Clare Crawley Wasn’t Told Matt James Was Going to Be Cast as the Bachelor

From Cosmopolitan

• Last week, Matt James was cast as the first Black Bachelor.

• Apparently, Clare Crawley wasn’t told about Matt’s casting before it was announced.

History was made last week when ABC decided to cast Matt James as their first Black Bachelor. Matt’s casting was a bit of a surprise considering Mike Johnson was standing right there he was supposed to be on Clare Crawley’s upcoming season of The Bachelorette. But things got pretty weird after Clare basically called Matt out for going on her season for the wrong reasons, but now it’s downright awkward because reports say no one thought to tell Clare about Matt’s casting before the announcement was officially made.

“Clare didn’t know about Matt becoming the Bachelor until the GMA announcement,” a source told Us Weekly. “Decisions are still being made when it comes to her cast.” Reminder: Production for Clare’s season was seriously postponed because of coronavirus.

For what it’s worth, it doesn’t really sound like Matt and Clare’s drama was the reason why he was cast as the next Bachelor anyway. According to Karey Burke, president of ABC Entertainment, The Bachelor’s producers had been looking into Matt as a possible Bachelor choice for a while.

“Matt has been on our radar since February, when producers first approached him to join Bachelor Nation, as part of Clare’s season,” Karey said in a statement last week. ‘When filming couldn’t move forward as planned, we were given the benefit of time to get to know Matt and all agreed he would make a perfect Bachelor.”

And believe it or not, there’s a silver lining here that maybe Clare has yet to consider—now she knows the men on her season won’t be vying to be the next Bachelor since that post is literally already taken! No more “here for the right reasons” spiels!

“I think where this is really great for Clare is that every guy who will be on her season will know there is no chance of becoming The Bachelor, so they should really all be there only for Clare,” ABC executive Rob Mills said in an interview with Variety.

So yeah, Clare may have taken an L, but she actually benefits from this! It’s a win-win (well, kinda).

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