Any jaded The Bachelor viewers doubting Matt Grant and Shayne Lamas' engagement will end with an actual wedding better think again, according to Lamas.

ADVERTISEMENT

"We've already been together for three months and they are not in our relationship and they have nothing to do with our relationship," Lamas told Reality TV World during a Tuesday conference call with the happy couple.  "We're madly in love and we're not going to put any pressure on ourselves. We're in it until the end.  We're engaged and we're going to get married and it's forever."

The 27-year-old British financier presented his final rose and a marriage proposal to the 22-year-old actress from Malibu, CA -- and she accepted both during last night's pre-taped The Bachelor: London Calling finale broadcast.  Grant's proposal marked only the second time in The Bachelor's last six seasons and just the third time in its last nine editions that the show -- which despite airing twelve editions, has produced zero weddings so far -- ended a season with a bachelor proposing to his final bachelorette.

"We're going to be engaged for a while and see how the living situation goes and then we're going to do a lot of traveling this year," Lamas told Reality TV World.  "When we're ready to set a date [for the wedding] we will do that together as a couple.  But as of right now, we do not have a date.  We're just thrilled about our engagement and we're celebrating that at the moment."

Grant told reporters that he and Lamas have only "briefly" touched upon their eventual wedding.

"I never said I wanted to get married straight away," he clarified.  "The reason why I chose to do this is because I was genuinely ready to settle down -- settling down and getting married straight away are two different things.  But this is what I wanted.  It's incredible that I've meant someone like Shayne."

In addition, Lamas said the fact that her parents are divorced gave her pause about jumping into a marriage with Grant.

"I think that's exactly why we're taking some time.  I look at marriage very seriously and I know that Matt does," she said.  "We want to give ourselves time for us and for our relationship to grow and not have pressure on ourselves.  We're engaged, and that's a huge step just as it is.  But rushing into marriage right away?  I mean we're engaged.  That's 100%.  There's a ring on my finger baby, I am taken!  So as far as the wedding and making those plans, that will happen when we're ready."

Grant proposed to Lamas instead of Chelsea Wanstrath, a 24-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative from Durango, CO who became the final bachelorette to be rejected by The Bachelor's first-ever international star. Lamas described Grant's engagement in Barbados as both "beautiful" and "amazing."

"I think that it was an out-of-body experience," Lamas told reporters about the proposal.

"I thought she was going to fall over," added Grant.

"My knees were about to give out," continued Lamas.  "When you're a little girl and you think about being proposed to, in your mind it's this magical moment.  I think even if your soon-to-be-fiance asks you to marry him in a bathroom, it's just for some reason in that moment you're in awe.  It's just a life-long dream for somebody to get down on their knee and ask you to marry him.  So I think in that moment I was just taking it in."

While Grant had to whittle down a group of 25 bachelorettes before eventually popping the question to Lamas, he told reporters he knew right from the start that she was the one for him.

"When I proposed, I said the only reason there's been any question really is because it just seemed too good to be true," he said.  "I meant that hand on heart.  Right from the first night I set my eyes on Shayne, I was blown away."

Lamas said she also "started falling in love with Matt the moment I laid my eyes on him" and added had that not been the case, her The Bachelor experience would have been a brief one.

"If I walked up and saw this man and I was not attracted to him -- did not feeling anything -- I literally would have  faked being sick and ran for the hills," she explained.  "It wasn't a competition for me.  I didn't go in thinking, 'Okay, I'm going to try to win this guy.'  I went genuinely wanting to find love.  I would have done this without the cameras, 100%.  I would have ran for the hills if I didn't start falling in love with him right away."

In addition, she said going into it "hoping" to fall in love and actually having it happen are two different things.

"It's amazing and almost to surreal to believe that it's actually happening," she said.  "God actually created a moment for you two to meet in that way.  That's a huge blessing and a huge gift that we have -- we get to look back on when we first laid eyes on each other."

As Grant and Lamas bask in the "blessing" of their engagement, the couple already has their first "tough" decision -- whether to live in his native London her native L.A..

"We love both," Lamas told Reality TV World.  "I have family in L.A. and he has family in London, so we'll do both -- we'll go back and forth, we'll travel a lot.  We'll have homes in both."

Grant seemed to be a little more realistic about the situation and said the two are "sorting out all the options" when it comes to their living situation.

"[My] job is available when I go back -- if I go back," he told reporters.  "We're really just discussing all this at the moment -- where are we going to live, what are we going to do.  The most important thing is we're together.  Neither of us wants a long-distance relationship."

In addition to discrediting the possibility of a long-distance romance, Grant also said he hopes to keep their "private life private" moving forward.

"I think we have let the public into our lives a lot and they've seen what's happened with both of us.  They've watched our engagement," added Lamas.  "So I think as far as now, we'll let the public in but we'll try so hard to keep our lives private so we have something for ourselves and our families."

Since The Bachelor: London Calling finished filming in early March,  the couple has already done a good job of keeping their private life just that so the show's ending wouldn't be spoiled for viewers.

"I was shopping at Barney's the other day, so I'm shopping around and I decided to call Matt and see what he's doing because I know he's in L.A.," Lamas told reporters.  "We're both running around the same places here but we can't see each other.  So I call him, I'm like, 'Baby, what are you doing?'  He's like, 'I'm at Barney's eating lunch.'  I said, 'Oh my goodness!  I'm at Barney's!' And I bolted out the door, got in my car and left.  It was so hilarious."

During some of their secret rendezvous or phone calls set-up by producers, Grant and Lamas said they would watch The Bachelor: London Calling broadcasts together.

"That was a mistake watching it together," said Lamas with a laugh.

"We actually created an alter ego -- Bob -- who is me on television," explained Grant  "That enabled us to sort of slag off Bob."

In all seriousness, Lamas said the fact that she and Grant have had an open line of communication since he popped the question has really helped.

"Matt and I -- from the beginning -- had a very open and honest relationship," she said.  "That night of our engagement, we sat on the balcony and I said, 'Okay, you have to tell me everything.  We're engaged, you have to tell me what you felt about [Amanda Rantuccio], what you felt about Chelsea.'  He was completely honest.  I wanted to hear the truth whether I liked it or not because we were engaged and I wanted to know what happened and what went down.  So we've been completely honest with each other, 100%."

Lamas' career as an actress was a point of contention for Grant at the beginning of the season when he expressed skepticism about her being on The Bachelor for the right reasons. 

While the two eventually reconciled the problem by apparently falling head over heels for each other, Wanstrath couldn't help but bring up all the ugliness after she was rejected, telling Grant she thought Lamas was the "falsest person."

"I was caught off guard," said Lamas of Wanstrath's comment.  "When she said that, it actually kind of hurt.  There was absolutely no reason for her to say that."

However Lamas said she sympathized with what Wanstrath went through... sort of.

"It's hard.  She lost the man that she fell in love with, and I completely understand," she said.  "If that's the way that she dealt with it, than that's the way she dealt with it.  I'm sorry that it had to be at my expense -- but it was -- and I wish her all the very best and I hope she's happy."

As for Grant, he wouldn't even use Wanstrath's name.

"The fact is I was a lot more in love with Shayne than the other person," he told reporters.  "It's funny isn't it when someone offends or says something negative about someone you love or care about a lot, it's amazing how your mind steps in really quickly.  I obviously just jumped to the defense of Shayne because that just came naturally."

"Let's just say he got points on the board for that one because he totally stuck up for his monkey," added Lamas.

"Monkey" was the nickname Grant gave to Lamas during the season, however he said it actually started off as "snow monkey" during the group date in Idaho when everyone went skiing.

"The next day, I think I jumped on his back and he's just like, 'You're a monkey!'" said Lamas.

In addition to her sense of humor, Grant told reporters that Lamas has many of the other qualities that he finds attractive in American women.

"There is a self-assuredness and self confidence, which is far from arrogant.  That's what I love about Shayne," he said.  "She encapsulates that for me as well.  She's so kind and caring and considerate about all of her friends and family and other people around her.  But she's also very confident and strong in herself as well.  That balance is quite rare in Britain without being arrogant and cocky."

While Grant and Lamas' connection was obvious to viewers throughout the season, she said that she wasn't overly confident about receiving a rose at each Rose Ceremony.

"Of course every Rose Ceremony I was nervous.  It's a rollercoaster," she explained.  "It's not like I was on dates with him and Chelsea.  I didn't know what they had.  I didn't know what he and Amanda had.  I just knew what we had -- and what we had was amazing.  I just kept telling myself, 'There is no way that he has with these other girls what he has with me.'  But they're thinking the same thing.  So everyone's just on edge."

Now that Grant and Lamas can be seen in public without having to worry, viewers can apparently expect to see a lot of them at various stores.

"I love shopping.  I was just thinking, 'I can't wait for us to go shopping together,'" said Grant.  "I must admit, I do commit some cardinal sins when it comes to fashion."

As for a career in acting, Grant said he has no plans to follow in his fiancee's footsteps, although he did joke about starring in Renegade 2: Father & Son-in-Law with Lamas' father, former Renegade star Lorenzo Lamas.  While Lorenzo was critical of Grant when they first met, Shayne said it's all good now.

"My father is very protective.  But he fell in love with Matt just like I did," she told reporters.  "He loves Matt and welcomes him into our family with open arms."
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON GOOGLE NEWS