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The Bachelor’s Ben Higgins Admits He and Lauren Bushnell Were ‘Work Associates’ Before Split
The Bachelor alum Ben Higgins shares where he and ex-fiancée Lauren Bushnell’s relationship stood before they called off their engagement.
“We were kind of more work associates,” Ben, 35, said about his and Lauren’s relationship before they called off their wedding during the Tuesday, May 28, episode of “The Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast. “We were living in the same house, we weren’t really speaking to each other off camera because the cameras would leave at nine o’clock we’d be exhausted. I might be having to go to work the next day. She would be doing her thing with her job, and so she was still flying as a flight attendant a little bit and we’d just be like, dead tired.”
After the pair got engaged during season 20 of The Bachelor in 2016, they went on to document their love story on Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After? in 2017. Ben admitted that he and Lauren, 34, were “struggling for about a month” into filming the spinoff series, and they were “really trying to make it work.”
As the wedding planning process continued, former franchise host Chris Harrison asked the couple if they wanted their nuptials to be televised. “We were not doing it. I mean, we were butting heads,” Ben recalled, adding that they were “already kind of not talking” when they were approached by Chris, 52, with the offer.
“We wouldn’t talk to each other. We hadn’t talked to each other really truly in weeks,” Ben continued.
While the pair eventually agreed they would televise their wedding, Ben and Lauren ultimately decided they weren’t ready to tie the knot while they were filming the final episodes of Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After?
Ben and Lauren later concluded that their relationship was “done” and it was “not healthy” for either of them after they stopped filming the spinoff.
While their romance wasn’t meant to be, both Ben and Lauren have moved on and found happiness with new partners. The Alone in Plain Sight author wed Jessica Clarke in 2021, and Lauren married country singer Chris Lane in 2019. Ben and Jessica, 28, don’t have any children, though Lauren and Chris, 39, welcomed son Dutton in June 2021 and son Baker in October 2022.
Lauren and Chris previously opened up about transitioning from being the parents of one to two kids during an exclusive interview with Life & Style in February 2023. “I feel like that just sums up kids in general — challenging but the best thing we’ve ever experienced,” Lauren said at the time. “I feel like being a family of four, I feel even more complete. It’s so fun.”
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