A Bachelor-worthy first kiss! According to Ben Higgins’ girlfriend, Jessica Clarke, the former Bachelor kissed her “as soon as [he] saw [her].”
“Yeah, I think I walked outside and just laid it,” Higgins, 30, explained in Us Weekly’s sneak peek of “The Ben and Ashley I: Almost Famous” podcast. “Wasn’t it romantic?”
“Yeah, I mean I thought it was romantic,” Clarke, 23, added. “Mostly because when I saw you I was like, ‘OK, do I make a joke or should I just say hi?’ And then you just kissed me, so I didn’t have to do either of them.”
Higgins’ cohost Ashley Iaconetti then joked “that’s what happens when you date a Bachelor!”
“He knows what he’s doing,” Iaconetti, 30, said. “He’s not worrying about kissing women for the first time.”
The Bachelor: Winter Games alum introduced fans to Clarke earlier this month via Instagram. “I’ve been selfishly keeping this girl to myself for too long! Hey friends meet @jessclarke_!” Higgins wrote on February 20. “I successfully slid into her Dm’s a few months ago. I took a risk and I am glad I did. She is someone special, and I look forward to where life is going to take us. Stay tuned for the journey.”
In a second sneak peek from Clarke’s appearance on Higgins and Iaconetti’s podcast, the couple opened up about maintaining their long-distance relationship. (While the reality star resides in Colorado, the Ole Miss graduate lives in Nashville.)
“Well, if we’re honest, every day,” Clarke told Higgins and Iaconetti after they asked how often she would like to see the reality TV personality. “After two weeks is when it really gets hard. And whenever we went a month, we had seen each other three weeks in a row that time, right? And then we went a month without seeing each other, so that was like the worst. So we can’t have that happen again.”
After Iaconetti pointed out that she has never seen Higgins this happy, he added that Clarke is “great.”
While the pair aren’t able to see each other on a daily basis, they revealed that they FaceTime “every day.”
“Honestly FaceTime is really great,” Higgins explained. “Jessica has a really good friend whose husband is in the military and he gets deployed for months at a time. We met with them for dinner one night and were kind of asking them how they do it because he’s gone and sometimes they can’t talk for weeks on end. What we found out is FaceTime is the saver, like, it’s such a benefit now in relationships.”
After competing for Kaitlyn Bristowe’s heart on season 11 of The Bachelorette, Higgins went on to star as the Bachelor for season 20. While he got engaged to Lauren Bushnell during the finale, the twosome called it quits in May 2017. She has since moved on with country singer Chris Lane.
Clarke’s episode of “The Ben and Ashley I: Almost Famous” podcast will be available Monday, February 25, at 8 p.m. ET on iHeartRadio.
