More Than Half of Clare Crawley’s ‘Bachelorette’ Suitors Are at Least 10 Years Younger

The youngest man trying to court the 38-year-old leading lady is 23

Bachelorette Contestants
(L-R) James C., 23, Jake M., 25, and Matt G., 26. Courtesy of ABC

Let’s hope Clare Crawley has some babysitting experience, because the list of contestants lining up to compete for her love on Season 16 of “The Bachelorette” is out — and more than half of them are at least a decade younger than her.

ABC released the names, ages, and photos of all 32 suitors Tuesday, and the 38-year-old leading lady’s choices range from 23 to 42 years of age.

Age is just a number, but only two of these men are Crawley’s age or older — 38-year-old Mike T. from Canada and 42-year-old Bret E. from Utah. Her youngest suitor, a whopping 15 years her junior, is 23-year-old James C. from Chicago.

Almost three-quarters of her cast are in their twenties, with only eight in their thirties and just one is in his 40s. There is some good news, though — one of the contestants is 28-year-old Matt James, the frequently Instagrammed best friend of Tyler Cameron, who came in as the runner-up on Hannah Brown’s 15th Season of “The Bachelorette.”

See the full lineup of all of the contestants on “The Bachelorette” official Facebook page.

Crawley was a bold choice to lead the 16th season of the dating series, considering that prior to her casting, the oldest woman ABC ever chose to lead “The Bachelorette” was Rachel Lindsay, who turned 32 while her season was filming in 2017.

But despite ABC’s efforts to promote love for older people, lately, it feels more like “The Bachelor” casting department is hell-bent on setting up its stars with younger matches.

Bachelor Nation will be quick to point out that matching Crawley with a cast of almost exclusively younger men flies in the face of what fans spent all of Peter Weber’s season of “The Bachelor” complaining about. Only one of the women vying for the 28-year-old pilot’s love was over 30, and, as we all saw on Tuesday’s live finale, his final two picks, Hannah Ann Sluss and Madison Prewett, were both five years his junior at age 23, respectively.

ABC’s head of alternative programming, Robert Mills, even hinted in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that part of the reason for Crawley’s casting was in response to all of the flack from fans about Weber’s contestants being too young, and consequentially, perhaps too immature for marriage.

“You see a lot of people talking about the age of contestants, I think that’s something we’d probably look at and say, ‘Does it need to be aged up?” Mills said, adding that they would “take that into account moving forward as we think about who the next Bachelorette is going to be.”

Best of luck to Crawley as she wades through this ocean of younger men.

Season 16 of “The Bachelorette” premieres May 18 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

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