The Truth About Clare Crawley's Ex-Fiancé Benoit

With every season of The Bachelorette comes a new leading lady to get to know, limousines full of suitors who are ready to bring the drama, and the ever-loving Chris Harrison who guides viewers through the ups and downs as the drama unfolds. In many instances, the bachelorette leading the season is someone who Bachelor Nation is already familiar with — maybe a former contestant on a season of The Bachelor, or a fan-favorite from Bachelor in Paradise. Clare Crawley is no exception.

The star of The Bachelorette's 16th season, Crawley is no stranger to Bachelor Nation. She is famously the runner-up from Juan Pablo's dramatic season of The Bachelor, has appeared twice on Bachelor in Paradise, and even ended up engaged to Canadian-cutie Benoit Beausejour-Savard after competing on The Bachelor Winter Games.

So after all this time in the Bachelor world, with broken relationships and a failed engagement behind her, Crawley is leading the pack. But who is the man who almost became Mr. Crawley? What happened to Savard after the cameras stopped rolling? Here is the truth about Clare Crawley's ex-fiancé Benoit.

Benoit Beausejour-Savard came to The Bachelorette Canada as a contestant in 2016 during Jasmine Lorimer's season and immediately had us swooning. As he arrived to greet Lorimer, he broke out into French, telling the leading lady, "The only thing that I want from this experience is to see you smile, to see you laugh, to see you have fun, and to share these moments with you." No wonder French is considered one of the most romantic languages. 

But Savard did not have what it took to sweep the Canadian bachelorette off her feet and was eventually sent home in the seventh episode of the season, as noted by PopSugar. So what happened in that season after Savard left? Lorimer fell for one of Bachelor Nation's favorite Canadians, Kevin Wendt, and the two got engaged. But their romance was short-lived, and like many Bachelor Nation couples, they parted ways in April 2017. Wendt went on to appear alongside Savard during The Bachelor Winter Games (where he was involved with the famous Ashley I. for a while) and is now engaged to former Bachelor contestant Astrid Loch. So many shows, so many engagements.

The Bachelor Winter Games was a new spin-off for Bachelor Nation and saw a lot of fan favorites return to the screen, Clare Crawley included. So what was the catch to this particular season? While in the throws of finding love, the contestants had to compete in Olympic-based winter sporting events to win a date — it was just as crazy and entertaining as it sounds. Much like Bachelor in Paradise, male and female contestants paired off fairly quickly, and Crawley and Benoit Savard hit it off straight away. As noted by Us Magazine, the two practically started making out at first sight. 

So what was Savard doing when things got steamy between the two contestants? Cooking, naturally. Savard was joined by Crawley in the kitchen while he was preparing some tasty dining options and was taken aback by just how natural their chemistry was. "This is the thing I'm looking for in a relationship, to be able to do some casual stuff like cooking with the woman I love," he said. It didn't take long for them to lock lips, and the rest was history.

It's known that The Bachelor and its spin-offs are edited, sometimes to a fault. The Washington Post noted after Peter Weber's season of The Bachelor that the "heavy-handed engineering" to cultivate the on-screen drama was so intense that they posed the question: "Is producer manipulation ruining the show?" Well, Benoit Savard might agree. 

After he left The Bachelor Winter Games (we'll get more into that later), he took to social media to highlight the editing that went into the show. Sharing a photo of himself and the cast, he wrote, "I'm so glad I met so many good friends from cast to the crew ... but more especially, a wonderful woman in @clarecrawley." 

He then went on to say the following about his on-screen relationship. "You know that there is a lot of editing and there are a lot of talks that you guys missed. I have so much respect for her and that is why I left the show thinking that she deserves the best because she is the best." To this day, we're wondering what steamy moments between the couple ended up on the editing room floor.

Despite hitting it off with Benoit Savard straight away, Clare Crawley quickly found herself in a classic love triangle. It was clear to everyone just how invested Savard was in his relationship with Crawley, but she was not as convinced and started exploring a relationship with contestant Christian Rauch. Despite obvious tension between Crawley and Rauch (and even an on-camera argument, which you can still watch in all its glory here), they both chose to keep exploring their connection, and Rauch eventually gave Crawley a rose. 

So what happened with Savard? He left in literal tears, as Crawley was the only woman that he wanted to pursue a relationship with. "I would love to have many interests, but I don't," he told Crawley during their intense break-up. "It's only you. I told you this the other night." After a long pause on Crawley's behalf, Savard quietly said, "Okay, I'm going home." Ugh, talk about a heart-ripping-out-of-your-chest moment. During the painful goodbye, Crawley apologized to Savard but ultimately stayed to figure things out with Christian. Or did she ...?

So did Benoit Savard and Clare Crawley really say goodbye the day that he left The Bachelor Winter Games? Turns out, no, not at all. Despite the love triangle, the tears, and the breakup that left us all in pain, Crawley and Savard stayed in contact. "The second I got back to Sacramento, I checked my phone, and I had a message from a guy," Crawley told host Chris Harrison during the Winter Games finale. "Timing was so off, but it was so perfect for me because it was a man that just cared about if I was okay." 

Harrison then quickly said that "that man is here tonight," and you guessed it, the suitor in question was none other than Savard. The audience was understandably on its feet cheering as Savard joined Crawley on stage. After chatting with Harrison about their reunion, Savard brought Crawley to center stage, spoke a gorgeous French sentence (don't ask us for a translation), and got down on one knee to the shock of everyone in the room. Crawley said yes, and the two were head over heels for each other. Cue romantic Bachelor music.

We love a well-traveled man, and Benoit Savard clearly got the memo. With his international background and multilingual capabilities, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Savard likes to travel, and luckily for us, he has taken to social media many times to share his experiences along the way. Savard started sharing his Instagram-worthy spots in 2017 with a trip to the United States (Las Vegas, Nevada and the Grand Canyon, to be exact) and has kept his followers up to date with where he is around the world. 

One of Savard's most well-documented global voyages was his 2019 trip to the Philippines with his brother — he made sure to share updates along the way and gave his followers insight into some of the most beautiful spots like Tappiya Falls, Batad and Nacpan Beach, Palawan. "We are going home with so many good memories and stories that we don't know where to start when people are asking about our trip," Savard posted on Instagram. "[The] Philippines are as warm and beautiful as the people who live there."

Some say that trying to maintain a long-distance relationship is one of the most difficult things to do in your romantic life. A study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships in 2006 found that about half of long-distance couples break up due in part to a lack of time management, conflict, and jealousy (sorry to any of you currently dating someone who's on the other side of the country). 

Given that you already know that Benoit Savard is Clare Crawley's ex-fiancé, it looks like they too fell victim to this pretty awful fate. As noted by Us Magazine, Crawley maintained her residence in Sacramento, California, and Savard stayed in Montreal, Canada, even after they got engaged. "I don't care where we end up, I just can't do snow," Crawley told the magazine after the Winter Games finale. Her mind was very clearly made up. Her fiancé added at the time that the couple's relationship was getting "better and better."

Most good things come to an end, and Clare Crawley and Benoit Savard's engagement was no exception. After only a few short months together, Crawley and Savard announced their breakup in early April 2018. Posting a photo of just their feet on what appears to be a walking path, the couple said that they were aware of just how many fans were asking about their relationship (as they had kept it pretty private), as they had been navigating their lives together off-screen. 

"It's with a heavy heart that we have mutually decided to end our relationship. We think the world of each other, and we were both hoping we could make this work," Savard posted on his social media. "Just know there are no negative feelings here, we are simply two people who believed in love, and were open enough to give it a chance." 

The post concluded with Savard saying that the pair still greatly cared for each other and that any negative or hateful comments left about either himself or Crawley would not be allowed. "Thank you for your understanding and love while we have shared our vulnerability with the world." Another one bites the dust.

Clare Crawley made history as the oldest leading lady to be chosen for The Bachelorette, and she brought a Bachelor Nation resumé that is hard to beat: runner-up on The Bachelor, contestant of Bachelor in Paradise (twice), and The Bachelor Winter Games. So when her season as the bachelorette premiered and a recap was given of her time within the franchise, fans were immediately shocked when her time on Winter Games and her engagement to Benoit Savard was completely left out, almost like it hadn't happened. 

People clearly demanded an answer about the choice to exclude Savard from the premiere, and ABC's executive Rob Mills even had to take to Twitter to clear the air. "We didn't have time for the footage but fun fact: Clare and Benoit are the best of friends!" he tweeted. But viewers didn't seem to buy what Mills was selling. "Didn't have time for the footage, but we had to watch Clare in quarantine for ten minutes? Lol," one Twitter user wrote. "Bummer, I was looking forward to seeing that and how their relationship is now," wrote another.

The Bachelor Winter Games stood out for a number of reasons. Famous virgin Ashely I. finally found the man she wanted to be with (or so she thought), Dean and Lesley found love (that wasn't built to last), and Yuki Kimura became the season's break-out star. A former contestant on The Bachelor Japan, Kimura instantly stole the screen due to her sweet personality and great sense of humor. And although she didn't find love on the show, Kimura left with a whole bunch of new friends, Benoit Savard included. 

Savard took to Instagram shortly after Winter Games ended to gush about Kimura in the cutest way possible. "I was #teamyuki from the beginning of this journey!!" Savard wrote. "She is such a sweetheart and the most funny person to hang out with. Even though we didn't speak the same language, we were 100% understanding each other!! I've found a unique friend." The friends reunited several months later for Bachelor in Paradise (Kimura joined Wells Adams as one of Paradise's bartenders), and Savard shared another photo of them on social media. Cuties.

Support among the contestants on The Bachelor is not uncommon, and former Bachelor Nation stars have taken to social media to encourage each other during their search for love. Former bachelor Ben Higgins shared his support for Clare Crawley before her season of The Bachelorette, and Benoit did the same when he threw his support behind Colton Underwood. Before Underwood took to the screen as the Bachelor, Savard posted a photo of the two men together with a supportive caption. "@coltonunderwood is one of the most genuine guy[s] I've met through all these journeys," Savard wrote. "I have so much respect for the person that he is and he's gonna be an amazing bachelor!!! Proud of you brother. Go get the love you deserve."

Sweet, right? Well, Underwood may have needed more well-wishes because his season and its subsequent fall out was less than pretty. After leaving the show dating Cassie Randolph (he did not propose), Underwood has been the subject of some pretty negative attention. After their breakup, Randolph was granted a restraining order against the former bachelor as she had accused him of "stalking and harassing her," as noted by Us Magazine. Yikes.

In the years since his breakup with Clare Crawley, Benoit Savard has not publicly shared a lot about his dating life. Mainly keeping his social media pointed to his family, friends, and travel adventures, Savard has been pretty private about his romantic life. But in an ad with dating app Bumble, Savard poked fun at his own dating life and the pros of using an app like Bumble to find love. 

"I'm on @bumble cuz I'm definitely bad at meeting people on tv shows," he wrote, including some appropriate emojis along with the caption. "Now I can meet people who are open to a real relationship and not for something casual with the help of the new profile badges, where you can be specific that you're looking for a real relationship," he said, as we're getting flashbacks to the filters we've all used while on Bumble (Verified? Over six feet? Voter? The list goes on). 

Savard concluded by saying that he was excited to find someone who is serious and ready for the real thing — and even though it was an ad, we can't help but feel that he was not fooling around with his commitment. You go, Benoit.

It's clear that even though they went their separate ways, there is no bad blood between Clare Crawley and Benoit Savard. When Crawley was announced as the newest bachelorette, Savard took to social media to post a sweet photo of the two together and a message of support. "Congratulations to this gem!! She will be an amazing Bachelorette," Savard wrote. "She is smart, fun, strong, knows what she wants and most importantly, she will call out the guys messing around!! Hell yeah!! Good Luck on your journey to find love @clarecrawley !! You will be the best." Honestly, we love to see it. 

And as noted by Us Magazine, his support didn't stop there. Savard posted a teaser video of Crawley's season on his Instagram story and even shared a photo of the exes catching up in 2020. The two are still just as comfortable around each other because Savard posted a photo of them on his story, both pulling funny faces. "A little too much baileys in our coffees," Savard wrote along with the photo. If they had to break up, at least they're still friends.

We've seen Benoit Savard as a contestant on The Bachelorette and as an engaged man on The Bachelor Winter Games, but what we haven't really seen on-screen is his robust career. As noted in his bio line on social media, Savard is the director of four restaurants in Montreal, Canada, that all range in cuisine. From fine French dining to Japanese cuisine to burgers and comfort food, Savard is in charge of a variety of restaurants. 

As such, he has gotten a good amount of attention due to his high-profile job. In early 2020, he joined hosts Kim Sulli and Dan Spector on broadcast news channel Global News to discuss one of the biggest food events in Montreal, Happening Gourmand, and promoted his own restaurants in the process. "Fun time with @kimsulli and @dspec talking about the best foodie event this winter in Montréal #happeninggourmand starting next Thursday!!" Savard wrote on social media. "See you soon." 

Honestly, we're big fans of Savard, and even though he's no longer with leading lady Clare Crawley, we hope he finds all the love he deserves.