‘The Bachelor’ Alum Ben Higgins Dishes on Secret New Relationship

Former Bachelor Ben Higgins has seemingly found love once again, though he’s doing his best to keep his relationship private at the moment.

Higgins shared on the Jan. 14 episode of his and Ashley Iaconetti’s podcast Almost Famous that he is dating someone new, who he called “the best, purest person I know.”

On the Jan. 21 episode, Higgins offered a few more details, including the fact that the woman he’s dating did not compete on Colton Underwood‘s season of The Bachelor, which is currently airing.

“She’s not from Colton’s season,” he said. “Not at all. Not from the show.”

“I’m not hiding anything,” he added of his desire to keep things under wraps. “I think you go through public relationships before and you kind of deal with that pressure. And there’s the right timing to it all, to kind of make it a thing and publicly put it out there.”

The 29-year-old had previously revealed that his relationship is long distance, and that the couple does most of their communicating over FaceTime.

“The Bachelor‘s a really great thing…because it forces you to have conversations,” Higgins said. “It feels very similar because we don’t get time together. It’s very intentional. It’s very focused. And if we’re gonna spend any time together, it’s gonna be in conversation and a lot of those conversations are about our lives.”

Higgins starred on The Bachelor during the show’s 20th season in 2016, choosing Lauren Bushnell as his winner. The two were together until May 2017, when they called off their engagement.

“I think mutually Lauren and I saw that life was getting more difficult,” Higgins said on his podcast after the split was reported. “I would say the joy that we felt toward our relationship at the beginning was — for some reason — slipping away, and we were both working very hard to bring that joy back. And it just never seemed to get there. So it was a long time coming but it wasn’t necessarily like we dragged it out.”

“It was for the best,” he added.

Bushnell is now dating country singer Chris Lane, something Higgins told Entertainment Tonight he had “no clue” about, though he wishes Bushnell nothing but happiness.

“This one was one I didn’t know about,” Higgins said. “I think the first time, when she was dating Devin [Antin], I remember that feeling — like the Band-Aid getting ripped off. This time, and I mean this, I really want Lauren to be fulfilled and happy, whether it’s with Chris or not.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Mark Sagliocco