Rachel Recchia is revealing her reaction to Clayton Echard making comments about her lifestyle choices.
“He just wants someone with that lifestyle, that wants to be up and in the gym and eating a certain way and not drinking,” Rachel, 29, said while appearing on the Monday, September 8, episode of Jason Tartick’s “Trading Secrets” podcast, admitting that initially she was “so mad” at Clayton, 32.
“I think it is a lifestyle that I can’t live,” she added. “I think being with someone like that, you would feel like they resented you if you don’t do that. So I agree with him.”
Rachel continued: “It would be tough if he’s like, ‘I don’t want to have snacks,’ and I have cookies in the house, or I don’t want to go to the gym. It seems silly, but I really do understand it.”
Clayton Claims ‘Perfect Match’ Edit Is ‘Missing Context’ With Ex Rachel
Rachel and Clayton first connected in 2022 while appearing on The Bachelor season 26. They later reconnected in 2025 during season 3 of Perfect Match. Unfortunately for Rachel, Clayton pulled the plug on their relationship only 24 hours later, explaining to her that his “intuition” told him things wouldn’t work out between them.
“Out of respect for you, I have to not drag something out,” Clayton told a tearful Rachel on the show. “My intuition was telling me that this was not going to work between us, and I don’t want to hurt you.”
After Rachel departed the room crying, Clayton told their castmates, “I was trying to tell her that my intuition kicked in today, and I’m, like, ‘I can’t do this.’”
During an August 7 appearance on “The Viall Files” podcast, Clayton further explained he was unhappy with how the moment was edited for the show. Clayton also cited their different “lifestyles” as the reason for his decision.
“I’ve taken a pulse on the interaction. I’ve listened to what you’ve had to say, the way you say things, your mindset, where you’re currently at and your lifestyle,” Clayton said. “Ultimately, I said, ‘Look, my vibe and your vibe are not matched.’ Three years later, I wanted to see … will our vibes match? I’ll say this, the lifestyles that we have wouldn’t match, and that was part of it.”
During her own August 13 appearance on the “What’s the Reality” podcast, Rachel explained that the reason “why Clayton feels we are incompatible and that he was so sure is because I am not a gym girly.”
“He wants someone that lives a very active lifestyle and goes to the gym and hits the weights and it’s not me,” she added. “It’s never gonna be me.”
After Jason, 36, asked if “everything’s amicable” between the pair, Rachel said that despite her initial reaction, the proverbial dust has settled.
“I called him so many times when that interview came out and, obviously, I’m still seeing things of people being like, ‘That’s not the reason,’” she explained.
She even asked Clayton to “go on a podcast and say you don’t like me, and you don’t think I’m attractive” because doing so would “put an end to everything. People can’t question that.”
Rachel also admitted to Jason that not everyone in her life supported her decision to appear on Perfect Match in the first place, explaining that her dad still hasn’t even watched the show. Instead, she says her father still hopes she will leave reality TV behind for good. (Recchia is pursuing her pilot’s license.)
“He wants me to be a pilot. Yeah, and I will call and be like, ‘I’m going on Paradise.’ And he’s like, ‘When are you going back to flying?’” she said of her dad. “He doesn’t care about any of this. This is, to him, not a thing. He’s happy for me to get the opportunity, he’s glad I’m on my own and things like that, but he will never like — after Bachelorette, he was like, ‘Go back to your job.’ There’s no other thing so I think he’s just upset with me.”
The Bachelorette’s Rachel Recchia Speaks Out After Clayton Echard Reunion
Despite her father’s hopes, Rachel said she’s “so happy” she decided to join Perfect Match.
“I was happy to go on,” she said. “I had a great time, their production, like, they were so great.”
