Ben Higgins and Jessica Clarke Blessed With Arrival of First Child

Former Bachelor Ben Higgins and his wife, Jessica Clarke, are excitedly anticipating the arrival of their first child.

On Sunday, August 18, Higgins, 35, and Clarke shared the news on Instagram with a joint post captioned, “The next chapter of our love story!”

The post featured a montage of memorable moments from their relationship and concluded with a sonogram of their baby. “Baby girl coming in February,” they announced.

Higgins and Clarke began their relationship in late 2018, over a year after Higgins, 32, ended his engagement to Lauren Bushnell.

The Indiana native introduced Clarke, 26, to his Instagram followers in February of the following year, writing, “I’ve been selfishly keeping this girl to myself for too long!

Hey friends meet @jessclarke_! I successfully slid into her DMs a few months ago. I took a risk, and I am glad I did. She is someone special, and I look forward to where life is going to take us. Stay tuned for the journey.”

Higgins proposed to Clarke, the co-owner of SweatNet, in March 2020.

“From my first date in life to the moments in between they all led me to getting down on one knee in front of you @jessclarke_,” Higgins wrote on Instagram at the time.

“This weekend I asked Jessica to give me the honor of being her partner for life. She said YES! I now officially have the most beautiful, kind-hearted, supportive, well-intentioned person to spend life with! Our adventurous ride through life together is just starting.”

The couple married in November 2021 in Tennessee, with their honeymoon taking place in St. Barts. Clarke shared a vacation photo on Instagram, captioning it, “Love being a Higgins.”

Before their wedding, Higgins had shared his thoughts on starting a family.

“We want a family,” said the Indiana University alum. “We’ll have kids some way, either biological or not biological. We will have a family. Just because she’s 26, I’m 32.

If I had, like, an ideal timeline where I got to pick, it would be two years when we’d start thinking about it. … We’ve obviously abstained from sex for three years, so we are off to a fast start on trying to start a family.

I’m just excited to start to get to know her more, to connect with her more. At some point, it would be great, but I’m fairly selfish.”

Higgins also mentioned that “two to three kids would be awesome,” and noted that both he and Clarke were open to the possibility of adoption.