Who Is Zac Clark, the 'Bachelorette' Frontrunner With a Courageous Backstory?

Spoilers for this season of The Bachelorette. Given the upcoming insanity of this Bachelorette season—Clare Crawley coming on as the lead, only to hand her responsibilities over to Tayshia Adams to pursue a bachelor off of the show—the contestants are going to become more important than ever. It's going to make for a wild experience: Clare doing a few eliminations, then a complete reboot of the show with Adams at the helm. One bachelor who survived elimination rounds from Crawley and becomes important to Adams later in the season is Zac Clark. Even more intriguingly, he's got a courageous and kind of unconventional story for a bachelor—he's been sober for many years, and his life's work is devoted to helping others like him, including the program he cofounded to help people in recovery. Here's what we know about him as of this moment.

Zac is close with his family.

Clark played baseball in college and initially intended to pursue a career in sports. According to his official ABC bio, he's still very much into Philly sports, particularly the Eagles, and he still celebrates sports events with his family. Clark was married once before, and is currently divorced. He apparently loves to travel and wants to go to Italy (this is probably the wrong season for him given quarantine, but whatever).

His love for his family appears all over his social media:

Zac is in recovery.

In a Reading Eagle article initially spotted by Reality Steve, Clark was already speaking about his addiction recovery in 2014. The article talks about his history—early addiction starting with alcohol as a kid, prescription meds like Adderall in college, morphine and other powerful prescribed drugs after a brain tumor removal, culminating in a voluntary removal of his gall bladder in order to get more prescriptions. He was arrested for possession of crack cocaine and driving while intoxicated and spent 4.5 months in a treatment center. He's now sober and has spoken out to help others for almost a decade (here he talks about his experience and motivation, as well as his current work).

Zac runs a sober living facility.

Clark founded Release Recovery in 2017 with his cofounder Justin Gurland—a 17-bed transitional living facility in West Chester, NY, that focuses on connection and community for addicts hoping to get into recovery. They also have a center for women in New York on the Upper East Side and opened a Men's Program in New York in 2020. They also consult with families and individuals who need help and cultivate professional relationships with addiction specialists and mental health experts. Recently, they were visited by New York Senator Shelley Mayer:

In addition to that, he runs marathons to raise money and awareness about addiction and mental health—including proceeds that go to the treatment center he went to.

Zac is one to watch on Adams' season.

Of the little that's known of Adams' journey, we do know a couple frontrunners—and Clark is apparently one of her top four! No one knows who she picks yet, and the early speculation is that her season ending is "messy," but keep an eye on him, because he's apparently important all throughout the season. We'll keep this post updated when we learn more.