Bachelor Nation’s Clare Crawley Shares Cryptic Post About Difficulties of Being a Stepparent

Former Bachelorette Clare Crawley is sharing a cryptic message about stepparenting.

“Bless the stepmoms out there that have to deal with their partners ex that hate them more than they love their kids,” Crawley, 44, wrote via her Instagram Story on Sunday, May 4.

Crawley is a stepmom to husband Ryan Dawkins’ kids from a previous relationship. In October 2022, Dawkins spoke for the first time about how his children feel about the Bachelor Nation alum.

“What do your girls think of having Clare as a stepmom?” Crawley asked Dawkins during a Q&A on her Instagram Story, to which he replied, “Oh, my gosh, they’re completely obsessed with you. They love you so much.”

The pair tied the knot in February 2023 in front of Dawkins’ kids.

“Ryan, by nature, is an event planner, so he planned the whole wedding,” Crawley recalled during an appearance on the “Most Dramatic Podcast Ever” in May 2023. “But he took the reins, he planned everything. We had a little ceremony. We had the best vows to each other, super personal. It was in the spot [where] we had our first kiss. It was just the greatest little spot.”

Less than one year later, Crawley and Dawkins welcomed their first child together, daughter Rowen, via surrogate. “She’s here!” Crawley announced via her Instagram Story in January 2024, sharing an image embracing Dawkins in a hospital room. “Healthy + Beyond Loved. Dream come true.”

After the birth of her child, Crawley — who cut her season 16 of The Bachelorette short after getting engaged to Dale Moss — received well-wishes from her ex. (Crawley and Moss, now 36, split for good in 2021.)

“I think having a family and building a life, you know, happiness with someone that you love and care about is the most important thing, so with that, I just wish nothing but the best,” Moss exclusively told Us Weekly in February 2024. “That’s a big thing.”

While Rowan is too young to understand Crawley’s journey on the ABC franchise, the former Bachelorette shared she has plans to inform her daughter one day.

“I want to always be the example of real, and Mom was trying her best,” she told E! in October 2024. “Mom was putting herself out there. Mom was believing in herself. Mom was following her heart. And regardless of if it’s a reality show or something else in life, I want to be the example for Rowen of — she followed her heart, she did what she wanted to do.”