The former 'Bachelor' star says in hindsight, she 'wishes' she would have taken more time for herself after the breakup, 'but that's the way it went.'
Lauren Bushnell knows she jumped into a new relationship pretty soon after her breakup from Ben Higgins -- but one year later, she and Devin Antin are still going strong.
ET's Lauren Zima sat down with the Bachelor star for Roses and Rosé Live on Tuesday, where she opened up about her new romance, and why she's choosing to take things a little bit slower going forward.
"It's been a year, which is crazy. We're doing really well," Bushnell said of her and Antin. "In hindsight, I wish I would have taken a little bit more time, but that's the way it went."
Bushnell and Antin were friends before she went on The Bachelor, and later reconnected. "It naturally evolved," she explained. "But I do feel bad, because I went through a very hard, public breakup, and I do think I brought a lot of those emotions into me and Devin's relationship at the beginning. So it's definitely been, like, a roller coaster of a ride."
The blonde beauty, who just launched her own rosé line, Dear Rosé, announced her breakup from Higgins in May 2017, a year and a half after he proposed on The Bachelor. By July 2017, ET had learned that Bushnell was dating Antin.
"I think everyone always wants there to be someone at fault, or a reason why, or someone wants to point the finger, and I think because I started dating Devin so soon after, I was kind of an easy target," Bushnell shared, though she and Higgins have both said their split was mutual. "That was obviously hard, but breakups are hard, whether you met on The Bachelor or not. Breakups suck."
The hardest thing about ending her engagement to Higgins was the criticism, Bushnell said, but Antin helped her through it. "I just had to take a step back, and for a while there, I just didn't read anything. And I still really don't," she revealed. "But when you hear something, it obviously still sticks with you."
"I was sad about the breakup, and I was going through a lot of changes. I was moving my life and trying to resettle and get my footing underneath me," Bushnell recalled. "I felt bad. I felt like I had failed. I felt all these emotions that you feel in a breakup, but then it was also on a very public scale."
Now, Bushnell said she's learned she's "a lot stronger" than she thought she was. She's also decided to take her time in her relationship with Antin. "We definitely could [live together] at this point. I think just the timing has to be right," she revealed. "I've just been through so much change, I think that's definitely not something I want to rush."
"I think The Bachelor taught me, honestly, that for me, at least personally, I want to take things a little bit slower this time around," she added.
Bushnell is full speed ahead, however, on her own projects, thanks, in part, to Antin. In addition to Dear Rosé, she's dipped her toes into the fashion world, creating pieces for Bellevue.
"He really does push me to do things that I've dreamt of or I'm passionate about or want to do, and not push me in a way that's like, aggressive," Bushnell gushed of Antin. "[He] gives me that little nudge that maybe I need at times, which is really cool, and I've never really had someone who does that for me."
Higgins opened up to ET about his breakup from Bushnell in May. See what he said in the video below.
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