Ben Higgins can't even stomach the idea of being intimate with a woman right now despite reports his ex-fiancee Lauren Bushnell from The Bachelor has moved on with a new man.
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The Season 20 The Bachelor star opened up about his lack of desire to date again during Monday's episode of The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast, which is co-hosted by his pal Ashley Iaconetti.
A little over two months after publicly announcing his split from Lauren, Ben said on his podcast, "If I were to kiss somebody right now in my life, it would hold a lot of weight."
Ben was answering an email sent from a fan who was wondering when he'll be ready to jump into the dating pool again.
"It would be really hard for me -- right now, for me to kiss anybody... my chest kind of gets tight. I know that's really difficult for me," Ben, 29, confessed. "I don't know when I'm ready [to date]."
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Ben has apparently avoided discussion about his breakup from Lauren as a way to spare the feelings of fans who were emotionally invested in their relationship. Ben said he doesn't want to "hurt" anybody.
"This kind of stuff, dating and relationships, are things that are very sensitive to me right now. It's just not something I want to talk about right now, honestly," Ben continued.
Ben and Lauren, 25, got engaged on The Bachelor's 20th season during the show's March 2016 finale. Six months later, the pair decided to star on their own Freeform spinoff Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After?, which premiered in October of last year and documented their life together in Denver, CO.
The couple's relationship seemed to crumble from that point on, and Lauren later admitted their communication fell apart and she felt very alone.
"Honestly, as tempted as I am [to date] and as much as I do desire relationships -- like I do, I desire commitment and I desire to emotionally attach myself to somebody -- I am forcing myself to get to know myself to better, to find myself a little bit, to get to know who I am now," Ben explained on his podcast.
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According to recent reports, Lauren, however, is currently dating her longtime friend Devin Antin. The duo were reportedly buddy-buddy before Lauren left her home in Los Angeles to film The Bachelor when she fell in love with Ben.
"They've been dating for a while now," a source told Us Weekly last week of Lauren and Devin, adding that she has already met some of her new beau's family members.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski