New ‘Bachelor’ couple: They aren’t seeking spotlight

By Alicia Rancilio, Associated Press

Wednesday, March 16, 2016 | 8:56 a.m.

NEW YORK — Another "Bachelor" season has wrapped — and the new lovebirds are confident about their future.

On this week's finale, Ben Higgins, 26, a software salesman raised in Indiana and now living in Denver, proposed to Lauren Bushnell, a flight attendant living in Los Angeles.

"I hope that they know that Lauren and I, when we committed to each other, we committed to each other," Higgins said in a recent interview. "I think you watch this show sometimes from a two-hour perspective once a week. ... Do I think we'll make it? Yes. I've never faltered on that. I'm excited to spend life with Lauren."

Higgins picked Bushnell at the end of this season's "The Bachelor" over JoJo Fletcher, a 25-year-old real estate developer from Dallas, who will get her own televised shot at love as ABC's next "Bachelorette."

Higgins and Bushnell talked about Fletcher and whether they want more time in the spotlight in a recent interview.

Associated Press: Other people who have been on this show and "The Bachelorette" have parlayed the experience into something else in the spotlight. Are you hoping to do that?

Higgins: The spotlight is not a desire of mine, right? If it happens, it happens and that's great and grand and whatever you want to call it. Opportunities? Yeah. I have a great job right now and Lauren has a great job. It's been fun for us.

Bushnell: I think both of us have dreams and hobbies that we like that if it could become something that we do for a living as well, that would be amazing. But if this ends right now and we go back to normal, both of us are beyond happy.

AP: Ben, when JoJo Fletcher was named the new "Bachelorette," did it make you feel less guilty about breaking her heart?

Higgins: I'm excited for JoJo. I am. I think what we had was a great thing. Did I feel guilty for having those feelings for her? No. Do I feel guilty for exploring those feelings for her? No. But now that she is the Bachelorette, she has the opportunity to find somebody like I found Lauren. I think JoJo will see if it's still confusing at all to her how this whole thing happens when you do have so many thoughts and feelings and emotions and thoughts and relationships and decisions coming to your head all at once. She'll see, 'OK, I see how Ben was just conflicted and torn and it was so hard.' But, I think JoJo is gonna do great.

AP: Lauren, what was filming like for you? And what was it like after the show?

Bushnell: I think that during the show, during actual filming, I was so in the dark in terms of other relationships. ... You're really kept separate. ... I think post-show has been more of an emotional roller coaster because it was reliving it and I'm surrounded by it, and even if I don't watch an episode, it's everywhere around me and that's what everyone's talking about.