January 28, 2021 • bachelor insider
Ben Higgins Shares What He Learned from His Split with Lauren Bushnell
Ben Higgins stopped by “Click Bait with Bachelor Nation” to chat with co-hosts Tayshia Adams, Joe Amabile, and Natasha Parker about his forthcoming book “Alone in Plain Sight: Searching for Connection When You’re Seen but Not Known.”
Though the book isn’t specifically about Ben’s experience leading “The Bachelor” in 2016, it does touch on his split from Lauren Bushnell, whom he proposed to at the end of Season 20. During his “Click Bait” interview, the new author shared more insight into his and Lauren’s decision to call it quits.
“I was 26. She was 25. We had just walked into this whole new world together. We were living in Denver, where she knew nobody,” Ben said. “And then life was pulling us in a thousand different directions.”
The pair hardly had a break from reality TV, as they signed on to their own docuseries, “Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After?” — which premiered on Freeform just months after their engagement aired on the “Bachelor” finale in the spring of 2016. Ben said that the pressure that came with filming the show, which only ran for one season, contributed to their breakup in May 2017.
“We weren’t prepared to be teammates in that. If anything, we walked into [the show] still getting to know each other,” he said. “It’s almost weird looking back on it. Yes, it was a show about us. But at the same time, we didn’t know anything about each other. And it’s really hard to do that with a show, to have direct communication when there’s a camera right there.”
Ben elaborated, “I don’t want to call you out for this right now or ask you this question because it’s not going to look good. And she was saying the same thing, so it just ended up pulling us apart. But I think it pulled us apart for the right reasons.”
These days, Ben is happily engaged to skin care influencer Jessica Clarke, whom he plans on marrying later this year. Meanwhile, Lauren is married to country singer Chris Lane, with whom she is expecting a baby boy.
“Now I look back and go, ‘Of course it didn’t work out.’ We weren’t each other’s best fits,” Ben reflected. “But I also can look back on that and learn a lot, too.”
Listen to Ben’s entire “Click Bait with Bachelor Nation” episode below.
