While Jackson says he and Olympios have talked about dating, they'll be spending the holiday as friends.
Happy Valentine's Day to Corinne Olympios and DeMario Jackson!
The twosome -- who made headlines during the Bachelor in Paradise scandal last summer -- will be spending the holiday together this year, Jackson revealed during an appearance on Bachelorette alum Eric Bigger's podcast, Bigger Talks, on Wednesday.
"We actually are going out for Valentine's Day," Jackson shared. "As friends."
"I can't wait for tonight, just for the fact that we're homies. We're really good friends and we just enjoy each other's company and we like to take things slow," he continued. "I feel like the last couple of months has been a lot of pressure for us to be something or this or that, but at the end of the day, it's her and I. We hang out, we have fun. And that's it."
According to Jackson, he and Olympios have talked about taking their friendship to the next level, but he's hesitant to pursue a romance unless they're both committed to the idea.
"I basically told her, 'Look, I'm into you, you're into me. But I don't want to half a** do anything. I don't want to date just to date. I'm 31 years old. If you're not ready mentally, if you're not all in, there's no point,'" he said. "I don't want to be like, that serial dater. I feel like Drake and Rihanna, like... one day, if it's meant to be, then 100 percent. But if it's not, we have that friendship. We're homies."
"And a year from now, you never know," he added. "But right now, we're strictly friends."
During his chat with Bigger, Jackson, who previously opened up about the emotional toll of being under media scrutiny during the Paradise scandal -- of which he was cleared of any wrongdoing -- also commented on the #MeToo movement.
"There's just certain things that [men] have been programmed to do, so now at 31, I've been, like, de-programming myself from a lot of things, from a lot of locker room talk."
But back to Jackson's relationship with Olympios -- the reality stars have often had to set the record straight on dating rumors, as they've been spotted chumming it up on several occasions over the past six months.
"DeMario and I are close friends. We are not dating," she told ET in September. "Since things with Bachelor in Paradise wound down, DeMario and I talk almost every day. We both know neither of us made the complaint that started everything, so why wouldn't we be friends? We've been able to move forward and he's like a brother to me."
And in October, Olympios told ET that she and Jackson had become so close that she trusts him "with my life." See more in the video below.
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