The Bachelor Alum Ben Higgins' Wife Jessica Clarke Is Pregnant With Their First Baby
The Bachelor's Ben Higgins is going to be a dad.
The Bachelor Nation alum's wife Jessica Clarke is pregnant with their first baby. The Colorado-based couple announced the news on social media Aug. 18—and also took the opportunity to reveal the sex of their child.
"The next chapter of our love story!" Jessica, 29, wrote in an Instagram post shared on both of their pages. "Baby girl coming in February."
She and Ben, 35, shared a video of their road to baby. It includes footage of Jessica giving herself a hormone injection in her stomach area. She and Ben also added a clip of one of her ultrasounds, which shows her to be 12 weeks pregnant at the time.
The Instagram video also contains footage of the couple celebrating their pregnancy news with family and sharing a group hug with their dog Waylon, as well as throwback clips of the dad-to-be proposing to his now-wife and the two appearing at their 2021 wedding in Tennessee.
In 2022, Ben spoke about his and Jessica's plans to start a family.
"We're excited for kids," he told E! News while promoting his appearance on E!'s Celebrity Beef. "I believe that, God willing, we will have kids. But right now it's not a conversation we have often and it's not something I believe either of us are craving. You know, you hear the 'baby fever,' I don't know if either of us have baby fever right now."
Ben starred on The Bachelor's 20th season in 2016—a year after being eliminated by Kaitlyn Bristowe on The Bachelorette season 11—and split from winner Lauren Bushnell the following year. He went on to compete on The Bachelor Winter Games in 2018.
Kaitlyn congratulated him and Jessica on her pregnancy, writing in the comments section of their joint Instagram post, "So happy for you guys."
Kaitlyn's ex, Jason Tartick, also wrote, "Congratulations," as did Amanda Stanton, who competed on Ben's season of The Bachelor.
Other Bachelor Nation stars also offered their best wishes. "Im going to be the best uncle," fellow Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise star Wells Adams said in the comments, while his wife, Modern Family alum Sarah Hyland, wrote, "YES YES YES YES BABY DISNEY PRINCESS!!!!!"
Look back at the Bachelor Nation babies that have been born over the years...
The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise and The Bachelor alum received his best rose yet when his fianceé gave birth to their daughter River Rose Viall Feb. 2.
Sharing a series of sweet images of their baby girl, the couple wrote, "The best part of life starts now."
The Bachelor season 20 alum, who won season three of Bachelor in Paradise and also competed on the following season of the spinoff in 2017, welcomed her first baby, Rosie, with her husband Jan. 24, 2024. This is her third daughter, as she is also a mom to Kinsley and Charlie from a previous marriage.
The Bachelor in Paradise alums welcomed son Nash Lochland Wendt just before Thanksgiving in Canada. The little one joins brother August.
"Happy Thanksgiving from our now family of 4," Kevin wrote on Instagram Oct. 8. "Everyone meet our son Nash Lochland Wendt 10.7.23. Astrid and baby boy are doing great and ready to come home today. Our new favourite moment in life was watching August meet Nash, smiling the whole time and kissing his new baby brother."
The Bachelor in Paradise couple found paradise in parenthood when they welcomed son Benson Lee Jacobs Kufrin on Sept. 21, 2023.
Nearly eight months after getting engaged at The Bachelor Live On Stage show, the couple welcomed their first child together, a baby boy named Tatum Booth Mock, on Dec. 6, 2022 at 6:13 a.m.
What a gift! The former Bachelor contestant gave birth to son Winston on her 35th birthday on Sept. 29, 2022.
We're not calling it the most dramatic birth story ever, but "in a wild turn of events," shared the finalist from Nick Viall's season, after 90 minutes of pushing, she and her husband of nine months welcomed their honeymoon baby in an emergency C-section Jan. 18, 2022. "What was life before him???" the Arkansas native pondered of 8-pound, 6-ounce Gates Zev Gottschalk. "I can't recall."
But she is certain she and her Bachelor in Paradise love match aren't done building their family. "We'd like two or three," she told Us Weekly. "But Adam has said, you know, we'll see how I do with two and then go from there."
The Bachelor in Paradise fan-favorites welcomed son Dawson—named after Leonardo DiCaprio's Titanic character—in January 2022.
Is this winning? Seventeen months after the Bachelor season 16 victor gave birth to her first child, son Joaquin, in June 2020, she and her husband set an extra seat at their Thanksgiving table for the early arrival of daughter Paloma.
A "small, but mighty" 4 pounds, 15 ounces, their newest addition "is the sweetest girl in the whole-wide-world," she raved on Instagram at the time. "Her smile lights up our days & warms my little mama heart."
Consider Nov. 20, 2021 arrival August the couple's final rose at the end of a long journey. Referencing their cycles of intrauterine insemination and IVF—one of which resulted in an ectopic pregnancy—the Canadian-bred firefighter raved of his bride-to-be, "She is my absolute hero for everything she went through the last 2 days in the hospital, and the last 2 years doing everything it took to get this perfect munchkin."
Their plans for a family actually dated back to some early conversations on 2018's Bachelor in Paradise, she shared on Instagram, and yet "even in my wildest dreams I couldn't have imagined how amazing this would all feel."
Having raced into the world of parenting—welcoming daughter Alessi four months after their January 2019 vows and her little brother and sister in June 2021—the retired driver is ready to pump the brakes.
"I think we're so happy because we have our boy, we have the two girls," the season 22 lead said in 2022 of twins Senna and Lux completing their family. "And I'm already 40, guys. I can't be having kids any later than this in life. I want to be like an active dad. So, I think three is OK."
"Big, Big Plans", they said? On June 8, 2021, Bachelor season 20 final rose recipient and her country singer husband invited all nine pounds of Dutton Walker Lane onto the ranch.
The couple had another run around the rodeo on Oct. 16, 2022, when they welcomed son Baker Weston Lane.
Years after failing to collect a rose in week six of Arie Luyendyk Jr.'s Bachelor season, the health coach grew her own little flower, giving birth to daughter Andara Rose Bowles Mar. 31, 2021 less than a year into her new romance with the San Diego-based entrepreneur.
Though she admitted on pal Scheana Shay's podcast it was "scary" to learn she was pregnant "so soon in a relationship" and while still wed to Bachelor in Paradise love match Chris Randone, she "just knew this was an incredible lesson for me to grow, to lean into love, to have faith in myself and Miles and my future and know that God gives us only what we can handle."
The cutest little stowaway you ever did see. On Feb. 12, 2021, The Road Les Traveled creator and her fiancé invited daughter Nora Blanche Kavanagh along for the ride and she's already proven herself to be a natural adventurer.
"Someone told me not too long ago that traveling with a baby isn't a vacation," The Bachelor and The Bachelor Winter Games alum admitted. "It's a trip. A change of scenery. A relocation of parenting. I feel this in my bones." And yet following jaunts to Hawaii, Miami, New York and Kavanagh's native Australia, "I wouldn't trade a thing if it means I get to show this girl the world."
Three's a crowd? Hardly. Since youngest Reed joined the mix in November 2020, the Bachelor in Paradise OG sweethearts have strongly considered rounding out their family with a fourth.
Tolbert told People he's "10 percent open to the idea," but his bride's baby fever burns much stronger.
Agreed the mom of Emmy and Brooks, "Four would be a great number. They'd have the buddy system! There's just something special about the mother-child bond and I just love it."
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