The Bachelor alum Susie Evans has revealed she and Clayton Echard are officially friends again and that she has a new "really nice" man in the picture.
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Clayton and Susie announced their decision to part ways and end their relationship in late September, with Clayton assuring fans that he and the wedding videographer still talked on occasion and were "on good terms."
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But the pair later agreed it would be healthy to maintain some distance from each other so they could fully move on and heal from the breakup.
Susie shared that just last week, Clayton reached out to her with a request.
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"He was like, 'Honestly, I think I can be friends with you. I respect you so much. And I think you're so wonderful,'" Susie told People.
"So he basically communicated, 'I can be friends. We don't have to be like radio silence.' And we had a really good conversation, catching up."
Susie even agreed to assist Clayton in writing his first book.
"He asked me to read through it and give him notes, so that was really nice," Susie revealed.
"From the start, I was like, 'I'm cool with whatever, however this works.' I want to respect how you feel, and how you need to heal with this."
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Susie suggested Clayton's outreach was a big development in their relationship because they previously "agreed that it would be best for him to not be in communication [with me]."
"I really respected that," Susie said.
But then "about a month ago," Clayton apparently sent her a "beautiful message," which initially got the ball rolling on their friendship.
She recalled, "He reached out... thanking me for how wonderful the relationship was for him, how good of a place he's in now. And so it was really nice."
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But Susie apparently wants to meet someone new and keep Clayton in the friend zone.
Susie shared with the magazine how she's "definitely been exploring options."
Susie explained, "I met a really nice guy recently and I'm having this kind of struggle of like, 'Do I want to jump back into a relationship or do I just want to be single and really focus on myself and my career?'"
"But it's a really nice guy," Susie teased.
Susie admitted that she's not sure what to do or how to proceed with this new romance.
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"It's like, 'What do I do?' And you don't want to be that person that's like, 'I don't know what I want.' It's like, I want it all, but at the same time, I love being single. Just to have time to focus on myself, so I don't know," Susie concluded.
Susie told Us Weekly earlier this month that she'd like to date a man in private for a while, and make sure there is really potential for a future there, before she goes public with the relationship.
Susie fell hard and fast for Clayton on The Bachelor's 26th season, which aired earlier this year, but the couple went through a lot of ups and downs, including a shocking finale dumping in which Susie had rejected Clayton's final rose.
Susie and Clayton reconciled in the real world and fell in love, but the pair had many obstacles to overcome, both within and outside of their relationship after the show.
The Bachelor fans began to suspect there was trouble in paradise between Clayton and Susie in August, when Clayton revealed on an episode of Amanda Hirsch's "Not Skinny But Not Fat" podcast that the couple had decided to stop living together and planned to move to different states.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
Clayton -- who had moved to Virginia Beach to be with Susie after The Bachelor -- chose Scottsdale, AZ, as his new home, and Susie planned to move to Los Angeles, CA.
"It's really hard because when we first broke up... my first initial feeling was, like, I felt abandoned -- that was my first feeling," Clayton admitted in a joint appearance with Susie on the "Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe" podcast in early October.
"I was like, 'We're just going to end this.' 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."
Clayton and Susie explained how they broke up because neither person felt stable or fully emotionally supported in the relationship due to their insecurities and outside pressure from Bachelor Nation to be a perfect couple.
Clayton shared how it felt nearly impossible to pour into his relationship with Susie when he didn't even know what he wanted out of life and where his future was headed.
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The couple also confirmed how dealing with negativity from Bachelor Nation -- including death threats sent to Clayton -- was a big factor in why they had issues and ultimately parted ways.
"I was trying to figure out what my next step was [and] I started questioning who I was because of all the negativity," Clayton said.
He added, "I started to believe some of what was being said about me. And I now look back at it and realize, like, I couldn't be that stable, secure man that I needed to be to really be able to give my all in a relationship."
Clayton said he felt the need to rehab his image and please others, all the while trying to get over death threats and handle problems in his relationship, such as wrongly being accused of cheating on Susie.
When Susie and Clayton announced their breakup in a September 23 statement, they wrote, "We stand in support of each other and hope to see the other go on to find happiness and healing. Although Claysie is no more, we hope that our communities can support us individually as we move forward with love and respect for each other."
And out of respect for each other, Susie and Clayton chose to keep some of their problems to themselves.
"There are things private to us that we will probably never talk about... and I think that's healthy and protects our mental health and what we have struggled with... We want to respect each other's boundaries," Susie said on "Off the Vine."
But Clayton also teased there was a possibility he and Susie may get back together down the road.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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