Jono, 28, sent social media into meltdown when he admitted that Clare wasn’t “what I ordered”.
But Clare tells AAP that she wasn’t upset when she watched the show back for the first time.
“If you have someone who has very strong idea of what you want and they give you the exact opposite, I get where he is coming from,” Clare says.
“He wanted someone little and a brunette and I am not that.
“I am not offended by that but it sounded awkward.”
Clare says she was more frustrated to hear that Jono didn’t have an instant liking for her.
“He said to camera that he didn’t really feel it and I actually felt a real comfort with him and, this wasn’t shown, we took each other’s hand when I got the end of the aisle and he really put me at ease because I was really nervous,” she says.
“I felt a real connection with him so that was awkward watching that back.”
Despite the lack of an instant connection, the two did hit it off.
Clare’s infectious humour seemed to break down Jono’s initial defences.
“We had a fantastic time and an absolutely fun time, even if I wasn’t what he ordered,” she says.
The only setback was Jono’s “footy club” attitude when addressing her on the night.
He kept calling her “woman”, prompting Clare to threaten a knee to the midsection if he persisted.
She was attacked in a street a Melbourne street in 2015 and, despite suffering a broken nose, a broken toe and a black eye, she fought back and kneed her male attacker in the groin which caused him to flee.
“I still have a little PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from that,” she says.
Clare earlier admitted that the only reason she agreed to be on the show was because she was told the producers “were very keen to have a gay couple on our season”.
“That didn’t end up being the case this season which was disappointing,” says the marriage equality advocate.
“As the law stands in Australia currently, I could marry someone I had known for a minimum of just 30 days, while people who are in love with their long term partners, who just happen to be the same sex cannot legally marry. It is total bullsh*t & Australia should be ashamed of how backwards this is,” she wrote on Facebook.
The blonde single from Melbourne also said, if the wedding was legal, there was “no way” she would have appeared on the show.
Meanwhile, reports are emerging that Jono had no intention of taking a wife and only signed on for the fame the reality series would bring him.
A source says he’s now back with his former girlfriend Rachael Baxter, who he reportedly broke up with just before filming began.
