Alarms won't play through Airpods anymore, only plays from the phone speakers

I have the 2020 iPhone SE, and Airpods Pro. When my alarms go off (via Clock app), they have *ALWAYS* played directly through my airpods ONLY....

However recently, with one of the new updates, my Alarms now ONLY go off/sound via the physical speakers on my actual iphone- so when I'm not near my phone, but have my Airpods Pro in, I now can't hear any of my alarms going off, and then miss important things! It's so frustrating.

Somehow it changed & my clock alarms now only ever play from the phone, and never from my Airpods--

• How do I fix this?
• Is there a third-party app I can use to correct it, to how to used to be?

Surely Apple didn't make this change on purpose- right? I can't imagine they'd be dumb enough to think people would want this.

FYI: I have tried everything in settings, (change volume, etc.) and everything already asked on this site & Reddit.

Please help, thank you so much! 🙏🏼