It’s official. Dale Moss announced Tuesday that he and fiancée, Clare Crawley have decided to part ways, after falling in love on the ABC show, The Bachelorette.

I almost hate I’m even blogging about this…the breakup we all expected.

I’ve been an undercover fan of the franchise, The Bachelor since Trista (Rehn) Sutter appeared as the “first runner up” becoming the very first “Bachelorette” in the spinoff. I’ll admit it’s been a guilty pleasure of mine for years. Between the glitz, glamour and fantasy of it all, how could you not get swept up in the idea of finding true love to an eligible bachelor, whilst living in a mansion and traveling to some of the most exotic places on Earth, I mean…right? It’s the stuff fairytales are made of.

This summer, we watched, almost cringed as Clare Crawley (the “oldest bachelorette in history” according Yosef Aborady), who will be 40 in March, succumbed to her schoolgirl infatuation to 32-year old, former NFL player, Dale Moss. It was like a textbook example of “if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is”. While I had hoped this would be it for Clare, who also participated in 2 seasons of Bachelor in Paradise and once on Winter Games, I couldn’t help but get the sinking feeling (along with the rest of America) that it wouldn’t end well.

The thing is, I really feel like Clare is a woman after my own heart. She wears her heart on her sleeve and is a hopeless romantic. Usually, that term sounds more endearing, but in this case, it seems tragically befitting. I did some digging and came up with this timeline of events to showcase the relationship between Clare and Dale.

March 2020 – Clare Crawley is announced as season 16’s The Bachelorette

March 2020 – a global pandemic sent production into delay when Los Angeles & the rest of the world went on lockdown

May 2020 – the season premier was originally set to air

July – filming for the show officially begins

July 30 – Life & Style reports that Clare Crawley had “fallen in love” just 12 days into filming

October 13, 2020 – the Season 16 Premier aired on ABC

November 2020 – Speculation continues that Clare left midway through and that a new bachelorette, rumored to be Tayshia Adams (who went on to get engaged to Zac Clark), stepped into the role.

November 5, 2020 – Season 16, episode 4, Dale Moss popped the question to Clare Crawley & they rode off into the proverbial sunset.

November 10, 2020 – The couple sits down with host, Chris Harrison to discuss their relationship, engagement and rumors if they were in contact prior to the show. Both Clare and Dale insisted it was love at first sight.

January 19, 2021 – Dale Moss confirms via social media that he and Clare have called it quits. Hours later, Spencer Robertson, who also appeared on Season 16, for Tayshia following Clare’s exit, proposed a coffee date via his Instagram story. [Sigh]