Clayton Echard and Sara Cardona Shutterstock; Courtesy of Sara Cardona/Instagram
New romance? Clayton Echard was spotted hanging out with sports reporter Sara Cardona at a college basketball game.
The season 26 Bachelor, 29, and the journalist, 28, were seen attending a University of Kentucky basketball game together in Lexington, Kentucky, on Saturday, February 4. The duo separately shared photos from the event via their Instagram Stories on Sunday, February 5.
The Missouri native, for his part, reposted a video of himself dancing in the stands while Cardona stood by his side. “The liquid courage had taken over by this point ,” he quipped in his caption.
Cardona is based in the Lexington area, joining the local network ABC36 as a sports anchor in November 2021. Born in Colombia, she grew up in Nashville and later covered teams in Gainesville, Florida, and Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Before he was spotted with Cardona, Echard was most recently in a relationship with Susie Evans, who won his season of The Bachelor. The sales rep proposed to the wedding photographer, 29, during the March 2022 season finale, but she turned him down. During the After the Final Rose special, however, Evans revealed that the pair rekindled their romance after filming.
The pair ultimately called it quits in September 2022, six months after the finale aired on ABC. “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,” the duo said in a joint statement at the time. “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.”
Clayton Echard and Susie Evans Courtesy of Susie Evans/Instagram
Earlier this month, Echard sparked romance rumors with ex Rachel Recchia, who was one of the three finalists on his Bachelor season alongside Evans and Gabby Windey. The pilot, 26, and the Dancing With the Stars alum, 32, self-eliminated after Echard confessed that he was in love with both of them. Recchia and Windey went on to become co-leads of The Bachelorette season 19.
Despite their split, Recchia and Echard recently reunited for a series of cheeky TikTok videos recorded with other Bachelor Nation members. In one clip, season 18 Bachelorette Michelle Young lip-synching over someone saying, “Are you gonna tell me what’s going on?”
The camera then cut to Recchia, who mouthed the words: “I would, but I think explaining it might give us both an aneurysm.” At that point, the camera pulled back to reveal the season 19 Bachelorette sitting next to the former NFL player.
Days later, the Chicago native seemingly reacted to the speculation about her and Echard in an Instagram Story post. “U guys have me dedd [sic] it’s all in good fun,” she wrote on Friday, February 3, alongside a selfie taken in a car. “Healing and forgiveness is a lesson I had trouble learning for a long time. I promise I’m not leaving this era quite yet.”