Season 16 of The Bachelorette is shaping up to be one of the most dramatic ever. Social media is buzzing with speculation — and cryptic clues — that Tayshia Adams has replaced Clare Crawley as the season 16 lead.
“Even if they do replace Clare with Tayshia I still want to see whatever Clare filmed because baby that footage is about to be MESSY,” one person tweeted.
A second fan wrote, “Only 12 days into filming and tayshia/clare already making bachelor history love to see it.”
A third social media user posted, “Rumor has it that Clare has either left the show or been fired and Tayshia was brought in at the beginning of the week to start quarantining and take over as lead.”
Speculation that there was a cast shakeup began on Friday, July 31, when Life & Style magazine reported that Tayshia, 29, was on deck to replace Clare, 39, who started filming season 16 at La Quinta Resort in Palm Springs, California, on July 18.
ABC first named Clare the season 16 Bachelorette in March but was forced to postpone the filming due to the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the network recast several suitors before a group of 40 men headed to the Palm Springs resort to start competing for the hairdresser’s heart. Several contestants, however, from the original list returned to try to win Clare’s affection — and she admitted she looked them up while waiting for filming to begin.
“Obviously [I googled the contestants]. What woman wouldn’t, are you kidding me?” Clare admitted on the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast on June 23, her last interview before she left to film. “I will say this. At first, I really didn’t. I really did not and it was because, I don’t know. I just kind of felt like I want to get to know them and regardless, I know how my Instagram is. It’s a piece of my life. … You have to see and feel it in person and so regardless of what their life is and what it looks like on their Instagram, it’s nice to actually see them in person and I am huge on pheromones, so that’s like the end for me.”
The decision to cast Clare came as a surprise to some fans as she previously competed on The Bachelor, Bachelor in Paradise and most recently, the Bachelor Winter Games in 2018. Tayshia, meanwhile, was introduced to Bachelor Nation when she competed for Colton Underwood’s heart on season 23 of The Bachelor in 2019. That summer, she appeared on Bachelor in Paradise season 6.
ABC and Warner Bros. have declined to comment. Scroll through for a roundup of the clues:
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