Getting closer. Ben Higgins and his girlfriend, Jess Clarke, are happy being at home together amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve had a great day,” Higgins, 31, said on Chris Harrison and Lauren Zima’s “Fireside Chats” Instagram Live series “Group Date” on Monday, March 23.
The former Bachelor star revealed that he had been going fast while on tour for The Bachelor Live On Stage with cohost Becca Kufrin, but the self-quarantine orders made him take a much-needed break.
“There’s no, like, psychological damage because I’m forced to just do nothing and it’s been absolutely awesome,” he explained, noting that he and Clarke, 24, have been hunkered down at his parents’ house in Indiana. “We’ve just been hanging out for a week.”
The University of Mississippi alum agreed with her boyfriend, who she’s been dating since November 2018, about their positive time together while staying put the past week.
“It’s been great,” she told Harrison, 48, and the Entertainment Tonight correspondent, 33. “Anytime I get a week with him not doing anything is wonderful. We never get that.”
When it comes to hanging out with Higgins’ parents nonstop, Clarke hasn’t had any issue with it.
“They’re super easy and laid-back and we all get along really well,” she explained on Monday. “It’s been, like, the best week.”
The couple also revealed which of them is the best at cuddling, both admitting it’s Clarke.
“I latch on,” she said before Higgins revealed that he jokes that “she would just like would tie herself to my arm and hop into my pocket and just hang out the whole time if she could.”
Clarke added: “Yeah. The benefit of dating such a short person, you just can carry me with you everywhere.”
Harrison replied, “A little pocket girlfriend!”
The duo are the latest guests to join the Bachelor Nation host and his girlfriend for their daily “Group Date” chats that feature stars from the ABC dating series — and help raise money for the charity of the guest’s choice.
Higgins and Clarke have been Instagram official since February 2019 and the former reality TV star told Us Weekly in January 2020 that he is “definitely” going to propose to his girlfriend this year.
“I don’t think that’s a question,” the Denver resident told Us exclusively on January 29. “We’re great. It’s fun. It’s just healthy … I think she would say the same. Our relationship is healthy. I’m a better version of myself, a more free version of myself than I’ve been in a while.”
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