ABC/Randy Holmes
"I call her and I'm like, 'Hon, have you watched tonight? Ok good, don't!'"
[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Season 20 of ABC's The Bachelor.]
Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live after The Bachelor finale and post-show, After the Final Rose, Ben Higgins and his recently named fiancee Lauren Bushnell were all smiles as Jimmy Kimmel asked them about life together after the reality show.
"I personally feel very disconnected watching the show because of how much life has moved on, post-show with her," Higgins told Kimmel when asked about if watching the show week after week has impacted his relationship with Bushnell.
Earlier in the night, Higgins lived up to host Chris Harrison's promises of drama when, after famously telling both Bushnell and runner-up Joelle "JoJo" Fletcher that he loved them, he got down on one knee and proposed to Bushnell, who said yes.
But watching the relationship with Fletcher play out week after week hasn't put a damper on the new relationship that he was engaging in off camera.
Today, "we looked at each other and we're like, 'Have you ever been concerned about the future?'" shared Higgins. "And, not once has that crossed our mind. We both agreed that it's nothing we're concerned about."
Though the pair has been engaged for months since filming wrapped, this was only their first day appearing in public as a couple.
"How hammered would you get?" Kimmel flatly asked Higgins, who laughed and admitted that he did shed "a lot of tears" out of embarrassment. "I call her and I'm like, 'Hon, have you watched tonight? Ok good, don't!'"
But Bushnell insists that even the double "I love you" doesn't bother her "because it happened a little while ago." Adding, "I think that’s why I don’t watch it, to even avoid the potential of it."
During the late-night show, Kimmel aired a clip compilation of Higgins staring into the distance, and quizzed the newly engaged pair on their knowledge of each other, Newlywed Game-style. During the "Fiance My Name" segment, neither knew each other's mother's maiden name or could name an uncle, but each scored points for middle name, siblings names and childhood pet.
Earlier in the night, on the ATFR special, Kimmel appeared in the show's live audience with "Ben" and "Lauren" dolls as props for a round of quickfire questions.
After asking things like, "Where do babies come from? and "What exactly happens in the fantasy suite?" Kimmel pushed Higgins to "show me on the dolls where you touched each other" before a chuckling audience.
He also asked the pair if they would watch runner-up and ex-girlfriend JoJo's upcoming season of The Bachelorette. When the pair said yes, Kimmel said to more laughs, "That's weird."
