Clayton Echard 'Felt Abandoned' After Susie Evans Split: 'I Didn't Even Want to Look in Her Direction'

Clayton Echard is opening up about his emotions following his split with Susie Evans.

The former Bachelor admitted that he was upset by their breakup in a joint interview with Evans on PodcastOne's Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe podcast.

"It's really hard because when we first broke up…my first initial feeling was, like, I felt abandoned; that was my first feeling," he told host Kaitlyn Bristowe. "I was upset. I didn't even want to look in her direction because I was like: If I look at you, the hurt is gonna tear me apart."

Evans responded, "He was very sassy, and I didn't like it. I was like, 'Oh, that's how we're gonna do it?' "

However, the resentment towards Evans didn't last long.

"That lasted like half a day, and then I was like I can't do this," Echard admitted. "I can't ignore her for this next week. I can't do this. I don't want to do this. There's so much love here. I want us to end on happy terms. So then I apologized, and I was like, 'Hey, I want us to be happy,' and then we were happy for a few days."

Both Evans and Echard said they wondered if they made the right decision to end their relationship.

"We were crying non-stop," Echard said. "We were like, 'Wait, we're having so much fun now, should we not break up?' "

After deciding to stay separated, Evans reached back out to Echard, the former NFL athlete said on the podcast. However, he wonders what will be best for the former couple.

"Can Susie and I find a way to still keep in contact but not hold onto this feeling of: Can this work? Because what happens if it doesn't?" he said. "I don't want to be crushed and hold onto hope. And then all of a sudden, no this isn't going to work…then it just destroys you a second time."

Last week, Evans posted a TikTok video that joked about feeling better — all with the help of some generic self-care — after their breakup.

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"Me to every self-care ritual I've picked up this week," she wrote on the video. "You better fix my entire life, you little s---."

Evans added, "But really."

In the clip, she's seen wearing a face mask and speaking to an empty journal.

A second video uploaded by Evans sees the Bachelor alum lip-syncing to a sound that says, "No more questions, I'm a little mad, and I'm tired." She captioned the video, "How I'm handling this week."

Echard and Evans announced their breakup in a joint Instagram post last month. "With incredibly heavy hearts, we wanted to share that we have decided to go our separate ways. For anyone who has ever loved, knows this was a painful decision to make and not one taken lightly," they wrote.

"We understand that there will likely be a lot of questions about this decision — social media is definitely a highlight reel and much of our experiences together we have kept private as I'm sure most can understand. But we will share this — although this last year together has brought us so much joy and so many laughs, there has also been a significant amount of pain."

The couple met on The Bachelor — though Evans self-eliminated from the series. In August, Echard and Evans announced they'd be trying a long-distance relationship. "We're like, 'We don't know if it's going to be a month-long [relationship] from here or if it's gonna be lifetime but, like, there's no pressure," Echard said at the time. "Let's just love each other and be thankful."