Ben Higgins ‘Frustrated’ by Lauren Bushnell’s Comments About Their Relationship

Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell Suzanne Cordeiro/Shutterstock; Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

It’s been over for Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell Lane for six years, but the former Bachelor appeared bothered by what he perceived as his ex-fiancée rewriting their history.

“I will say the only point of this that upsets me at all — not, like, upsets me angrily, just, like, would make me frustrated — would be that show is a real experience for me. I invested, personally, a lot of effort into trying to figure out if it was the path that it was going to help me find my partner or not,” Higgins said on a recent episode of his “Almost Famous” podcast after Ashley Iaconetti suggested Bushnell Lane downplayed their relationship during his appearance on Shawn Booth’s “In the Booth” podcast. “I had a lot of incredible women on that show and a lot of incredible people. And if she was feeling this way, I wish she would have, maybe, made that more apparent during the process.”

During her chat with Booth, Bushnell Lane reflected on getting engaged to Higgins in 2016 after some fans were heavily rooting for him to pick fellow finalist JoJo Fletcher. At the time, she thought she was “hurt” by the fan response because she was “so madly in love” with Higgins, but now she thinks it was because she was “being torn apart” online.

“I feel like you, maybe, had deeper feelings [for Kaitlyn Bristowe than I did for Ben] and maybe it’s because you were older,” Bushnell Lane told Booth, who was engaged to the season 11 Bachelorette from 2015 to 2018. “Looking back, it would be like me explaining, like, me being madly in love when I was 21. I just feel like it’s different than being in love at 30. … I feel like my feelings weren’t as deep, maybe, now in hindsight. In the moment I thought that the were or I wouldn’t have made that decision.”

Bushnell Lane added that she initially went on the show to “travel [and] eat food,” listing “meet Ben” as the third reason. “I did think Ben was so cute, he’s a handsome guy. He just seemed so nice and normal and [had] similar values. So I was like, ‘That’s a plus,’ but mostly I was like, ‘I really want to travel, this sounds so fun,’” she recalled before asking Booth if his and Bristowe’s “happy couple weekends” while the season was airing were “fun.”

“I feel like ours were happy, but there was a lot of stress … of whatever episode that aired that week,” Bushnell Lane admitted.

Higgins, for his part, told Iaconetti that he doesn’t want Bushnell Lane to write off the “meaningful season of life.”

“It worked out for both of us very well. But I think discounting that season of life is not fair to either of us,” he said. “It was something that impacted us both greatly. And what it did for me — and what I believe it probably did for her, you know, I cared about Lauren a lot [and] still care about her. I want to see her thrive in life. … I only have good memories of our time together. I don’t have a lot of bad memories.”

While Higgins married Jessica Clarke in November 2021, Bushnell Lane wed Chris Lane in October 2019 and shares two sons — Dutton and Baker — with the country singer.

“Personally, I hear her say love now, maybe, feels differently for her than it did back on her time on the show. And I go, ‘I’m glad. Like, you’re married with kids. I’m married, like, yes, love does feel different,’” Higgins added. “I’m glad you’re in love with your husband more than you liked me — or if you liked me at all, like, I’m just glad you like him, like, that’s cool. That seems to be a really good thing.”