Arie Luyendyk Jr. and Lauren Burnham have said nothing but positive things about the new Bachelorette, Becca Kufrin. However, that doesn’t mean they’re tuning in to her season.
“They’re happy for her, but they don’t see a reason to watch and relive everything they worked so hard to move past from,” an insider close to the pair told Us Weekly exclusively, adding that they “absolutely [did] not” watch the Monday, May 28, premiere. “That might change and they may decide to tune in, but as of now they’re focused on wedding planning and only welcoming positive energy. But they wish Becca the best.”
Last week, the couple sat down for an interview with GQ magazine, but the 36-year-old race car driver cut it short after feeling offended. “We ended the interview because Lauren called me in tears after we invited this women into our home and was very disrespectful to her. I stand by her and she shouldn’t be made to feel like that in interviews,” Luyendyk Jr. tweeted.
The insider told Us that the entire interview left “a really bad taste in their mouths.”
“Lauren is sick of people telling her that she isn’t as strong and independent as Becca just because she came off more shy on the show. Lauren won Arie’s heart in the end for a reason. He wouldn’t have done what he did to Becca if being with Lauren forever wasn’t worth it,” the source said. “She and Arie challenge each other like any other couple. They balance each other out so well and their partnership is inspiring. They are equal halves in this together and Arie knows Lauren for who she really is, not for what the show made her out to be.”
In the GQ article, the writer explained that she asked Burnham, 25, about her thoughts on Kufrin’s comment during the finale, in which the now Bachelorette claimed she would be more of a “challenge” and an “equal partner” to Luyendyk Jr. than Burnham would be.
“It makes me feel a little upset that people don’t think that I would be an equal partner with Arie,” Burnham told the magazine. “I’m a very strong independent woman. Just because I had a little bit of a breakdown on the show, because I wasn’t great in that environment, doesn’t mean I’m not a strong person.”
With reporting by Emily Marcus
