Contestant Doug Clerget Chats BACHELORETTE Elimination

While contestant Doug Clerget received the first impression rose on episode one of this season's THE BACHELORETTE on ABC, his last minute kiss with Emily Maynard on last week's show was not enough to prevent him from being sent home, just missing out on the chance to bring Emily home to meet his family. 

Clerget recently spoke with reporters about his experience on THE BACHELORETTE and his surprising dismissal from Emily. 

What was going through your mind when Emily was talking to you at the end?

"I thought she was saying, 'Hey Doug, you've got to be a little more aggressive in terms of showing me you're interested in me'. Just because I'm a single dad I tend to take things a little more slowly, and so I really just wanted to get to know Emily on a personal level and build a good friendship there. So I thought the conversation was heading towards, 'Come on, give me a kiss', and then I wasn't really expecting to be sent home. I was hoping to get a hometown date and I was kind of bummed out."

Emily asked you where you saw yourself at the end of The Bachelorette and you said your relationship would just be starting. Can you elaborate on that?

"The Bachelorette experience is a great experience and it's one that I am so happy that I did but it's one of those things where it's kind of surreal in that you're quote unquote dating a girl who's been dating guys that you've been hanging out with. And you're having these experiences all around the world which are completely amazing experiences, but you're not at home doing normal day to day things. Emily has Ricki and she has her normal routine, so the comment about starting out was in reference to starting to build a normal life."

Were you relieved in any way that Emily sent you home before the hometown dates? Do you think it was for the best if she didn't see a future with you?

"No, actually I was really bummed out. I think that if Emily would have got the chance, even if we didn't end up together in the end, I think she would have a really great experience here in Seattle. I have a wonderful network of friends and I would have really loved to have her meet my son and we would have probably gone over to my best friend's house and his wife and she could have met my goddaughters who are pretty much, in my opinion but obviously I'm biased, the cutest girls on the planet. And so no, I wasn't relieved at all. I was bummed. I think we would have had a really great time. I've never not maintained a friendship with anyone I've dated so it would have been just good to further our friendship even if we didn't end up together."

You said that you think your girl radar is broken! What did you mean by that?

"It was kind of more a comment in general, just in the fact that Emily's sitting there saying, 'I've been waiting for you to kind of show me that you're interested to me' and I was thinking to myself, 'I have been interested. I'm here away from my son, trying to spend as much time as I can'. My whole life, any time I've dated it's because a girl finally is like, 'Doug, I'm interested in you, we should do something'. For some reason, I can't tell if a girl is interested in me or not. It's definitely something I should probably work on. I was bummed out because in the past that's kind of worked out for me. Who wants to kiss a girl that doesn't want you to kiss them? I decided to take a risk in that situation and that didn't work out well for me at all."

Jef also took things slowly and waited before kissing Emily - why do you think that worked for him and not for you?

"I hadn't thought about it from that regard before! Mine wasn't really a strategy at all. I was just trying to get to know Emily in the time that I had with her and be respectful of her. I don't think Jef had a strategy either. Jef was just trying to be himself, to read the situation and figure out what was going on like the rest of us. You know what, though, the difference between Jef and I is that Jef did eventually go and kiss her. I didn't try to kiss Emily until she had made the decision to let me go. That was probably why it worked out better for him."

Emily said on one of your dates that she felt like you were hiding things or telling her what she wanted to hear. Was there any truth to that?

"No. That kind of hurt my feelings actually. I'm a pretty on the surface guy, and what you see is what you get. I'm pretty shy in front of the cameras and I did not know that about myself going into this. So I think maybe that comment came from me being shy around the cameras. A lot of my friends and family and even ex-girlfriends that I'm still really good friends with have watched it and they're like, 'No, that's just Doug'. A lot of times I'm quiet but I pretty much just put it out there I think."

You had the moment with Chris when you kind of suggested that he was maybe too young. Do you still feel like that?

"No. I never mentioned he was young. We were in Bermuda and John had come home from his two on one with Nate. John is a pretty mature guy and he's done a lot in the world, and he was explaining to us some of what had happened with the date and some of the things Nate had done. I had made a comment about John being more mature than Nate and somehow Chris had taken that that it was a comment about just being young. There were guys even younger than Chris on the show - I think Alejandro was 23. He's very mature. So I think Chris just took a comment that I made about Nate and his actions on his two-on-one with John and Emily the wrong way. It's a tough situation to be in and I just think Chris took it the wrong way and I was bummed out that he did."

Do you think the guys are really ready to be good dads?

"I definitely think that Sean's 100%. Arie and Jef are right up there. Watching the last episode left me with some questions about Chris for sure. There were some tough moments there. But I definitely think that those three guys are up for it and would put their heart into it."

Can you elaborate on why Chris might not be ready?

"I think Chris is a great guy and I think that his heart is definitely in the right place. It's a gut feeling as a dad. When I meet people I always think, 'Is this somebody I could let my son hang out with?' Some people, you just get this comfort level where you think, 'Yeah, this person is up for being a parent' and some people you think, 'Maybe a few more life experiences would lend themselves to maybe being more ready to being a parent'."

We saw Tony pretty much leave because he missed his son so much. Did you ever consider leaving because you missed Austin?

"No. Big difference - Tony's little guy I think is five, if I remember correctly. Every time Tony would talk to his son, his little guy would say, 'Daddy I miss you, when are you coming home, I want you home now'. I think that was really pulling on Tony's heartstrings. Whereas when I talked to Austin, I'd say, 'I love you, do you want me to come home?' If Austin had said, 'Daddy, I need you, you've got to come home', I definitely would have gone home and I would have felt bad about that but I think Emily would have understood. But any time I asked Austin he was like, 'Nope, Dad, I'm going to go back to playing, I hope you're having fun'. We would spend time on the phone but a lot of that was me keeping him on the phone when he was like, 'Okay dad, I love you, I'm ready to go play'."

You're the guy that approached Kalon with the baggage comment - are you planning to confront him about that in The Men Tell All?

"After Kalon had left we had the opportunity to chat about it and I really don't think there's any confronting to be done there, I hope. If Kalon wants to talk about it at The Men Tell All we can definitely talk about it. I was disappointed he made that comment. I wouldn't want to continue to date somebody after they made a comment like that about my son, if anyone ever did. Obviously Emily took care of it right there on the spot so I think it's kind of a dead issue, but if Kalon wants to talk about it I'll definitely chat with him about it."

Do you think Emily was right to forgive Arie over his relationship with a producer?

"I think Emily was good to forgive him. Arie's a good guy. As it was brought up in the show, his dating Cassie was, I think, almost ten years ago. That's a long time ago. It was a tough place for Arie to be in, it was a tough place for Cassie to be in. I don't think anybody was trying to do anything malicious, so I think the whole thing was okay."

Who are you rooting for now on the show?

"Of the guys that are left, Sean I love, Arie's awesome, Jef is one of the most hilarious guys I know. Chris and I had a little bump in the road there which took me by surprise because I really liked Chris and I still do. It kind of bummed me out in Bermuda. But I think - gosh, it's a tough call between Arie, Jef and Sean. But I think just because of our backgrounds Sean and I were really close, so probably Sean."

You mentioned it's hard as a full-time single dad to find love - would you consider something like The Bachelor?

"You know what, I'm probably so far down on the list to do The Bachelor, but if it ever came up, yeah I would definitely think about it. It was an amazing experience and I think Emily was really fortunate in some of the guys that she had to choose from and I would guess if the opportunity came up that ABC would do as good of a job picking girls for me to date. So yeah, I would definitely think about it."

THE BACHELORETTE continues Mondays on ABC.

Photo courtesy of ABC