Clayton Johnson and Del Rey got engaged in 2020, but called off the wedding the following year.

Lana Del Rey’s ex-fiancé — who filmed Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of The Bachelorette — says singer’s marriage ‘stings’

Clayton Johnson and Del Rey got engaged in 2020, but called off the wedding the following year.

By Kathleen Perricone

April 22, 2026 5:06 p.m. ET

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Lana Del Rey; Clayton Johnson; Taylor Frankie Paul. Credit:

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic; Disney/Evan Mulling; Disney/Sami Drasin

- Clayton Johnson, Lana Del Rey's ex-fiancé, breaks his silence on her new marriage to alligator tour guide Jeremy Dufrene.

- Johnson and Del Rey got engaged in 2020, but split the following year.

- The Nashville-based musician was a contestant on Taylor Frankie Paul's season of *The Bachelorette*.

Between *The Bachelorette’*s cancellation and his ex-fiancé, Lana Del Rey, being happily married, Clayton Johnson might have that pre-summertime sadness.

The Nashville-based musician was one of the men who hoped to find love with Taylor Frankie Paul. (ABC pulled her season of the dating show last month in the wake of domestic violence accusations. She has since been cleared of any potential charges, but the network has not provided an update on the show.)

But as Johnson seemingly continues the search for Miss Right, Johnson is reflecting on the one who got away: Del Rey, whom he proposed to in 2020, is now married to alligator tour guide Jeremy Dufrene.

Lana Del Rey and husband Jeremy Dufrene in 2026.

ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty

“I think that when you love somebody, and it comes from a pure place – and she's somebody that I loved and I love – for her to find her person and for her to be as happy as she is, like she is glowing, nothing could make me happier for her,” Johnson said on the *Bachelor Happy Hour* podcast.

“It might sting a little bit, to be honest with you,” he continued, “but if you really love somebody in the purest form, how could you be upset at that?”

Johnson’s decision to join *The Bachelorette* came a year after Del Rey and Dufrene said “I do” in September 2024 on the bayou in Des Allemandes, La. But he insists his casting had nothing to do with getting back at the singer, a big fan of both *The* *Bachelor* franchise and *The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives*.

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“I truly don't have any place in my heart for any sort of revenge, any hate,” said Johnson. “It did not come from a place of wanting to get back at her by any means. This was for me and this was for my journey, so had nothing to do with that whatsoever.”

Del Rey and Johnson’s romance was such a whirlwind, even fans seemed shocked when she was sporting a diamond engagement ring in October 2020, seven months after splitting from *Live PD*’s Sean “Sticks” Larkin, a police officer.

At some point in 2021, the wedding was called off. And neither the ultra-private Del Rey nor Johnson have publicly discussed the breakup.

Clayton Johnson with 'The Bachelorette,' Taylor Frankie Paul.

Six years later, he’s opening up about how they fell in love.

After meeting “in passing at church,” Del Rey and Johnson “reconnected during COVID,” he told *Bachelor Happy Hour*.

“I was traveling back and forth to Nashville at the time between LA, and we just really connected over what we wanted our futures to look like, old country music, and, yeah, what our futures look like to us,” he revealed. “It was really easy to connect. We had a month of just FaceTiming, and I feel like we really became best friends over that time. So when you have that together and then you’re together in person, we were pretty inseparable when that happened.”

The pandemic “accelerated things a little bit,” acknowledged Johnson. “I think COVID was a lot like dog years, you know, one month in COVID time is really like one year in the real world. But at the same time, it just felt so right in all the ways.”

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Although the two musicians ended their romance, they maintained a professional relationship. Johnson co-wrote “Tough,” Del Rey’s 2024 collaboration with Migos rapper, Quavo.

“As a songwriter, to have that kind of accomplishment and to deal with somebody that you cared about and care about,” said Johnson, “it’s been a dream.”

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Source: “EW Celebrity”