Ben Higgins’ season of The Bachelor re-aired Monday on The Bachelor - Greatest Seasons Ever!, and it reopened old wounds with ex Lauren Bushnell. Ben Higgins entered The Bachelor franchise on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s season but was sent home, sparking a fear for him of being “unlovable.” The heartbreak, in combination with Ben’s boy-next-door charm, made him an excellent candidate to be the next Bachelor, and he quickly became a fan favorite.
Viewers were drawn by his “nice guy” persona, and so was his runner-up JoJo Fletcher and front-runner Lauren. But the season’s most talked about moment was when Ben said I love you to both JoJo and Lauren back to back. Fans and even JoJo herself were shocked when Ben confessed his love on their final one-on-one date. Ben struggled to figure out his feelings in the following days. Ultimately, he chose Lauren, and the pair got engaged and their own spin-off reality show, Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After. On the show, Lauren had trouble adjusting to life with Ben in Colorado and the fact that Ben had just professed his love for another women only months before.
Fast forward to today, Ben is now with fiancée Jessica Clarke, and Lauren has moved on to marry country singer Chris Lane. But in an interview with ET, Ben reveals that their relationship was rocky even before moving in together, and the couple was actually “looking for an out” for a long time: "I don't think we wanted to make it work, because I think internally we knew just how unhealthy it probably was to continue to go on. We were just looking for an out, but trying our best to make it last as long as we could to see if maybe we found the secret sauce.”
Although most Bachelor couples don’t make in the real world, Ben and Lauren also had to deal with reliving Ben’s very close relationship to JoJo. He said, “I do remember those moments of trying to explain myself or thinking, 'Hey, this is all good. We're gonna watch this back because you know I chose you, and this is going to be fine.' It wasn't. It wasn't at all." Ben reflects on his decision to tell JoJo he loved her. He said, "The decision I made to over communicate ended up hurting the relationship I was in…And I would not even want to risk doing that again right now." So it’s no surprise that Ben’s current fiancée, Jessica, has not watched Ben’s season and has no plans to in the future, especially since Ben revealed it’s also hard of him to watch, “The ending, the proposal [is tough to watch]…I don't think it would have been that hard two years ago to watch - I think I could have done it. But watching it back now, it's just uncomfortable. It's not healthy for me to see, it's not healthy for me to relive."
Ben’s honesty and ability to own up to his mistakes are huge reasons why he is still a fan favorite years after his season aired. There is no question that he is happier now with Jessica, and by the looks of Lauren Bushnell (now Lauren Lane) on Instagram, she is better off, too. So even though the show didn’t work for Ben and Lauren directly, they both are living their “happily ever after”…just with different people.
Source: ET