Here’s the thing: I was one of those impossibly naive Bachelor fans that somehow thought that Clare and Dale were going to make it. In hindsight, don’t ask me why. I can’t quite articulate it. I guess I thought that Dale seemed so ready to roll with whatever Clare needed that he just might be the perfect guy for her. He never seemed to think she was being unreasonable or overreacting, and his position as The Bachelor subreddit’s umbrella king swayed me into thinking that he really must’ve meant it when he said he’d always be there for her, no matter what. Heck, I even included them in my list of top Bachelor Nation proposals because I figured that, if they did work out, their whirlwind romance would go down in reality TV history.

Unfortunately, when social media messiness started to indicate that this relationship was on the rocks, I started to rethink that position. Soon enough, Dale was speaking for the both of them when he confirmed that they really were done — but, as it turns out, that split may not actually have been so mutual. Not long after E! News reported that Dale was allegedly cheating on Clare throughout the entirety of their engagement, the former Bachelorette came forward with a statement of her own.

I could parse through all of the rumors (and you best believe I’m all over every bit of gossip that makes its way onto the Bachelor subreddit), but instead l want to take a look at what they both had to say for themselves. I decided to take a closer look at the Instagram posts each ABC star shared and do a little reading between the lines. Let’s check them out.