Ben Higgins and fiancee Lauren Bushnell have clearly struggled to leave the former The Bachelor star's history with JoJo Fletcher in the past.

ADVERTISEMENT

Tuesday night's premiere of Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After? on Freeform featured Ben and Lauren clashing over their dynamic with JoJo, whom Ben had confessed his love to on The Bachelor's twentieth season.

Ben and Lauren's engagement aired on ABC in March, and ever since then, fans constantly approach them and bring up the topic of JoJo. One woman even asked the pair questions about the latest The Bachelorette star while they were shopping at a local Denver grocery store.

"[JoJo] is on her own journey to find love and STILL people ask us about her," Lauren told the cameras.

"I know it hurts Lauren, and I don't want to see her hurt again," Ben said.

Lauren revealed during the episode she has maintained a friendship with JoJo since The Bachelor but would feel "uncomfortable" and "weird" sitting in a room alone with just the three of them.

However, a The Bachelorette producer asked Ben and Lauren if they'd like to make an August appearance on JoJo's After the Final Rose special in Los Angeles.

Lauren was afraid old feelings of pain and resentment would resurface, but she still contemplated the idea since Ben was totally up for the trip.

In order to become up to speed on JoJo's The Bachelorette journey, Ben and Lauren decided to sit down and watch a marathon of her season at home.

"What if he's attracted to her or thinks about any regrets he may have? I don't know," Lauren admitted in a confessional.

Throughout JoJo's season, there were many mentions of Ben and how he had broken her heart.

"For someone who has supposedly moved on, JoJo talks a lot about Ben," Lauren snipped. "I'm really starting to feel like going to After the Final Rose is a bad idea."

After determining Ben only had love in his heart for her, Lauren agreed to appear on After the Final Rose.

When Lauren and Ben were having dinner one night afterward, JoJo actually called Ben on the phone to invite the couple out to lunch with her following After the Final Rose.

Ben agreed to a gathering before Lauren even had time to offer any input, so she was frustrated.

"I'd love to see where JoJo is at today," Ben told Lauren. "It would be good to catch up with her."

"I'm so annoyed," Lauren told the cameras. "This chapter of my life is supposed to be about me and Ben -- not Lauren, Ben and JoJo."

Once Lauren and Ben were backstage at After the Final Rose, the former flight attendant broke down and realized she didn't want to be there.

Ben couldn't believe Lauren had waited until the last minute to say something.

"I don't have a choice," Lauren told Ben of participating in the special. "I feel like you just said 'yes' for both of us and it's fine... I'm anxious and I just wish I was back in Denver... This just isn't my idea of fun."

Despite the tension, the pair put on a good face for viewers and pretended like everything was fine while sitting in the audience. Lauren confessed the next day she was "dreading" having lunch with JoJo.

"A million things could go wrong at lunch today and I'm worried about every single one of those things," Lauren said.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON GOOGLE NEWS