Friends forever! Kaitlyn Bristowe and Ben Higgins had nothing but kind words for each other while watching the latest episode of The Bachelor: Greatest Seasons Ever on Monday, June 29.
“To be honest the @BacheloretteABC has been blessed with some incredible leads but I have had the gift of knowing @kaitlynbristowe and @JoelleFletcher personally & they are two of the best!” Higgins, 31, tweeted on Monday night. “So glad they found their partners but also shocked I can say I know them! #BachelorNation.”
The Canadian reality star, 35, returned the favor soon after with a friendly message of her own. “You precious man,” she replied. “We are all so lucky to know each other and relate to all the ups and downs.”
Both Bristowe and Higgins got engaged to one of their suitors at the end of their respective seasons of the ABC dating series, but ended up finding love outside of the show after calling off their engagements. Before his Bachelor journey aired again earlier this month, the “Almost Famous” podcast host revealed why he hasn’t kept in touch with ex-fiancée Lauren Bushnell after their May 2017 split.
“She’s married. I’m happy for her, and she found her partner,” Higgins told Us Weekly exclusively of Bushnell, 30, who tied the knot with country singer Chris Lane in October 2019. “I mean, if she reached out saying, ‘Hey, how are you going to handle this? This is what’s sensitive to me …’ I would love to take that call from her, but I don’t think I’m needed in this moment for her.”
The Indiana native, for his part, proposed to girlfriend Jessica Clarke in March after one year of dating. While Bachelor Nation relived his heartbreaking season on June 22, Higgins revealed to Us that his fiancée, 24, didn’t “have a desire to watch it.”
Bristowe’s rocky Bachelorette run also re-aired earlier this month and featured a quarantine catchup with her and her current boyfriend Jason Tartick. Days after watching her season, Tartick, 31, explained why he didn’t take the opportunity to propose to his partner on the air.
“It just hit me, like, I just don’t want our story, our next step at all aligned with this part of your life,” Tartick said on Bristowe’s “Off the Vine” podcast on June 18, referring to the former Bachelorette’s failed engagement to Shawn Booth. “This part of your life was five years ago, and it’s cool that they’re replaying it, greatest of all time seasons. But our story and our chapter don’t need to have any type of tie into what that was.”
