As the latest season of The Bachelorette is progressing, with the cast of the next Bachelor in Paradise season just recently getting announced, a couple from The Bachelor's past is currently dealing with the media frenzy surrounding their break-up. Lauren Bushnell, winner of The Bachelor Season 20, recently called it quits with that season's star, Ben Higgins, and she's starting to open up about some things. For example: that Freeform spinoff Happily Ever After? Bushnell says the show put a big strain on her and Higgins' relationship, and she didn't even want to do it in the first place.
I didn't really want to do it, to be honest. I wanted to move on with our life and just have a moment that was just about us. . . . I was like, 'I can still do it. There's so much love there for one another. If I can get through The Bachelor, I can get through this no problem --- at least we get to spend time together. But that was a really high-stress situation. I didn't feel like I got the support that I needed when we were filming that --- just from everyone.
As someone who wouldn't possibly imagine having any portion of my marriage taking center stage for reality TV, I definitely understand Lauren Bushnell's point of view there. Already,falling "in love" and getting married to someone after going through a reality TV season doesn't exactly provide the strongest and most durable foundation for a marriage to be built atop. And so having to jump right back into another show, one with a vastly different purpose from The Bachelor, could not have been an easy-to-accomplish feat.
At the time, Ben Higgins said that the duo figured that already being in the reality TV limelight made them think that continuing with the new series wouldn't be such a big deal. After all, it's about pleasing the fans, right? Eh, that wasn't really the case for Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After? The new show had time to fill, so of course the producers had to spice up the new couple's life with the biggest dramatic blow they'd already faced: when Ben expressed his love for Bushnell's co-finalist JoJo Fletcher during the same finale where he chose to make Bushnell the winner. Here's what Bushnell said about it to EW.
That was rehashed again. I felt like we were stuck in this place that happened seven months ago that I was trying to move forward from. There were certain situations I didn't want to continue talking about. I understand people want to know these answers, but at the same time I really wanted to make this relationship work.
Their relationship officially began soon after Ben expressed love for another woman, it got off to a goofy start when their first date saw Ben getting stuck inside an elevator, and just a little over a year after their TV season ended, Ben and Lauren called it quits. And it's not like this story is a whole lot worse than what happens with other couples that come away from Bachelor and Bachelorette seasons, so one has to wonder why its ill-originated romances still capture viewers' hearts and minds so strongly. Love is weird, both with people and with TV shows.
The Bachelor currently isn't set to return for Season 22 until later this year, but you can catch The Bachelorette airing Monday nights on ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET. To see what other shows are hitting the small screen in the near future, head to our summer premiere schedule.
