Ben Higgins got more out of his run-in with his ex-fiancé Lauren Bushnell Lane’s husband, Chris Lane, than he was expecting.
“He was great … and I was anxious about it,” the former Bachelor, 34, said on Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast of seeing the country singer, 38, at a charity golf tournament in January. “I knew her dad was gonna be down there as his caddy. I knew Chris was gonna be there. I don’t know Chris, so you just never know how that’s gonna feel. It’s not like something that you really desire to have happen and it’s not something you plan on happening — you don’t go outta your way to run into, you know, your ex’s partner. But, immediately, it was great. It was really fun and we kind of broke through it and I got to see Lauren’s dad again and he was awesome.”
Higgins, who confessed he might’ve been “making more of it than needed,” said his anxiety was eased at the start of their conversation — and he was down to hit the links with the “I Don’t Know About You” crooner during the outing.
“[I would] love to golf with him. We should have. We had the same score. That was a ridiculously missed opportunity, I thought it was for sure happening. I thought it was gonna be hilarious,” Higgins said.
Us previously informed Bushnell Lane and Lane, who wed in October 2019, that Higgins praised his time with the musician at the Orlando golf tournament.
“Ben was actually one of the first people that I ran into at the hotel and had a chance to talk with him for a little bit and what a nice guy,” Lane told Us in February. “We had such a great time. We didn’t get to play golf together but had several run-ins and it was great.”
Higgins and Bushnell Lane split in May 2017, more than one year after their proposal aired on the season 20 finale of The Bachelor. The Denver resident got closure from spending time with his former partner’s spouse.
“It feels good, quite honestly,” Higgins told Us of being in a good place with his ex. “It was just a weird ending.Relationship-w482384/”> It was a very drastic, quick ending. It was kind of like, ‘We’re done. Let’s go two different directions.’ And I think when you’re with somebody for as long as we were, and you care about somebody as much as, you know, I think we cared about each other, I think that just feels weird. You don’t really know, like, how the other person’s doing or you don’t really know if there’s forgiveness or if forgiveness is even needed or how to, like, settle it.”
While the Couple share two sons — Dutton (born in 2021) and Baker (born in 2022) — Higgins married Jessica Clarke in November 2021.
“Now that life has moved on and I’m married and she’s married with kids, I think it’s a really healthy place and it’s good for my mental health. It’s good for my lack of jealousy and envy in life to just get to a place where it’s like, ‘No, I wanna see you thrive. Like, why would I not? I wanna see you do so well,’” Higgins continued. “Because, you know, obviously, you still care. You still want to see that person do well because at some point in your life you saw enough of them that you’re like, ‘No, I think you’re awesome.’ It feels good. I’m glad we’re at that spot. I’m glad we could get there. I would encourage anybody to try to get in there and even with their toughest Relationships — if the relationship ended in a healthy place, overall. I will say it’s a really good feeling to know that in January we saw each other, I feel like I have nothing but amazing things to say about him.”
Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell. Broadimage/Shutterstock
Higgins concluded: “And now I can sit here and go, ‘Yeah, if he’s in Dallas next week when I play in the Invited Celebrity Classic, which I am, I would love it.’ It’d be awesome. I’d be happy to see him.”
When he’s not on the course, Higgins is focused on his charitable efforts, recently returning from a trip to the Colombia/Venezuela border with Project Hope.
“The last few years, there’s been a huge migration of Venezuelans to Colombia. I think it’s about 1.8 million people have gone to Colombia. There is an open border now and it’s great that people are able to find homes and kind of get to a place where they feel comfortable and they can start kind of afresh and new, the only issue is that this influx has put a big stress on the healthcare system in Colombia,” Higgins explained. “We visited a lot of hospitals, mental health hospitals that Project Hope is involved in. That was something I’ve never done either inside of the United States or outside of the United States, have never gone into a place where people are getting essential mental healthcare.”
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He continued, “That was a really incredible experience. [We also visited] the maternity units inside of some of the hospitals that exist there in Cucuta that primarily are helping Venezuelan refugees. We met a lot of the women who had either traveled across the border or who were living in Colombia at the time, having their babies.”