Taking his time. Jared Haibon didn’t have an “instantaneous” connection with his newborn son Dawson — but he’s starting to learn that’s OK.
“The biggest surprise thus far has been … I was not, like, overwhelmed with this feeling of unconditional love for my son [when he arrived],” the Bachelor in Paradise alum, 33, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, February 9, while promoting Virgin Atlantic’s “Tickets to Love” contest. “In the moment, I felt like a very evil human being because all I’ve been told was, ‘As soon as this kid is born, you’re gonna feel it.’”
The former reality star “felt so guilty” when that didn’t happen for him, explaining, “I was like, ‘Oh, my God. I’m a psychopath. I don’t love my son.’ … I want to tell people [to not] have this expectation because you’re going to feel like a horrible person for the first couple hours. And that’s not what you wanna feel.”
The Bachelor Nation member’s wife, Ashley Iaconetti, went on to tell Us that her sister-in-law, Shannon Haibon, and 90 Day Fiancé’s Loren Brovarnik made the former ABC personalities feel “so much better” about their emotions.
“Loren said, ‘I felt like I didn’t bond with my baby until, like, three weeks,’” the Virginia native, also 33, recalled. “Jared and I started feeling that attachment, honestly, within hours.”
Haibon gushed that he now loves the “amazing” little one “more than anything in this world.”
The duo announced in July 2021 that they were starting their family, and the “Almost Famous” podcast host gave birth last month.
The journalist was watching Seinfeld in bed on January 31 when she felt a cramp. “Twenty minutes later, I was like, ‘Hmm, OK. One more. We’re gonna wake up, Jared,’” the Bachelor Winter Games alum told Us. “Between my first contraction and getting the epidural was two hours. Then Dawson was born nine hours after my first contraction. … I really was only in pain for, like, an hour because the first wave felt like intense period cramps.”
Haibon said that he was “grateful” his partner chose to have an epidural, explaining, “It’s just so hard seeing you in pain. … It’s tough.”
Now that Dawson is safe and sound at home, the new parents can’t wait to introduce the newborn to their friends, starting with Jade Roper, Tanner Tolbert, Nick Viall and Ben Higgins.
Virgin Atlantic is giving eight people “a chance to hopefully find love overseas with their “Tickets to Love” contest, which runs through Sunday, February 13. “It’s [going to be an] incrdible experience,” Haibon told Us. “With The Bachelor, we travel a lot. We go on lavish dates. A lot of people don’t get to experience those dates, and this is an opportunity to do that.”
With reporting by Mandie DeCamp
