'The Bachelor' made them famous. But it also inspired these reality stars to seek therapy

Clayton Echard is not the first man to date dozens of women on camera with the expectation of proposing to one of them after two months. In fact, he's the 26th "Bachelor" lead to do this since the show debuted in 2002.

But the 29-year-old Scottsdale-based online personal training coach is unique in being so publicly vulnerable soon after his season's airing about how much he's struggled with the experience and the consequences of widespread public attention.

“Everything that I went through on the show, like, I could still be in a corner right now crying and no one would blame me,” Echard told The Arizona Republic. “I had to tell myself, like, ‘You have to face these hard moments. You have to address these things head-on.’”

“And I went to therapy,” he said.

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Clayton Echard on getting therapy: 'I needed it desperately'

When Echard spoke with The Republic in October 2022, his stint as a reality television star was still weighing on him seven months after his "Bachelor" season finished airing. It had been a year since he'd embarked on a journey of dating 31 women, fell in love with his three finalists and ultimately ended the season without a proposal.

He felt like he’d lost himself over the course of filming "The Bachelor" and realized he was in desperate need of therapy afterward, he said.

“I (had) a therapist from the show. And I got one pretty quickly from the time that I asked for it. I think (producers) realized, like, how badly I needed it,” he said. “There are resources (offered by the show), and I won't say there's a lack. The only thing I'll say is that I just think that it's sad that it's almost like you need it.

"I needed it desperately. And I'm like, I don't like the fact that we're getting individuals to a point where they desperately need it.”

Since his season aired, Echard has posted about his mental health struggles on Instagram, both those that stem from childhood and some that resulted from reality TV stardom. He's among a number of "Bachelor" alumni who have been open about this in recent years, using their social media platforms to discuss therapy, mental illness and public criticism and harassment.

Echard and Chelsea Vaughn — a 30-year-old model and podcast host who appeared on Matt James’ season of “The Bachelor” and the spin-off show “Bachelor in Paradise” in 2021 — are among those who say their reality TV experiences were what encouraged them to finally seek therapy.

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Returning from filming 'The Bachelor' triggered anxiety and depression

The first time Vaughn had ever sought therapy was after filming “The Bachelor” in 2020.

Before heading to Farmington, Pennsylvania, to date Echard's predecessor, Matt James, she researched prior contestants for an idea of what to expect from the experience. One piece of advice that Vaughn recalls hearing was to find a therapist before doing the show. But she did not have enough time to before heading into filming — where cast members have no access to the internet or people outside of production — for about a month.

Looking back, she thinks this was “brilliant” advice. She told The Republic in December 2022 that she first started struggling with what she believes was anxiety and depression when she returned home and wishes that she had lined up a mental health professional to speak with.

“I had never felt like I'd experienced symptoms of depression before the show,” Vaughn said. “I was not diagnosed ever — still to this day — but obviously I'm aware now I have anxiety, and I probably had a little bit beforehand. But it was like, if I had a little before the show, maybe it was 5% — and after the show it was 95%. Like, it was a very large, drastic change.”

Vaughn struggled with managing “being thrown back into the real world.” The difference was made more drastic by the fact that she was on a closed “bubble” set where COVID-19 was not a big factor in the cast’s day-to-day lives beyond constant COVID-19 testing. When she got to the airport to fly home, she didn’t even have a mask.

It was like experiencing whiplash, Vaughn said.

Filming for Season 25 took place from late September through November 2020, and James’ cast of 32 women was announced in mid-December. The season aired from the beginning of January 2021 through mid-March.

“You're very isolated because you're not allowed to tell anyone about the show, and you can't talk about the experience. And then if you do talk about the experience, the people you're talking to don't really get it,” she said. “You just went through this huge, like, crazy experience that was life changing and all this stuff just happened in a very short amount of time.

"So it just feels like you're hiding a large part of your life from other people.”

'Therapy was triggered by me going on the show'

Though Vaughn has a strong support system of friends and family members, she couldn’t consult them due to the contract she’d signed in order to participate on “The Bachelor.” The friends she’d made during filming were the only ones she could relate to in that moment, but she was not allowed to publicly associate with them for a while, she said.

Vaughn said she was told that the on-set therapist was available to contestants after filming was over, but she didn’t take them up on the offer. She eventually found a therapist through BetterHelp, which provides online mental health services. Vaughn, who specifically looked for someone who had some familiarity with the show’s format, found it relieving to have someone with whom to process a “rollercoaster ride of emotions.”

“I think when I first started therapy, I was very overwhelmed, and it was more like — I wouldn't say crisis mode — but it was more like I'm overwhelmed and I'm at a point where I can't manage this myself. I need help now,” she said. “The therapy was triggered by me going on the show, for sure. But now it's kind of just like a self-care thing that I do.”

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'The Bachelor's' format is ‘a perfect recipe … for chaos’

It’s well documented that the “Bachelor” franchise has an in-house therapist available to cast members.

In a March 2022 interview, the franchise’s host, Jesse Palmer told Variety, “On set, we have psychologists always there in the moment talking to the Bachelor and Bachelorette and contestants to keep everyone as mentally healthy as possible.”

He added: “That’s a massive priority for the show. I don’t think they had that when I was on the show almost 20 years ago.”

But some former contestants said this counseling doesn’t replace guidance from trusted loved ones.

“I think it's just everything in that environment is heightened because you're going through a lot of emotions and you're isolated and you don't have a lot of sleep,” Vaughn said. “You're out of your environment. You can't talk to your friends and family — like, it's a perfect recipe and cocktail for chaos.”

Ivan Hall, a 30-year-old aerospace company engineer from Dallas, also said the filming environment took its toll during Tayshia Adams and Clare Crawley’s season of “The Bachelorette” in 2020. Getting two to six hours of sleep each night, which is a typical schedule for cast members, for two months affected his mood, for one.

And not being able to solicit input from his family — until they joined the show during hometowns week — “was a little bit of a challenge.” After Adams dumped him right before the finale, Hall said he was put in isolation before going home.

“That wasn’t the most fun time because I just went through this emotional rollercoaster of like, you know, kind of falling in love and then breaking up and then usually you have your support system with you, but it wasn't there,” Hall said. “They do a good job of providing psychologists … and the producers, the people there, to keep you company. But I’m just used to talking to, you know, people I know back home about things.”

Echard was a medical sales representative from Eureka, Missouri, before entering the "Bachelor" franchise and had no experience with a reality TV production prior to being on Michelle Young's "Bachelorette" season in 2021. He, too, believes that his "Bachelor" season would have gone very differently if he were allowed to confide in his family during filming.

“I had a therapist there (during ‘The Bachelor’). But, I mean, you have your inner circle that you trust. And I didn't have it when I was there. I was isolated,” Echard said. “If I'd had my family along the journey that whole way, it would've been a way different experience.”

‘I just forgot how to be a caring human being’

Things went awry during his season, Echard said, because he lost his capability for empathy while operating under the show’s format of dating dozens of people at once.

“I assumed this role, and I just forgot how to be a caring human being,” he said. “Not that I did it purposely, but I went into this realm of, like, this is how this operates around here, so everyone knows how this game is played. So, like, things just operate differently; you have a little more leeway.”

This was “a terrible, terrible mindset to have,” he said.

“I was doing everything with pure intentions. But I was operating under an environment that I wouldn't have operated that way had I had the right people in my corner telling me, like, 'Don't do that. That's not normal. That's not something you should be doing.'”

Echard had elicited criticism for the way he handled himself with his final three contestants. As the season neared its finale, he had told the last two women standing, Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia that he was in love with both of them as well as Susie Evans, who'd self-eliminated.

"This is the hard part to say, but, like, I was in love with her, and I was in love with each of you, too — I am in love with both of you. And I also was intimate with both of you," Echard told Windey and Recchia on Season 26, Episode 11. "I do see one of you being on the other side of it with me. And I don't have the answers; I don't know who that is. I really don't. Because I promise you if I knew the answer to that, I wouldn't string somebody else along."

Things didn't get easier after filming wrapped. As the season aired from January through March 2022, Echard split his time between Scottsdale and Los Angeles. He kept a low profile while quietly rekindling his relationship with Evans. (They announced their relationship during the finale and broke up six months later.)

Echard was surprised that “the spotlight never left" after his finale. He tried to have a sense of humor as he was referenced in subsequent seasons, including when a children's choir sang a ditty titled “Clayton sucks” during the "Bachelorette" premiere in July 2022 — but what the digs grated on him.

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How ‘Bachelor’ producers have supported cast members

After navigating an onslaught of hate mail and death threats, it's understandable if Echard has a complicated relationship with the people who create "The Bachelor."

“There was a point where I thought that the show, they were monsters. And I would describe them as such,” Echard said.

“But they’re not; they are human," he added.

One instance where Echard felt supported by the production team was when he revealed to producers that he deals with body dysmorphia. In his childhood, body dysmorphia brought stress, anxiety and depression, he said.

“I feel the starting point of my mental health woes was around seventh grade; I started looking in the mirror and not liking who I saw. I fixated on my stomach region in particular, and I felt that I was fat,” Echard said. “I didn't feel desirable and didn't feel worthy and I didn't feel good enough.”

He told producers about this after participating in a date in which he and contestant Sarah Hamrick did a scavenger hunt while wearing only their underwear in downtown Los Angeles. Though he agreed to the stunt in the moment, producers could tell that he was upset afterward, he said. When he shared that “I don’t like to show my body off like this,” he believes producers took this to heart.

In a “Baywatch”-themed group date at the beach later that episode, Echard was told he could keep his shirt on if he wanted to, he said. He can be seen in a gray sleeveless shirt at some points during the date.

“They did protect me in those aspects,” he said.

Contestants can be each other's therapists

Demar Jackson, a 29-year-old spin instructor at The Madison Improvement Club in metro Phoenix, also recalled moments when a staff member checked on him. Some of them were related to being partially nude on camera, too. This happened when he was on both “The Bachelorette” in 2020 and “Bachelor in Paradise" in 2021 with Ivan Hall.

Being offered the option to be nude during a date involved not only an appearance by a therapist but also the cast acknowledging consent on-camera and signing release forms.

“That's when I figured, 'You know what? Even though sometimes production gets a bad rap, that was one moment I felt like they at least care a little bit to talk to me,’” Jackson said. “It was nice to see that they cared enough to want to discuss it and say, ‘Hey, you can talk to a therapist, too' — like, they are still available to you.”

Ivan Hall, who co-hosts the podcast The Vibe with Jackson, was pleasantly surprised by how often people from the production, including producers and a psychologist, checked on him during and after filming.

He didn’t feel “fully comfortable” opening up to a therapist since he’s never done that before, he said. Instead, he and Jackson, who were roommates on “The Bachelorette,” confided in each other after the cameras and microphones were off once they’d gone to bed.

“Me and Ivan were each other's, like, therapist and client almost every other night. So that kind of helped the situation as well,” Jackson said.

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For some, ‘The Bachelor’ isn’t doing enough to protect its cast

Not everyone is as complimentary toward "The Bachelor's" production.

After appearing on Becca Kufrin’s “Bachelorette” season and “Bachelor in Paradise” in 2018, contestant Chris Randone believes that the franchise has not done enough to check on past contestants’ wellbeing.

He made this clear when he tweeted the creator and executive producer of the show, Mike Fleiss, in August 2022 and wrote that “You had a former contestant on brink of suicide not once but twice and didn’t do s—t.”

On a Sept. 21 episode of the She’s All Bach podcast, Randone revealed that he was referring to himself in this tweet and that he did not receive a response from Fleiss.

He accused the production of knowing “what I was feeling; (but) there was just, like, no compassion or empathy.” Randone told the podcast's hosts that in July 2021 he’d posted a final goodbye note in his Instagram Story for close friends. After two of them — also former cast members — called soon thereafter and talked him out of his suicidal thoughts, the friends reached out to producers. Randone then received a check-in call from a producer he had been close with.

Though he was offered a counselor to speak with, he didn’t find the interaction to be adequate or genuine — as if they were doing a job to “save face,” he said.

“It just seems like there's a lot of other shows that … try to put them in the best position possible for the aftermath,” Randone told the She's All Bach hosts. “But for some reason, this franchise, they just don't.”

The franchise can improve, he said, by “making sure (contestants) can really get any type of help you need for however long that you need (it) and give you guidance and direction along the way, you know, because everyone handles and processes their journey differently.”

Randone did not respond to The Republic’s messages to his social media accounts.

What we know about 'The Bachelor's' psychologist

Previous reporting on the “Bachelor” franchise, including a Jan. 8 feature published in Fortune, has revealed that the production uses psychological evaluations as well as emotional intelligence and IQ tests designed by Steven Stein to vet potential cast members. Stein is a clinical psychologist registered in Ontario, Canada, who has worked with shows such as “Big Brother Canada” and “Survivor."

“The first and most important thing we always do is a mental-health screening because we want to make sure that it's safe. That the person is not going to be self-injurious or aggressive. That there are no real addiction problems. No sort of borderline personalities," he told E! News in 2019.

A Fashion Magazine feature on Stein published in 2019 reported that he was on call for emergencies among cast members. He told the outlet that he also helped prepare them for transitioning out of production and back into the real world, where they inevitably face a deluge of attention, good and bad, on social media.

Stein did not respond to The Republic’s interview request.

When reached by The Republic, a former psychologist for the "Bachelor" franchise said they were not allowed to speak about any of the shows they have worked with.

The Republic corresponded with Sarah McCaffrey, a psychotherapist and registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, to learn about best practices for caring for cast members' mental wellbeing. McCaffrey is also the founder of Solas Mind, a company that provides remote and in-person “professional, bespoke, therapeutic support services to production companies, studios, crew, and creative freelancers,” according to its website.

She believes that "if a production has assessed that an individual is OK to partake and it (transpires) they were wrong ... then they have an obligation to support the cast member, even if that is for up to year after the shoot."

Why some contestants don’t trust on-set counselors

Though Jackson — who filmed two years after Randone did — thought the “Bachelor” production team did a good job of making mental health counseling available, he did not seek counseling. He enjoyed his experience and feels that he is “mentally strong," he said, and he believes that other alumni should take advantage of the resources offered.

However, Jackson also described being skeptical about the confidentiality of meeting with the show’s therapist during filming.

“There’s a therapist, but I personally didn't wanna talk to anybody during the show,” he said. “You don't know (how) it could be used down the line. I doubt it would be, but I wouldn't want to give an opportunity for that to happen.”

Hall chimed in, “I'm pretty sure they were going to be private conversations — at least no mic, I'll say — but then again, you never know. I mean, they hired the person, so that was a little bit of a red flag, I guess.”

Representatives for the show, which is produced by Next Entertainment and Warner Bros. Unscripted Television in association with Warner Horizon, declined to comment for this story.

Psychologists who are accredited by organizations such as the American Psychological Association are expected to abide by its ethical principles and code of conduct, which include sections about confidentiality. McCaffrey from Solas Mind emphasized the importance of hiring professional counselors and therapists who are bound by an ethical code of practice.

“Confidentiality should be ensured unless there was a specific risk to the individual and in a few other situations as per the ethical code, and this should be communicated to the individual at the outset,” she said.

Expert: Concerns about on-set mental health support are valid

According to McCaffrey, Solas Mind has received feedback that “engagement with on-set support is very poor” for various reasons, including concern about colleagues seeing someone accessing mental health resources.

“We very rarely provide on-set support for this very reason,” McCaffrey said of Solas Mind’s work with film and TV productions. “We only go on to set when there are particularly challenging scenes being shot to create psychological safety or work with a specific actor.”

McCaffrey said 90% of the support that Solas Mind provides is done remotely and is available 24/7.

“The remote support means individuals feel reassured that it is confidential, as it is sufficiently removed from the production,” McCaffrey said.

“It is really important that any mental health service provided is independent and not embedded in the production company or studio — as otherwise, in our experience, engagement is very poor as cast and crew worry that information will be fed back, or they will be seen accessing support.”

While there are no industry-wide rules governing how unscripted shows in the U.S. care for participants, there’s been a movement in the United Kingdom to protect people who appear on TV shows with no prior experience being in the public eye.

The United Kingdom’s Office of Communications, a regulatory authority that in part oversees the broadcasting industry, in 2020 amended its broadcasting code to ensure that broadcasters are taking "due care" of program participants.

"We launched a review of protections for participants in programmes in light of the growing openness and concern in society about mental health and wellbeing," reads Ofcom's December 2020 press release. "In recent years we have also seen a steady rise in complaints about the welfare of people taking part in programmes."

These amendments to the code include informing participants "about any potential welfare risks that might arise from their participation."

The popular U.K. dating show "Love Island" has taken this a step further. The show’s broadcaster shared its “comprehensive package of welfare measures” in a December press release, which detailed that contestants receive access to registered mental health professionals before, during and after filming; “proactive contact" for more than a year after appearing on the show; and the offer of at least eight therapy sessions after they’re off the show.

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How reality TV fans can help

Ivan Hall said he was able to lean on his fellow Season 16 cast members when the audience feedback was overwhelming. He successfully prevented the criticism from taking over his life.

“You'll see some trolls here and there or some people say something a little bit negative about you and maybe some racist stuff here and there, but the positive stuff greatly outweighed the negatives,” he said. “You can have your opinions of people and assumptions about them, but you always have to remember that it is an edited show.”

“Now, I'm not saying that to excuse everybody,” Hall added. “But I would just say, don't be, like, locked into your opinions.”

Echard also cautioned viewers to not take what they see and hear on the show at face value. If viewers didn’t respond enthusiastically to on-screen drama, Echard believes that the show would be crafted differently — perhaps in a way that wouldn’t cause its stars to seek therapy afterwards.

“I don't blame the show. What are you supposed to do? You've got to give the audience what they want; otherwise, you don't have an audience,” he said.

“I mean, (producers are) catering to the audience. Like, I really don't think you can blame the production, because if they did give a love story that was genuine and there was no drama, the show would have been off-air 10 years ago,” he said. “People need to understand that the viewers are also — I don't want to say 'to blame' — but the viewers are just equally as big a part of it.”

That’s why Echard has more compassion for people who come off as villains on the show. Before he joined the franchise, however, he would have also believed that these people were as bad as they seemed on-screen.

"Now, when I watch, I don't form opinions. I used to form opinions before I went on reality TV," he said. “I just know that whatever their personality is on TV, I'm like, ‘I'm not going to form a judgment based off what I'm seeing, because I know that it could not be the truth at all.'"

Finding a silver lining post-‘Bachelor’

In October 2022, despite being weeks out of a breakup and still hearing that his name was brought up on “Bachelor in Paradise,” Echard believed he was “slowly” finding balance in his life. Living full-time in Scottsdale with his brother felt like hitting the reset button, he said.

“I am trying to just basically live in a place of silver lining.”

His most recent post-"Bachelor" accomplishment was publishing a book titled "180 Degrees: On Mental Health, Mindfulness, and Unlocking Self-Belief."

"Clayton Echard is a former NFL player and reality TV star. When the latter catapulted Clayton into some very dark days, he committed himself to helping others conquer theirs," the back of the book reads. "Join me in this book as we turn away from darkness and run toward the place where light resides."

Hall, Jackson and Vaughn have also found a sense of stability more than a year after being on-screen. Each expressed that they were happy with how things shook out for them in the end. Vaughn called it a “net positive.”

“(The “Bachelor” franchise) changed my life. So, like, I can never say I regret doing it,” she said. “I think some other people that get completely screwed by the show might not have the same feeling because they might have a huge following — or bigger than mine or whatever — but, like, the mental toll that it took on them was worse.”

“Like, I only got hate DMs for a couple of weeks. Some people got it for months, just horrible, horrible stuff,” Vaughn added.

Vaughn now has 110,000 followers on Instagram and 39,000 on TikTok. She’s grateful for how starring in the franchise changed her life, including having a platform to start her podcast, “but I have to accept the good and the bad that came with it.”

“I think that both things can be true at the same time. I think I can be grateful for my platform, and I don't regret doing it, but I could also say I wouldn't do it again,” she said.

Hall said that he and Jackson are also among the contestants who “have had experiences that probably would have never happened if we weren't on the show.” It’s a “once-in-a-lifetime experience,” but potential contestants would benefit from doing research beforehand, like Hall did.

“There's so many different opportunities I've been given, not to mention the extra financial boost it's given,” he said. “Even though there's a little bit of negative and you’ve got to deal with it — and everybody handles things differently — luckily I have a great support system.”

“This franchise, it changes a lot of people's lives,” Hall said.

“You got to be open to the possibility that criticism is going to be out there for you,” Jackson said. “And if you're open to that, then the sky's the limit on what you can do with this opportunity.”

Toll-free mental health hotline

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers emotional support services. Call or text 988 in the U.S or use the chat feature on https://988lifeline.org. It's toll-free and available 24/7.

Reach Entertainment Reporter KiMi Robinson at kimi.robinson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @kimirobin and Instagram @ReporterKiMi.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Bachelor' stars and mental health: Clayton, Ivan and others speak out