Former Bachelor lead Ben Higgins is in a rough spot with his mental health. He’s currently prioritizing his needs and flew back home to Indiana to actualize what life for him is after The Bachelor.
Ben recently confessed that he struggled with addiction and continues to open up to Bachelor Nation about his mental health struggles.
Ben appeared on former Bachelorette lead Trista Sutter’s podcast Better Etc. to reveal what brought him to come back home.
“I am back in Indiana right now because of a breakdown, again, in my life where I’m going, ‘I don’t know what’s happening,’” he shared. “I don’t know what this next season of life looks like for me.”
The Bachelor was clearly a big part of Ben’s life, and for a while, Ben was a leading player in the franchise. However, he feels that he has to come to terms with the fact that that phase of life, or as he calls it referencing his reality TV background, “season,” is over.
“I’m farther and farther removed from the show and then, at the same time, I need to figure out what my life’s gonna look like and what my legacy is going to be,” Ben told Trista.
Ben told fans that he’s in a ‘low place’
While he said this upcoming phase of his life is “a really exciting season,” he is starting it off at a “low place.”
He feels he isn’t a “thriving figure” anymore and that in order to move on, he has to “separat[e] myself from a lot of things that I’ve held close.”
“I don’t know how to make it my purpose now,” he said of his reality TV career. “I don’t know what to do with it anymore. It’s not really a piece of me anymore.”
It has been an issue that he has been mulling over with his fiancee Jessica Clarke.
“I can talk about it, I can share my experience about it but ultimately, I was just telling Jess this the other day, I was like, ‘I feel like my only role in the Bachelor now is to be there for the contestants that want me to be there for them,’” he added.
Ben had been making occasional cameos on the recent seasons of The Bachelor and Bachelorette and even hosts the Almost Famous podcast with Bachelor Nation star Ashley Iaconetti, but it seems those pursuits aren’t fulfilling enough for Ben.
Ben’s history with The Bachelor franchise
Ben first joined Bachelor Nation when he appeared on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s season of The Bachelorette.
Ben made it to the top three but was ultimately knocked out before the final rose ceremony.
He was then granted his own season of The Bachelor. Even though he received backlash for telling two women he loved them, he still ended up getting happily engaged to Lauren Bushnell.
Their relationship ultimately didn’t work out, but they have both since moved on to new, serious relationships.
Ben also is seemingly ready to move on from The Bachelor, and we wish him the best during this tough emotional point and hope he finds a new journey to embark on.
The Bachelorette airs on Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.