‘Bachelor’ Ben Higgins On Confessing To 2 Women Amid Arie’s Messy Ending

“Bachelor” alum Ben Higgins recently gave Arie Luyendyk Jr. some advice after the latter reportedly broke up with the woman he proposed to and got together with his runner-up.

During his season of the ABC reality show, Higgins told both of his top two ladies that he loved them. However, the contestants had a hard time finding things to criticize him for at his “Women Tell All,” and Higgins remains one of the most beloved Bachelors in the history of the show. Luyendyk is in a similar situation, but unlike Higgins, the former seemed to have made a hash of his “Bachelor” finale.

Luyendyk reportedly gave the final rose to one of the top two contestants, but broke up with her shortly after and hooked up with the runner-up, Entertainment Tonight confirmed. An insider also told the outlet that Becca, Tia, Lauren, Seinne, Kendall and Bekah are ready to “grill” Luyendyk on the show’s “After the Final Rose” special.

In a recent interview with ET, Higgins explained why he said “I love you” to both Lauren Bushnell and JoJo Fletcher and if he had to get producers’ permission before doing so on the show. He revealed that he wanted to express how he felt to both women before the show ended and the producers let him do what he wanted.

“Honestly, maybe to my own lack of wisdom, I thought, Maybe the best way to tell JoJo exactly how I feel so she walks away from this knowing this was real is to tell her I love her. Because I did. I cared about her a ton, loved her as a person and loved my time with her. But I just knew I couldn’t, at the time, live without Lauren, and I loved her as my partner,” he explained.

As for his feelings for Fletcher, Higgins said he still cared for her even today and “would bend over backwards” to help her if she needed. However, he later regretted telling her “I love you” after he realized it would be difficult for her when he broke up with her.

“I’m kind of embarrassed about it ... I thought it was cool I was able to open up and be that vulnerable with two people. And then ... it came pretty quickly to me when I was sitting with JoJo after our last date, and I realized I’d told her something that I did feel, but it was going to be a lot harder on her for me to break up with her the next day. And I realized then this might not have been the best decision,” he explained.

When asked if he believes Luyendyk is really in love with his top two, Higgins said the “Bachelor” star likely has one he loves more when it comes down to it.

“I get why you can be torn. ... If you were there and you could actually sit him down, he would probably have a pretty strong lean towards somebody,” he said.

What do you think of Higgins’ thoughts about his “Bachelor” season and Arie Luyendyk Jr.? Tell us what you think below!