Joelle "JoJo" Fletcher "terrified" Ben Higgins, 'The Bachelor' star was "absolutely sure" he was getting dumped

Joelle "JoJo" Fletcher and her family certainly didn't make things easy for The Bachelor star Ben Higgins when he visited her hometown of Dallas, TX.


"Where to begin? Before I even got there the drama had started. JoJo and I had talked a lot about her ex-boyfriend so it was not a huge shock to hear that he had tried to win her back," Higgins wrote in his People blog.

"But walking in there and seeing her crying and talking about him sending her roses and the letter and the phone conversation along with knowing all their history together, I was absolutely sure she was about to break up with me and get back with him."

That would explain the look of utter shock and horror on Higgins' face when Fletcher revealed her ex-boyfriend Chad Rookstool, 38, was asking for a second chance.

"Watching it back, I think you can see that written all over my face when she is first talking to me. After talking to JoJo that day I know now that it was never even a consideration in her mind, but for someone who has a fear of being unlovable, I just thought that this was the beginning of the end and I was crushed," the Bachelor explained.


"So when she said that she was happy to put an end to her and Chad, it was an instant relief and I was able to breathe again. JoJo had really come to mean so much to me that the idea of her walking away in that moment really terrified me."

Once Higgins and Fletcher got past the awkward ex-boyfriend conversation, he described it as "smooth sailing."

"I was starting to get the hang of this family thing! Although, JoJo had warned me about how protective her brothers can be, so I knew that I was going to have to answer some hard questions. And that may have been part of the problem too," Higgins wrote.

"I think going into those conversations I was trying to be so careful to be absolutely honest and not make any promises that I wasn't ready to make yet that I think I held back a little bit too much and maybe gave them the wrong impression. They thought that my answers were too careful I think, and I can see how they may have come off that way, but that's not what I meant by it at all."

Fletcher's two brothers asked Higgins if he saw the beautiful real estate developer getting hurt or ending up really happy. Higgins grew quiet and said he needed to focus on the present, but what he could say was that he cared for Fletcher. The guys read into Higgins' lack of emotion and explanation as a lack of investment in their sister.


"Watching the show now, I hope they can see how incredibly serious I was about JoJo and that I just wasn't ready or in any position to tell them that I was definitely going to propose to their sister. If I was holding back on my answers or being too political that was the only reason why," Higgins said.

"What confused me the most was that walking away from my talk with them I thought everything was totally fine. If they had concerns I wanted them to bring them up and ask me, so when I walked into the kitchen and Matt was talking about how I had been coached or had brainwashed JoJo I was really, really confused."

However, Higgins was glad Matt spoke up because he didn't want to walk away from the family gathering thinking everything was fine when it "clearly wasn't."

"But I will say that I walked out of there with real questions about whether or not that family would accept me or even liked me at all. I knew that my relationship with JoJo was still really great, but I really had no clue with where I stood with her family when that night was over," Higgins admitted.

Higgins ended up giving Fletcher a rose and eliminating Amanda Stanton, a mother of two young girls.


"I didn't want a single one of them thinking that I sent them home because of their families. I already expressed how hard this must be for the families involved so I never wanted my sending someone home to be viewed as a reflection on their family. They were all wonderful," Higgins continued.

"I know JoJo's did not go particularly well, but I also absolutely understood where her brothers were coming from and I could respect that."

The Bachelor airs every Monday night from 8-10PM ET/PT on ABC.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski