‘The Bachelor’ Star Arie Luyendyk Jr. Reportedly Ends Engagement, Rekindles Romance With Runner-Up

Spoiler warning: This article contains spoilers about the possible ending to Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s season of The Bachelor.

It wouldn’t be The Bachelor without some back-and-forth bachelorette news, but this is a big one. Spoiler king Reality Steve previously revealed that current Bachelor star Arie Luyendyk Jr. ended his season with an engagement to contestant Becca Kufrin, a 27-year-old senior account executive from Minneapolis, Minnesota. But now, Steve has posted an update, revealing that Arie ended his engagement to Becca and is dating his dumped runner-up, Lauren Burnham, a 25-year-old saleswoman from Dallas, Texas. The bombshell news was reported on Reality Steve’s Bachelor spoiler site shortly after the blogger confirmed it via multiple sources.

Reality Steve also revealed that he had been told that Arie Luyendyk Jr. called Lauren Burnham on the night of the Bachelor premiere and that he had been having second thoughts about breaking up with her at his final rose ceremony in Peru. According to Reality Steve’s site, ABC’s vans were spotted parked outside of Lauren’s mother’s house in Virginia and Arie Luyendyk was seen filming new scenes for the ABC reality show.

The Bachelor blogger wrote, “Arie ended his engagement with Becca a little over a week ago and is now dating Lauren. That’s why he was in Virginia last week at Lauren’s parents’ house.”

The news that Arie Luyendyk Jr. broke off his engagement with Becca is not exactly shocking. The race car driver-turned-realtor has repeatedly said that he fell in love with two women while filming The Bachelor.

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In December, Arie told People he didn’t realize he was capable of falling in love with two women.

“I fell in love with two women, and I didn’t know I was capable of that,” the 36-year-old Bachelor star said.

“I’ve never been in that situation, and it was really hard. And they were two very different women, and that’s what made it even harder.”

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Arie also revealed that the end of his Bachelor season was “really difficult” for him.

“I didn’t know I was really capable of having strong feelings and being in love with more than one person, but that happened,” Luyendyk said. “The end was really difficult for me…. But I’m happy, and I wouldn’t have changed anything.”

Except, now he reportedly did.

The last time a Bachelor star called off an engagement and began dating his runner-up was in 2009 when Jason Mesnick ended his engagement with Melissa Rycroft during The Bachelor: After the Final Rose follow-up special. Jason rejected Melissa on-air because he realized he was still in love with runner-up Molly Malaney. Mesnick and Malaney are now married and have a daughter, Riley.

If Reality Steve’s latest Bachelor spoilers are accurate, fans can expect to see a wild finale episode and an even wilder After the Final Rose special at the end of Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s season.

The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.