Making history! Demi Burnett and Kristian Haggerty got engaged during the season 6 finale of Bachelor in Paradise, which aired on Tuesday, September 17.
Kristian promised to protect Demi’s heart as Demi admitted, “I found myself in you.” Demi then got down on one knee, and Kristian accepted her proposal and a Neil Lane ring. “We’re working on it,” Demi said after Kristian insisted she get an engagement ring too. During the reunion special, Kristian proposed right back and gave Demi her own ring!
Demi, who competed for Colton Underwood’s heart on season 23 of The Bachelor, initially pursued a relationship with Derek Peth when she first hit the beach in Mexico. During the August 13 episode, however, she admitted that she still had feelings for Kristian, who she was seeing before she joined the cast of the ABC dating spinoff.
While the two women were thrilled to reconnect with each other when Kristian joined the show, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. Demi faced backlash from BiP alum Tanner Tolbert and viewers for allegedly pre-planning Kristian’s arrival in Paradise, which she denied.
“There was NO PLAN. You are speaking on something you HEARD about as if it is a fact,” Demi tweeted at Tanner on August 14. “I was 100% honest and upfront the entire time. You are a grown ass man tweeting about rumors.”
On the show, the twosome dealt with jealously in their relationship. While it was initially Kristian who worried that Demi was interested in other people on the beach, the Texas native accused her girlfriend of being flirty with her friends during the Monday, September 9, episode.
“I feel like she’s more interested in them than me. … I feel like I’m not giving her enough, but I’m also struggling with my inner battle of being worried about how I’m making other people feel, which shouldn’t matter, but it does,” Demi admitted. “I hate that my brain works that way but I’m just scared. It has everything to do with me being uncomfortable with being gay around … all these people who thought I was some straight girl. It’s scary.”
After assuring Demi that she wasn’t intentionally flirting with anyone else, Kristian said she understood her struggles about coming out in such a public way: “It doesn’t change how I feel about you.”
The Bachelor in Paradise season 6 reunion airs on ABC Tuesday, September 17, at 8 p.m. ET.
