Chris Harrison was the longtime host of The Bachelor franchise until his abrupt exit in 2021 and now he’s making rare comments about leaving the ABC series.
The 54-year-old former TV host now lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Lauren Zima and he’s opening up about his new life there.
Keep reading to find out more…
When asked about how it felt to move on from The Bachelor, Chris told People, “It feels wonderful, and thanks for asking that, because I wasn’t sure it would.”
“You know, when you do something every single day for two decades, and it’s so popular around the world, there is a pressure to that, and there’s a spotlight and a microscope that you don’t even realize you’re under until you kinda get off that merry-go-round,” he added.
Chris said that falling in love with Lauren and moving to Austin together helped him move on from the show.
“And it was this kind of angst when I first got off, because I mean, ‘Oh, well, I gotta get back on. I gotta go back to work,’ or… And then I kind of took a deep breath and you dropped your shoulders, and I think, you know, obviously falling in love definitely helped, moving to Austin definitely helped kind of relieve that and realize, ‘Wow, there’s a whole other world out here to dive into,’” Chris said. “And so it has been a wonderful break and relief.”
Chris also talked about living in Austin.
“I mean, what I love most about the new chapter is the fact that Austin is the new Hollywood which means the opportunities are a plenty here,” he said. “There is so much tech, music, food, entertainment, theater. It’s all happening here. And it reminds me of what Hollywood was built on, which is anything and everything is possible if everybody will just come in with an honest, open heart and mind and just wanna do some fun work together.”
There were so many celebrities at Chris‘ 2023 wedding.