While Hannah Brown had a lot of highs in 2023, the former Bachelorette ended the year on a low.
“2023 definitely didn’t end the way I imagined, as both my sweet grandfather and family dog, Ellie, passed on New Year’s Eve,” Brown, 29, wrote via Instagram on Tuesday, January 2, alongside a carousel of snaps including her kissing her grandfather on the forehead and a close-up shot of her dog.
“Through the grief and sadness, I am still grateful for all that this year held for me,” she continued. “From moving to Nashville, to getting engaged, starting a podcast, traveling the world, writing a romance novel, and everything in between — thank you for supporting me through the highs and lows of this crazy, amazing life.”
Since Bachelor Nation met Brown on season 23 of The Bachelor in 2019, she has continued to make headlines — and this year was no exception.
The reality star added a number of new achievements to her resume, including being the last celebrity standing during the March 2023 finale of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, launching a podcast titled “Better Tomorrow” and writing a novel. She also hit a milestone in her romantic life.
In August 2023, she announced her engagement to Adam Woolard, sharing a snap of her sparkling diamond ring. “So happy. I love our steady love,” she wrote via Instagram.
After Woolard popped the question, Brown admitted exclusively to Us Weekly that she felt anxiety leading up to the engagement.
“I went back and forth, I was like, ‘Are you OK with us sharing our engagement story this way?’ Because if you’ve listened to the episode [of my ‘Better Tomorrow’ podcast], it is complicated,” Brown explained. “I kind of felt like, ‘Oh, my gosh, are people going to judge our relationship because it wasn’t this smooth, fairy-tale thing?’ And that’s what everybody seems to look like on social media when you see these posts. But it’s been so cool to be able to see the messages that I’m getting of, ‘This is how people actually feel.’ Most people who have gotten engaged are, like, not fully the way it always looks. There is some fear [and] there is some anxiety that goes on.”
When Woolard confessed his proposal plans to Brown, she admitted she had a “panic attack” which led to her sending an “emergency” email to her therapist with the subject line: “I NEED COUNSEL.” Ultimately, she told Woolard she did want to get engaged but didn’t want to “know” ahead of time.
Brown told Us that she felt “a little bit nervous about putting [the real story] out,” but noted it felt “really good” to receive messages thanking her for their honesty.
