The former reality star is expecting her first child with her boyfriend of seven months, Grayston Leonard.
The Bachelor Nation family is growing!
Bachelor alum Bekah Martinez, who competed for Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s heart in the show’s most recent season, is expecting a baby with her boyfriend of seven months, Grayston Leonard.
Martinez tells PureWow that three months into her relationship with Leonard, she learned that she was pregnant.
“I was in disbelief and thought, ‘Is this really happening?’” the 23-year-old former reality star recalls. “I immediately called Grayston and then went across the street to the Dollar Tree and bought two more pregnancy tests. They, of course, were both positive.”
Martinez calls the news “legitimately a dream come true.”
“It’s the one thing that I’ve known with certainty for so long,” she says. “I’ve gone back and forth on the idea of marriage and relationships, but I’ve always felt sure that I want to be a mom.”
The exciting news became real for Martinez on Father’s Day, when she looked at Leonard and declared, “You’re going to be a dad.”
“We hugged, and it was the first time we really got to be overjoyed,” she continues. “We were finally able to celebrate and soak up all of that emotion.”
While the couple chose not to announce the pregnancy right away -- in an effort to drown out “the exterior noise chiming in” -- they’re finally ready to share their happy news, even the truth that the pregnancy was not planned.
“I wanted to share this experience with other women who have been in a similar situation or might be in the future, so they know they’re not alone,” Martinez says.
With the baby due in January 2019, Martinez has just finished her first trimester, which she admits was “a little rough." That being said, the expectant mom calls pregnancy overall “pretty easy going” so far, and still manages to make time for hiking, backpacking and climbing.
For Martinez, hearing her child’s heartbeat for the first time was the most moving experience in her pregnancy thus far.
“It still feels so surreal but it was this tangible way of knowing I’m going to have a son or daughter and everything is about to change in a good way,” she gushes.
As for her beau, Martinez says he is fully embracing fatherhood.
“He immediately started researching prenatal vitamins and then presented me with the top four options to choose from,” she says in praise of Leonard. “He’s been really into finding resources and reading books about pregnancy. He stepped up to the plate and it just makes me feel that much better about starting this new chapter in my life with him.”
Though the couple is happy and in love, they aren’t discussing marriage anytime soon.
“It’s a horrible idea for us to consider with all of the hormones and the stress we’re experiencing,” Martinez confides. “The last thing we need is to consider another commitment on top of what we’re already going through… Regardless, we’re bound together by sharing this little life.”
Following her somewhat controversial appearance on The Bachelor -- she was more than 10 years younger than Luyendyk Jr. -- Martinez was a favorite to appear on the just-wrapped season of Bachelor in Paradise, but ultimately turned it down.
“I think pregnancy is better than Bachelor in Paradise,” she muses. “Although I’m probably equally as sweaty, exhausted, nauseous, stressed out and emotional, at least I don’t have to worry about finding a man. I already have that one covered.”
Martinez also took to her YouTube channel to discuss the news.
“The first thing I felt when I saw the positive [on the pregnancy test] was pure shock. Like, my hands were shaking and I was like, ‘Oh my God,’” she recalls in the six-and-a-half minute long video. “The first thing I did was I picked up the phone and called Grayston. I don’t even think I had processed it in my head. I was just like, ‘Positive pregnancy test. Oh my God.’”
Leonard agrees with feeling shocked after he found out the news while at work.
“I remember… my boss came up to me and was like, ‘Are you OK? Like, are you OK right now?’ Because I just didn’t say anything to anybody and got off the wall and was like, ‘I don’t know,’” he confesses.
Despite the initial uncertainty, the couple -- who says their relationship has only gotten stronger since learning the news -- are quite happy with the turn their lives are about to take.
“It feels so surreal now because I’ve just come to such a point of accepting it and embracing and being excited and telling people and all that,” Martinez says. “…I just wasn’t thinking of any of that practical, logical stuff. I was just like, you know, I’ve wanted to be a mom my whole life. This is what I’ve always wanted and I don’t care what the circumstances are. This is going to work. This is my baby.”
Leonard agrees, saying, “Almost everyday becomes happier for me. The realer it becomes, the more visible signs become -- like she’s got a little bump now and her belly button’s starting to push out -- it’s like all of these things make it really fun and real. It is this transforming moment from, ‘If I have to, I’ll do it. I’ll be a good dad. I’ll stand up to the occasion.’”
In addition to her much-discussed Bachelor appearance, Martinez also made headlines when she was reported missing following her stint on the ABC series. Though she was just off-the-grid at a marijuana farm, Martinez tells Pure Wow that the experience made her hope her future son or daughter stays off reality TV.
“I don’t really want my child to get reported missing on a weed farm,” she quips.
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