Exclusive

Bachelor in Paradise's Carly Waddell and Evan Bass Share Their Advice For Making It As a Couple in the Bachelor Franchise

Carly and Evan sat down with E! News ahead of the Bachelor in Paradise season 4 premiere

By Lauren Piester Aug 14, 2017 11:48 PMTags
Watch: Carly Waddell & Evan Bass Talk Being a Successful "BIP" Couple

Paradise is officially open! 

Season four of Bachelor in Paradise begins tonight, with a new group of Bachelor nation singles descending upon a Mexican beach to try their hand at falling in love with each other (or at least falling into something), hoping they could be as lucky as last year's surviving couple, Carly Waddell and Evan Bass

Even Carly and Evan will tell you that their relationship did not go very smoothly at first. Evan pursued Carly pretty intensely as she rejected him, before eventually realizing she loved him too after one weird trip to the emergency room. Over a year later, they're married and expecting a baby, making them one hell of a Bachelor in Paradise success story. 

E! News sat down with the couple to talk marriage and babies, but also to get a little bit of insight into how they made things work in Paradise.

photos
Bachelor in Paradise Season 4: Check Out the Cast!
Amy Plumb

"The biggest thing is to not care so much about how you look," Evan tells us. "You go in a little bit hyper-aware of how the things you say come across to other people, and I just think that's going to hinder you trying to find love." 

This knowledge definitely comes from experience for Evan, who not only made a fun fool out of himself on Paradise, but was also known as the guy who got his shirt ripped by Chad Johnson on The Bachelorette

"The reason that it worked for me is that I was like, I looked terrible on The Bachelorette, who cares, let's double down, I'm going for it, like screw it all, I'm gonna do all of the amazing fun things," he says. "So I made up my mind to just be myself, and I think that's the key, is just to have fun in Paradise." 

photos
Who Will Hook Up on Bachelor in Paradise? Our Bold Predictions
ABC

Carly credits their success to how much time they actually spent in Paradise just talking to each other.

"I think that we spent so much time getting to know each other and like stepped away from the drama, and I think that was really important for us," she says. "People were like, what do you talk about all day? And I'm like, you know, all the things you're supposed to be talking about if you're planning to be with someone." 

As for any lucky man or woman who might find themselves in the same position that Carly and Evan were in last season, Evan did manage to hand out some advice "other than 'fake your own death.'" 

"You just gotta go for it. How many times do you get a chance to have an epic love story? Sometimes you just gotta fight for your love story," he says. "The power of the friend zone is tough to overcome, but it can be overcome. I'm just here to say that." 

For more from Carly and Evan, click play on the video above, and stay tuned after tonight's premiere!

Bachelor in Paradise airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.