Left on the cutting-room floor! Viewers were confused when The Bachelorette season 16 premiere skipped over Clare Crawley’s time on The Bachelor Winter Games as well as her subsequent engagement to Benoît Beauséjour-Savard.
The hairstylist’s intro package on Tuesday, October 13, documented her stints on The Bachelor season 18, where she finished as Juan Pablo Galavis’ runner-up, and Bachelor in Paradise seasons 1 and 2. However, it made no mention of the winter sports-themed spinoff where Crawley, 39, met and fell in love with Beauséjour-Savard, 33, prompting ABC executive Rob Mills to explain the reasoning.
“We didn’t have time for the footage but fun fact: Clare and Benoit are the best of friends! #TheBachelorette,” the network’s senior vice president of alternative series, specials and late-night programming tweeted.
Even Beauséjour-Savard was surprised to see that he was not included. Earlier on Tuesday, he encouraged his Instagram followers to “tune in on ABC to watch @clarecrawley journey,” adding, “P.S : You might see a familiar French Canadian in it.” However, after realizing that he did not make the final cut, the Bachelorette Canada alum shared proof that he and Crawley had filmed together for the episode.
“Well…. This is what you should have seen …just two exes having a fun chat,” Beauséjour-Savard wrote on his Instagram Story alongside a photo dated March 10, 2020, that showed him and the Sacramento, California, native laughing at a restaurant as a cameraman stood next to their table. “That’s probably why they cut that.”
The restaurant manager also shared a picture of him and Crawley making funny faces, which he captioned, “And a little too much baileys in our coffees @clarecrawley.”
The former couple hit it off in the beginning of The Bachelor Winter Games and got engaged during the World Tells All special in February 2018. However, they announced their split that April, saying in a joint statement that they “think the world of each other” and had hoped they “could make this work.”
When ABC announced in March that Crawley would be the next Bachelorette, Beauséjour-Savard took to Instagram to congratulate her. “Hell yeah!! Good Luck on your journey to find love @clarecrawley !! You will be the best,” he wrote at the time.
During Tuesday’s premiere, Crawley fell hard for contestant Dale Moss, giving the former football player, 32, her coveted first impression rose. Us Weekly exclusively revealed in August that she stopped filming within the first two weeks of production after finding love with one of her suitors. Fellow Bachelor alum Tayshia Adams then stepped in to complete the season.
“How people fall in love and the amount of time that it happens or what the process is [changes],” Crawley told Us on Tuesday. “It’s not for anybody to really decide if there is a cookie cutter for that.”
The Bachelorette airs on ABC Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.