Ben Higgins, star of ABC’s dating competition “The Bachelor,” revealed Tuesday morning that he indeed is engaged to one of this season’s contestants.
“I am, y’know, engaged,” Higgins, who was 26 when this season shot, told Kayna Whitworth on “Good Morning America.” “I can say that? I haven’t said that in an interview yet.”
He went on to express relief, saying, “You don’t know how much stress and weight that is to carry on you for so long. Because it is an emotional,” he began before Whitworth interjected encouragement. Then he reconfirmed, “Yes, ‘Good Morning America,’ I am engaged. Yes! Finally!”
The identity of his betrothed will not be revealed until the March 14 season finale. On Monday night’s show, Higgins sent home Caila Quinn, leaving JoJo Fletcher and Lauren Bushnell as the two finalists.
In an unprecedented move, Higgins that same episode told both that he loved them, causing surprise and consternation among fans and prompting host Chris Harrison to comment to someone in the control booth, “Do not tell two women at the same time you love them. It’s not going to end well.”
“I keep hearing, ‘He broke all the rules.’ I didn’t know there were rules to this,” Higgins told E! News at the shooting of the “Women Tell All” special scheduled to air March 7. He added, “Maybe I’m confused, but when I started this experience no one gave me a playbook or rules to follow. They say, ‘Do this how you think you should do this,’ and you don’t always know the best answer to questions and sometimes you do develop feelings you don’t expect. What I committed to was expressing those feelings, but no one ever said, ‘Don’t do that, don’t do this!’”
In related news, former “Bachelor” contestant and “The Bachelorette” star Emily Maynard, 30, announced on her new People magazine blog Tuesday that she is expecting her third child. She and her husband, Tyler Johnson, who wed in June 2014, had son Jennings last July. She already is mother to daughter Ricki, 10, with her late fiancé, NASCAR racer and Hendrick Motorsports executive Ricky Hendrick.
