's something that I clocked, and our energies just aren't aligned. And I could see that this would cause issues."

Clayton apparently thought Rachel was going to handle their breakup better since he didn't drag things out.

"I was surprised by the intensity of her emotional response," Clayton said, referencing how their love story had played out a whopping three years ago on The Bachelor's 26th season in 2022.

He added, "It felt like her intensity was the exact same [as it was on The Bachelor], and that was just a surprise to me... I was not expecting that reaction."

When looking back on his Perfect Match experience as a whole, Clayton admitted, "I'm not too happy with the edit, but I'm not going to sit here and dodge responsibility."

"I just thought it went differently and thought it could've been portrayed differently," he said.

Clayton appeared on "The Viall Files" after Rachel had a chance to share her truth on the same podcast.

When speaking with Nick, Rachel slammed Clayton, saying that what he had done to her was "humiliating."

After Clayton dumped Rachel on Perfect Match, he quit the show because he didn't feel a connection with any of the other women.

Clayton apparently got the closure he needed from his relationship with Rachel, who went on to match with Love Island USA alum Scott van-der-Sluis.

The first six episodes of Perfect Match's third season are now streaming on Netflix. The rest of the episodes will drop weekly through the finale on August 15.