Former Bachelor Ben Higgins couldn’t resist saying what was on his mind after witnessing Brayden Bowers and Christina Mandrell’s engagement during The Golden Wedding.
“It happened so fast! It happened so fast!” Ben, 34, yelled as Brayden, 25, put an engagement ring on Christina’s finger.
Ben’s reaction was featured in Raven Gates’ Friday, January 5, YouTube vlog, which gave a behind-the-scenes look at Golden Bachelor stars Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist’s nuptials on Thursday, January 4.
Ben’s comment likely referenced the whirlwind nature of Christina, 28, and Brayden’s romance.
The pair’s relationship was revealed during the Bachelor in Paradise season 9 finale last month. Brayden, who made his debut during Charity Lawson’s Bachelorette season last summer, left BiP as a single man, but a message during the season 9 finale read: “Now, Brayden is dating Christina from Zach [Shallcross]’s season. Brayden is teaching Christina’s daughter how to accessorize.” (Mandrell shares daughter Blakely, 7, with ex-husband Blake Dennis and was on season 27 of The Bachelor, which aired in early 2023.
Brayden Bowers and Christina Mandrell Disney/Eric McCandless
During the televised proposal, Brayden told Christina that he “just knew there was something special” about her.
“There was something different, and then I got to spend time with you and got to spend time with Blakely … and introduce you to my family,” he continued. “For the first time in my life, I feel like I found someone that I can be myself with unapologetically. And I have no doubts that I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Bachelor Nation host Jesse Palmer later revealed that Brayden got permission from Gerry, 72, to pop the question on his and Theresa’s special day. Variety, however, reported that the engagement came as a surprise to the majority of attendees, including some producers.
Disney/James Clark Brayden Bowers and Christina Mandrell’s relationship was one that none of Us saw coming after his appearance on Bachelor in Paradise season 9. “She actually DM’ed me! She slid in my DM’s and it was funny ’cause we started hitting it off,” Brayden revealed ahead of The Golden Wedding in January 2024. “We […]
The engagement came three days after Christina revealed that she and Brayden are taking another step in their relationship — moving in together.
“Full delulu mode thinking I could pull off organizing the entire house before Brayden moves in … so now it looks like this 😅🙃🤪,” Christina captioned a Monday, January 1, Instagram Story clip of herself dancing while cleaning her house.
Christina previously gushed about her and Brayden’s “truly special bond” after their relationship went public.
“Grateful for the ease of being exactly who we are with one another,” she wrote via Instagram in December 2023. “There’s something incredibly special about finding a love that feels like home.”
In addition to capturing Higgins’ response to Brayden and Christina’s engagement, Raven also gushed about Gerry and Theresa, 70, in her vlog.
“They’re very lovely, like, exactly what you see on TV is what you get,” said Raven, 32, who met husband Adam Gottschalk on season 4 of Bachelor in Paradise in 2017. “And I feel like that’s the beauty of The Golden Bachelor — these people are not trying to get on here to get Instagram followers or anything like that. They’re literally just here to fall in love.”
Gerry proposed to Theresa during the finale of The Golden Bachelor’s inaugural season in November 2023. While exchanging vows on Thursday, Theresa vowed to be Gerry’s “calm in a storm” and to “stick with [him] throughout it all” while “enjoy[ing] the rest of the time we have left on this Earth, which could be another hour.”
Gerry, meanwhile, called Theresa “the woman I can’t live without” whose “strength gives me joy.”
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