The Bachelor had some explaining to do.
Fans of The Bachelor were left stunned when Ben Higgins said "I love you" to two women in the penultimate episode, a first in the franchise's history. And when Ben ended up proposing to Lauren Bushnell in Monday's finale, viewers couldn't help but wonder how his new fiancée would react once she saw how deep his feelings once were for runner-up JoJo Fletcher. Turns out, she has no plans to ever watch the finale as Ben immediately told her what he said after they got engaged.
E! News exclusively sat down with Ben and Lauren in New York City on Tuesday morning, where they opened up about the difficult conversation, which Lauren describes as "a punch in the gut."
"It obviously hurt…it was a lot to take in," Lauren admits to us. "It felt like a punch in the gut in a way, but it wasn't anything that made me question him or question our relationship. But it was just more like, ‘Ow, that hurts.'"
As for Ben, he says it was important to be honest with Lauren right after he proposed in November, but admits it's hard dealing with all of Bachelor Nation's attention on the whole telling-two-women-he-loves-them scandal.
"It isn't easy because my life has moved on so far past that now. It's weird to even feel like people are catching up to that story as my story is now with her," he explains of his relationship with Lauren. "It's a weird thing to watch and be like, ‘Oh, I remember that,' but I'm really disconnected from that experience at this point."
The only part of the finale that Lauren watched on Monday night was their engagement, as she actually chose to stop watching the season once it got down to the final three ladies.
"It wasn't because it wasn't anything that I didn't know or I thought I was going to be surprised, Ben had already told me anything I would need to know," Lauren says. "It was just more do I need to watch it? Do I need to relive it? Do I need to see and hear things that happened weeks ago, especially when we're in a completely different place than we even were when we first got engaged? We were so happy. So I did not watch."
And even though she didn't watch the drama unfold, Lauren says she still felt for both Ben and JoJo, explaining, "Even just imagining that situation, I can only imagine it was brutal to watch and it was tough on both people. Just hearing about it, I feel for Ben, I feel for JoJo, so I'm happy it kind of has a happy ending." And Lauren is confident The Bachelorette will work out for the runner-up, saying, "JoJo will no doubt find her person."
To hear more from the adorable engaged duo, watch our interview with Ben and Lauren above now. And make sure to watch E! News tonight at 7 and 11 p.m. for even more from our sitdown with The Bachelor's newest happy couple.
—reporting by James Chairman