Nothing to hide! Ben Higgins isn’t ashamed about his love for tobacco because picking up a pipe holds a deeper meaning for him than just a smoke break.
The Bachelor alum, 31, revisited photos from his Instagram feed during a recent game of Us Weekly‘s “I Can Explain.” In one picture, Higgins “treats” himself to a puff on a pipe — a ritual that he picked up in college.
“Since college, I read and study with a tobacco pipe. It’s something I switched on,” he shared. “I couldn’t smoke cigars anymore. They left a bad taste in my mouth. So I joined a pipe-smoking club with a bunch of 80-year-olds and they used to share life with me in college.”
Higgins added, “So I stuck to that tradition. And about once or twice a week, I pull out the pipe. I think it’s a great practice. I love it. I’m not saying everybody should do it, but for me, it just brings back good memories.”
The Indiana native also defended another photo of himself and his father, David Higgins, wearing face masks. “My dad is not the type of guy to put on a face mask,” Ben said. “And once he put this one on his life enhanced forever. So I’ll defend this ’cause I think I did a good thing for my dad and my mom. Plus, I poured him a glass of wine. And you can’t hate on a glass of wine with your father.”
Ben’s parents returned the favor when they gave him and his fiancée, Jessica Clarke, a romantic date night amid the coronavirus quarantine at their homemade restaurant in April.
Us broke the news in March that the former ABC personality and Clarke, 24, had gotten engaged after more than a year of dating. Before Ben found love with the model, he appeared on season 20 of The Bachelor, where he proposed to Lauren Bushnell. The pair ended their engagement in May 2017.
The Generous Coffee Co. cofounder told Us on June 18 that he and Clarke had no plans to watch his season when it aired on Monday, June 22, as part of The Bachelor: Greatest Seasons Ever. Higgins said that he didn’t want his fiancée to “feel any sort of heartbreak or sadness from that.”
“She’s going to get through that day, and probably the week afterwards, with all the comments about my season, and then we’ll move on,” Higgins said. “But it’s not healthy, I don’t think, for her to probably watch it.”
For more on what Higgins had to say about his Instagram posts, check out Us Weekly’s video above!
