The Bachelor alum Ben Higgins has revealed that he considered starring on The Bachelor for a second time after his engagement to Lauren Bushnell ended.
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Ben first competed on Kaitlyn Bristowe's season of The Bachelorette in 2015 and finished in third place, and then he was selected by ABC to star on The Bachelor's 20th season, which aired in early 2016.
Ben got engaged to Lauren on The Bachelor finale, and then the pair subsequently starred on a spinoff, Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After?, which aired on Freeform and featured them planning a wedding.
But Ben and Lauren called off their engagement and split in May 2017.
Ben didn't reveal the exact time or date when he thought about going on The Bachelor again, but he did confirm that he had already joined Ashley in co-hosting "The Ben and Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast," which launched in Spring 2017.
Ben shared, "At the time, we were both single and trying to figure it out. And at the same time, I was thinking about going back on the show."
Ashley playfully got mad at Ben for breaking this news on "Bachelor Happy Hour" and not spilling the tea on their own podcast.
Ashley -- who is happily married to her Bachelor in Paradise co-star Jared Haibon -- then asked Ben if he wanted to appear on back-to-back seasons of The Bachelor or return for a later season.
"They asked me to do it -- [but not on] back-to-back seasons," Ben revealed.
"I don't know if it was ever an official ask, but it was a, 'Hey, are you interested? Would you ever consider it?'"
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Joe guessed that a contract wasn't presented to Ben but producers were probably feeling him out on whether he'd do the show again.
"So there were those moments, and those are things that maybe you don't talk about on the show but you talk about with somebody who's been on the show. And that's what our podcasts can do," Ben concluded.
After Ben and Lauren broke up, Ben looked for love on The Bachelor: Winter Games in 2018 but realized he wasn't quite ready to date again just yet.
Ben then became romantically involved with his now-wife Jessica Clarke in December 2018, and the couple went Instagram official in January 2019.
They continued to make a long-distance relationship work, with Ben being in Denver most of the time and Jessica living in Nashville, where she attended esthetics school.
Ben proposed marriage to Jessica in March 2020, and they proceeded to purchase their first home together in Denver in December of that year.
Ben and Jessica went on to marry in a "simple and beautiful" wedding ceremony at The Estate in Cherokee Dock near Nashville, TN, in November 2021.
Ben previously said he and Jessica plan to expand their family, but they decided to start with a dog named Waylon first.
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Jessica has stayed by Ben's side even during the most difficult times, such as a "breakdown" in Summer 2021 that left Ben soul-searching and reaching out to family and friends for support.
Ben admitted at the time he had "lost" himself while being wrapped up in fame and struggled to navigate life once attention from his The Bachelor appearance "started to fade."
Ben also said he and Jessica don't watch The Bachelor franchise together because it's not healthy for them and could cause problems in their marriage to bring up those memories.
For Lauren's part, the Season 20 The Bachelor alum is married with two children to country singer Chris Lane.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
