They took a circuitous route to get here.
And they didn’t make very many fans along the way.
But here they are now.
Here is Susie Evans and here is Clayton Echard and, as The Bachelor suitor and The Bachelor lead said on Tuesday night’s After the Final Rose special, they are together and very much in love.
“People are taking sides,” Susie told Becca Kufrin and Serena Pitt on Wednesday’s edition of The Bachelor Happy Hour podcast, adding:
“They’re being divisive.
“And they’re claiming these absolutes and we were four months past it. And we’re together and we both see each other’s perspective.”
During filming, Evans and Echard ran into a major obstacle after Clayton told Susie he was in love with her… and that he had also just slept with Gabby and Rachel in their respective Fantasy Suites.
Evans didn’t understand Clayton’s emotions and/or actions at the time, actually walking out on the show in response.
But she stuck around Iceland and then Clayton dumped his other two finalists on this week’s finale and issued a mea culpa to Susie.
She rejected him on air, only to apparently reach out some time later and initiate contact that led to a romantic reconciliation.
“I always had love for Clayton,” Evans said Tuesday on ABC.
“He’s incredible. And we all make mistakes, we’ve both made mistakes on this journey, but we both have so much love for each other.”
Susie said she slid into Clayton’s direct messages after shooting wrapped up, just to check on him, with no real intention of getting back together.
“We both have given each other grace where we’ve needed to,” Susie said on today’s podcast.
“We have high standards, and I would not be dating Clayton if he were a bad person, or if he were disrespectful when we had arguments. I wouldn’t stick around for that.
“I left him in Iceland, like, I wasn’t afraid to say, ‘No, I don’t want to be in this relationship.’ Because I didn’t know if it was good for me. But it is good for me.”
Both partners here are aware that they aren’t very popular within Bachelor Nation.
“I think we’re both expecting a little backlash. I think everything was really controversial,” Susie told Jesse Palmer last night.
“We didn’t have clear definitions of love, I think, in Iceland. And like I said, we both could have been better in different ways.
“So yeah, I think people both rooted for us individually, but are people rooting for us together?”
Not really, we’d have to say.
“I’m making this choice, and it’s best for me. So please support us together and support Clayton as well,” Susie added on the aforementioned podcast.
Clayton, meanwhile, echoed this sentiment.
“I’ve faced a ton of heat just from the start — just for even accepting the role,” Clayton told Kufrin and Pitt.
”I’ve kind of just been used to this. And I hope that through us being together, this doesn’t bring a lot of heat on her.
“I do expect there to be some blowback because people are going to be frustrated that she took somebody back like me, but the fact of the matter is that again, those people making those comments and assumptions don’t know who I am.
“She does, my loved ones do, her loved ones do, and they are very much supportive of us as a team.”
Odds are very high that Clayton and Susie break up in the very near future.
And as for those who feel sorry for Gabby and/or Rachel?
They’re doing just fine now, thanks!
