The Bachelorette alum Blake Moynes has revealed that he was extremely close to starring on Perfect Match's third season alongside Rachel Recchia.

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"Blake, you were supposed to go on Perfect Match," Rachel told The Bachelorette alum during a recent episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast, which she co-hosts with Charity Lawson.

"I was very, very, very close to go on with Rachel, but at the last minute, I just could not. I could not pull the trigger on it," Blake explained.

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Charity asked Blake if personal reasons stopped him from filming the Netflix reality dating show.

"There was a combination of things. I was seeing somebody kind of at the same time, remember?" Blake asked Rachel.

"It wasn't, like, a full relationship, but at the same time, going to do another show that I was unsure about -- there was too much, too much hesitation, and I didn't feel really confident and excited to go."

Knowing Rachel was likely going to appear on the show, Blake recalled talking to her about it at her apartment.

"We were close to going. Rachel, it was only weeks before or something?" Blake asked.

"Yeah," Rachel replied. "I think they were casting... You were the only other name that I heard."

Charity therefore asked if former The Bachelor star Clayton Echard was invited to join the show after Blake declined.

Rachel laughed and said, "I feel like we'll never know."

Blake also said, "I don't know," when thinking about whether Clayton was cast as his replacement.

"I mean, I know they were pressing hard to make it happen, like, they were on me every day," Blake recalled of producers trying to get him onboard.

"And then, I don't know. I think around the same time, too, it was out there [in the media] that Rachel and I were always hanging out and do sea-turtle stuff together, and all of these things."

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Blake therefore reasoned, "So I think they actually wanted some type of, like, curiosity around who was going to be there with Rachel, whether it was Clayton or I."

Rachel went on to joke about how she definitely "delivered" entertainment considering Clayton brutally dumped her for the second time on reality TV after he had broken her heart on The Bachelor's 26 season.

"Yeah, yeah," Blake agreed.

On Perfect Match's third season, Rachel and Clayton chose to match up and test if there was still a spark between them, but their romance crashed and burned a mere 24 hours later.

Clayton had told Rachel on the show that he was following his "intuition" by calling it off, but during an August 2025 episode of "The Viall Files" podcast, Clayton admitted "there were other things" that turned him off.

When asked for her thoughts on Clayton's vague comments, Rachel shared days later on the "What's the Reality?" podcast, "I was like, 'What could it be? Do I smell? Do I have bad breath?' I could not figure out what he was talking about! It scared me."

But Rachel revealed that Clayton ultimately told her they're not compatible because he lives a very active lifestyle and she's not interested in hitting the gym and lifting weights.

Rachel has said that Clayton humiliated her on Perfect Match, but Clayton defended his decision to end things after a single day of being matched up.

Clayton also unfollowed Rachel on social media after filming Perfect Match.

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Rachel guessed that if she and Blake had both starred on Perfect Match, it wouldn't have been much different from their time on Bachelor in Paradise's ninth season in 2023.

"Yes and no... We were friends there [in Paradise], but now I know you in a whole different light," Blake said, suggesting the pals are very close now.

On Bachelor in Paradise's ninth season, Rachel dated several men -- including Sean McLaughlin -- but failed to find The One, and Blake was interested in Jess Girod but their romance fizzled out.

Rachel found fame when she competed for Clayton's heart on The Bachelor.

Clayton had professed his love to Rachel, and also slept with her in the Fantasy Suite, before dumping her in favor of Susie Evans. (Clayton also had sex and expressed his love to Gabby Windey).

Because Rachel and Gabby both left Clayton's The Bachelor season devastated, they went on to co-star on The Bachelorette's 19th season.

Rachel got engaged to Tino Franco during her show's finale but they split up by the time After the Final Rose aired because he cheated on her.

Blake, for his part, got his start on reality TV by competing on Clare Crawley and Tayshia Adams' season of The Bachelorette.

When  neither woman picked him, Blake gave The Bachelorette another shot by pursuing Katie Thurston on Season 17.

Katie ended up choosing Blake as her winner and the pair got engaged, but they announced their breakup just over two months after the finale aired on ABC in October 2021.

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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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