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Chris Harrison feels “relief” about departing The Bachelor for good.
Harrison, 54, left his longtime job hosting the ABC dating franchise in June 2021 amid controversy. He had been host for 19 years. In a new interview with People published on Monday, October 27, he reflected on his exit, saying, “It feels wonderful, and thanks for asking that, because I wasn’t sure it would.”
Harrison has since moved from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas, and married former Entertainment Tonight host Lauren Zima. (The pair will celebrate their second wedding anniversary in November.)
“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,” Harrison told People.
The transition from emceeing The Bachelor and The Bachelorette — a full-time, all-consuming job — to having no role in the franchise was not easy at first.
“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… ,” Harrison recalled.
“And then,” he added, “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.’ And so it has been a wonderful break and relief.”
Harrison called Austin “the new Hollywood” and said the city “reminds [him] 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.”
Harrison teased that he and Zima, 37, have a project in the works.
“Honestly, for the first time in a long time, that fire has been reignited with this amazing woman to dive back in and do some creative work,” he said. “And there is a next chapter coming up very soon for both of us that is …We’re going to be very excited to talk about.”
Harrison and Zima began dating in 2018 after she sent him a DM, feeling a “vibe.” Five years and one walk-down-the-aisle later, he launched “The Most Dramatic Podcast Ever” with his wife by his side.
During the third episode in 2023, Zima revealed that “people in the industry” told her to break up with Harrison during his professional separation from Bachelor Nation.
“I’m divorced too,” she said at the time. “To me, everybody is going to make mistakes. … It’s all about how you respond to those mistakes. I did not break up with Chris — that was never even on my mind. Because right away, Chris knew he had been imperfect, knew he had made a mistake, knew that he’d hurt people and that he was so sorry for hurting people.”
