Former Bachelor host Chris Harrison tied the knot with fiancée Lauren Zima after three years of dating.
Harrison, 52, and Zima, 35, said “I do” at a wedding ceremony in Napa Valley, California, on October 14, and celebrated with a big reception in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, November 4, People reports.
The Bachelor Nation alum confirmed he and the Entertainment Tonight personality were engaged via Instagram in October 2021. “I love you @laurenzima,” Harrison wrote alongside a photo of himself popping the question. “The next chapter starts now!”
A second photo featured the pair clinking champagne glasses while the Illinois native showed off her new diamond. “We tell each other this all the time, and we said it again n an unforgettably beautiful moment this weekend: I didn’t know love could be like this,” Zima wrote via Instagram at the time. “You are the most incredible partner. Thank you for loving me, championing me and asking me to marry you. Here’s to the next amazing chapter, and all the rest.”
Harrison later exclusively told Us that he was “incredibly happy” to have popped the question, sharing details about their “amazingly romantic weekend” getaway, revealing he proposed to the entertainment reporter “at a very special spot that means a lot to the both of us in Napa Valley at Brand Vineyard.”
The pair first began dating in 2018, making their relationship red carpet official at pre-Screen Actors Guild Party in January 2019. Zima revealed during a July 2019 episode of “The Viall Files” with Nick Viall that she had made the first move on the Texas native.
“Oh, I DM’d him,” she confessed. “He just gave me a different vibe. … It was fairly overt. He mentioned something about picking his kids up or something. He somehow brought up being single, I think. And then I said something like, ‘I’m single now,’ and he was like, ‘Oh.’ But I said it in a more eloquent way. God, I don’t know. Somehow it was communicated … I opened the door and he walked through.”
Following her sliding into Harrison’s DMs, the couple went out for a drink and Zima began to see the reality TV personality through a new lens. “Not in a negative way … but I never looked at him and ever considered [if] I found him attractive,” she explained to Viall.
Rumors of a possible engagement between the lovebirds began to swirl in April when Harrison posted a photo of his now-fiancée wearing a white dress via Instagram.
“‘I’d stop the world and melt with you’ @laurenzima there’s no one I’d rather celebrate love with and I’ll be your plus one anytime,” he captioned the snap.
Harrison quickly shut down the speculation after fans grew confused over the social media declaration, writing, “Wow you attend one wedding together … do one chicken dance and your hitched! I do love this bridesmaid though
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Harrison — who was fired from the Bachelor franchise after defending season 25 contestant Rachael Kirkconnell’s racially insensitive comments — was previously married to his college sweetheart, Gwen Harrison. After 18 years of marriage, the now exes, who share son Joshua, 19, and daughter Taylor, 16, called it quits in 2012.
