Bekah Martinez has revealed there's a good reason why she won't be appearing on Season 5 of Bachelor in Paradise this season -- because she has a boyfriend!
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"So, I just want to make clear with everybody that yes, I was asked to go on the show and, initially, I was planning on it. But, I met somebody in February."
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The 23-year-old nanny, who competed for Arie Luyendyk Jr.'s heart on The Bachelor earlier this year, disclosed she's in a relationship with 29-year-old Grayston Leonard, who works at the rock-climbing gym where she climbs and is in the process of opening his own rock-climbing gym.
The couple has reportedly met each other's parents since getting involved, so the romance is pretty solid right now.
"At first we decided to take our relationship slow because I didn't know if I was going to go on Paradise or not and I wasn't really sure what I wanted," she told the website.
"I wasn't sure if I wanted to miss out on that opportunity. I was kind of like, 'I don't want to be dating this guy for two months and then decide not to go on Paradise and have total FOMO and wish that I had done it.'"
But dating Grayston was worth the risk, according to Bekah, because she's happier than ever now.
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"As it got closer to [filming], I just started realizing that it wasn't worth it for me to put myself in that environment where I could possibly jeopardize what I had with Grayston," Bekah explained to PureWow.
"I just decided that the guy that I was with back home was the person that I wanted to be with right now, and I didn't want to risk leaving that by keeping my options open and going on Paradise to see if there were any guys there for me. It was kinda this realization that if I have something right in front of me that's good, why am I going to go out of my way to look for something else?"
It was probably a hard decision for Bekah, however, because many of her best friends joined the Paradise cast in Mexico -- including Kendall Long and Caroline Lunny.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW"At first, it was really casual and we were just doing a lot of fun stuff together, and then it just progressed into something deeper," Bekah shared.
"We do a lot together; we climb, we went to Utah together on a climbing trip a couple months ago. We both met each other's parents, so it's definitely getting really serious now."
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A bonus of not appearing on Bachelor in Paradise is also more privacy, as Bekah said it felt "good" to be in a hush-hush romance for a while.
"I also didn't want to go through the whole thing when we started dating. For one, I was not sure if I was going on Paradise or not, but also, I didn't want to put something on the internet and have to address it if we possibly broke up," Bekah confessed.
"Now that we're at a serious point, I feel comfortable sharing this with the world... [He] definitely has my rose for now!"
Bachelor in Paradise's fifth season debuts with a two-hour episode on Tuesday, August 7 at 8PM ET/PT. Beginning the following week, the series will air on Monday and Tuesday nights from 8-10PM ET/PT.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
