EAST MOLINE, Illinois — Ben Higgins loves golf. That’s why he was thrilled to be invited to the Quad Cities to play in John Deere Classic ProAm. He appeared on Season 20 of the The Bachelor back in 2016, but life has only gotten busier for him. He talked with News 8’s Denise Hnytka about his life now, his experience on the show, and his take on relationships away from reality TV.
Ben's been on the road a lot recently. He lives in Denver, but he just spent 4th of July in Indiana with his family.
"It's getting to be a little exhausting," he said of his schedule. "But life is still good. I've been gone from Denver for three weeks. I'm sick of being gone from home, you know?"
But Ben still has time to catch new episodes of "The Bachelorette". He recaps the episodes during his weekly podcast "Almost Famous". Right now he says he's rooting for Dean to end up with Rachel.
"Dean is young," Ben said. "He didn't come in with a preconceived notion of being famous. He just signed up, and that's the attitude I had. I had no clue what the show was bringing me, then it happens and your life has changed. His life will change."
Ben ended up proposing to his pick on the show, Lauren Bushnell. The two announced their split back in May.
"My relationship with Lauren was so real," he said. "You come out of the show wanting to make this thing happen. My hope is for anyone coming out of the situation is to realize that it is unnatural. So the only thing you can do is make it reality as soon as possible."
He admits the whirlwind after the show made it tough to maintain his relationship with Lauren.
"You gotta listen well and communicate openly," he said. "The core to any relationship is communication and sometimes that gets lost when a thousand things are happening to you after the show. 'The Bachelor' is so weird. Everyone know it. It's not natural, but good things can come from it. Love can come from it. And that's the fun in it. You watch it to say, I hope this works. And if it doesn't, I get why."
Watch the full, raw interview here.
