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Ben Higgins: ‘It Would be Really Hard for Me’ to Kiss Someone After Splitting With Lauren Bushnell

Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell
Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell discuss “The Bachelor” at AOL New York Studios in 2016. Mireya Acierto/FilmMagic

He’s not moving on anytime soon. Ben Higgins revealed that he finds it difficult to even think about being intimate with someone new since his split with fiancée Lauren Bushnell

Related: Failed Reality TV Romances

When a fan emailed The Ben and Ashley I. Almost Famous Podcast asking when the former Bachelor, 29, would date again — he and Bushnell broke up in May — Higgins opened up about his newfound single status.

“If I were to kiss somebody right now in my life, it would hold a lot of weight,” Higgins told his cohost Ashley Iaconetti on the Monday, July 17, episode. “It would be really hard for me. Right now, for me to kiss anybody … my chest kind of gets tight. I know that’s really difficult for me.”

The business analyst explained that he’s avoided openly discussing his relationship status as a means to not “hurt” fans who had been emotionally invested in his relationship with Bushnell, 25, who he proposed to on the final episode of The Bachelor’s season 20 in March 2016.

Related: Hollywood’s Broken Engagements

“This kind of stuff, dating and relationships, are things that are very sensitive to me right now. It’s just not something I want to talk about right now, honestly,” he continued. “I don’t know when I’m ready [to date]. Honestly, as tempted as I am and as much as I do desire relationships, like I do. I desire commitment and I desire to emotionally attach myself to somebody … I am forcing myself to get to know myself to better, to find myself a little bit, to get to know who I am now.”

The Colorado native has opened up on his podcast in the past about the high-profile breakup. “When you really care about somebody and you really love somebody and that has to end — for whatever reason, even for the reasons that either person can’t really explain, it’s just a feeling and you have to go your separate ways — it hurts. It hurts bad,” he said in an episode in June.

Related: Celebrity Splits of 2017

The former flight attendant has since moved on with Devin Antin. Sources confirmed to Us Weekly that the reality star has met Antin’s family and has been dating him “for a while now.” 

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