The Bachelor’s Clayton Echard & Susie Evans Break Up

Susie Evans and Justin Glaze's road to romance has been quite the dramatic journey. 

And after the Bachelor Nation stars exclusively confirmed to E! News that they're dating, not everyone was surprised. 

After all, Susie and Justin had been sparking romance rumors for months—with their flirty Instagram posts fueling speculation that they continued to deny.

"Sorry for lying to y'all's face like that," Justin wrote on his Instagram Stories after news of their romance broke, with Susie adding in her post, "Okay fine… y'all were right." 

To be fair, they were initially there just to make friends after meeting in November 2022. It wasn't until October 2023—when a night out complete with a 7-Eleven run led them to confess their feelings for each other—that their relationship shifted from platonic to romantic.

And they insist they made their social media posts for all the right reasons.

"We've always just loved a funny bit and kind of just doing funny stuff on social media," Justin explained. "So we would kind of do these skits and stuff, and we genuinely were friends. It's kind of what made a lot of this so easy in terms of a transition because, social media-wise, we were making the same videos and doing the same stuff romantically or non-romantically."

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And put simply, they just weren't ready to extend a date card to their followers and fully invite them into the early days of their romance.

"We've always wanted to just kind of protect our privacy, which sounds funny to say because we went on the show where our romantic connections are far from private," continued the Bachelor in Paradise alum, who also appeared on Katie Thurston's season of The Bachelorette. "But we wanted to just protect our peace, and control our narrative and not put any pressure on our relationship."

@varlamova.yulia / Instagram

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After all, they had already seen how a relationship can be put under a microscope after making it public. 

"We just wanted to figure things out on our own accord and take our time with things," Justin added. "And again, God forbid things didn't work out a month, two months into a relationship, it's just like, unfortunately with social media, it becomes a blown-out thing." 

But don't feel too bad, Bachelor Nation. Justin and Susie said they didn't even tell their pals about their romance for the first few weeks because they didn't want to mess up the dynamic of their friend group if things didn't work out.

And while they knew becoming a couple could pose that risk, they ultimately decided to take the leap and give their love a go.

"We were spending so much time together just going through daily life stuff—work and running errands and whatever—and it just naturally to me was just like, ‘OK, wait a minute, this is working so well. Could this work in a relationship?'" Justin explained. "I had never really experienced that type of chemistry or relationship with anybody that I've dated, let alone with what was a friend. So I was like, 'You know what, who am I to deny that and just keep it at this level? Let's take the chance and see.' Like 'what do we have to lose' kind of thing." 

As he put it, "The pros of taking that leap outweighed the pros of staying platonic in our minds, and so I think that's kind of what made it worth it."

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In fact, Susie said having that friendship from the beginning—as well as clear expectations—gave their relationship a strong foundation.

"I just am very upfront when I start dating somebody," said Susie, who announced the end of her relationship with former Bachelor Clayton Echard in September 2022. "Like, 'Hey, these are my expectations. This is how I expect to be treated. I want you to treat me as somebody that you expect to date. And if you don't expect to date me, then I expect you to tell me that.' And I think Justin felt the same way, and I treated him with the same respect. I think because we came from such a close, solid friendship, we had so much respect for each other that we weren't gonna date each other casually and then date other people….We were exclusive off the bat."

Now that we know where Justin and Susie's relationship stands, keep reading to check the status of more Bachelor Nation stars.

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