Ready to start over! Clayton Echard’s season of The Bachelor is still airing, but the lead and his former contestants are already weighing in on who should be the next Bachelorette.
The former football player, 28, and some of his exes shared their two cents at the recent Women Tell All taping. Serene Russell — who made it to Clayton’s final four but was eliminated after hometown dates — revealed whether she would consider taking on the role for season 19 of The Bachelorette.
“I definitely am open to the right opportunity to find love,” the elementary school teacher, 26, exclusively told Us Weekly. “That being said, if it felt like it were the right situation for me, it felt like it was meant for me, I would do a lot of thinking and all of that, but if it felt right, I would probably do it if it meant that I would find my person.”
Serene noted that she would have to determine whether she could handle dating so many people at the same time.
“Oh, my gosh! I don’t know how Clayton did it — especially, like, he was getting yelled at [during the Women Tell All],” she said. “So I think that it’s definitely a lot more intense than people think it is and that’s something to think about.”
If Serene does not get the Bachelorette gig, she told Us that she is “definitely” open to searching for The One on Bachelor in Paradise. “I really still want to find love,” she shared. “That’s kind of, like, my big thing is I really want that. I want to start a family really bad.”
Other likely candidates for Bachelorette include Clayton’s final three women: Susie Evans, Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia. The Missouri native abruptly sent home the wedding videographer, 28, during the Tuesday, March 8, episode after they argued over his decision to have sex with her fellow contestants in the fantasy suites. Meanwhile, promos for the two-part finale show his relationships with Rachel, 26, and Gabby, 31, hanging by a thread.
Clayton told Us at the Women Tell All taping that he was “petrified” by the final episodes of his journey airing. “I went in there hoping that I could make it as seamless as possible,” he explained. “And I think, honestly, it was the closest thing to a trainwreck.”
While the Bachelorette season 18 alum insisted that he “tried [his] best” throughout the process, he would have done some things differently if he had known better.
“I took the actions that I took thinking that they were the right actions to take at that time,” he said. “I since found out that, looking back at it, I should have asked more questions and made sure that all the women were on the same page.”
Scroll through the gallery below to see who Bachelor Nation wants to see as the next Bachelorette: