Looks like we don't need to wait until the next season of Bachelor in Paradise for a new Bachelor Nation couple to emerge.
Luke Pell, the runner-up on JoJo Fletcher's season of The Bachelorette, has confirmed to Us Weekly that's been seeing Danielle Lombard, a.k.a. Danielle L., the season 21 Bachelor contestant who got jilted by Nick Viall mid-date after telling him she was falling for him.
Pell, who lost out to Viall for the Bachelor gig, told the magazine that he and Lombard have made a romantic connection, though it's still very early.
“She’s a great girl,” he said of the salon owner. “But we haven’t gotten to know each other yet. We haven’t even had a real, proper date or anything yet.”
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Pell added that he and Lombard, who had seemed to be a front-runner for Viall's heart before her unexpected dismissal, met about a month ago and have hung out a few times. In Bachelor Nation, that's the foundation for a marriage proposal. In real life, it sounds pretty casual and Pell considers himself to be single.
“I’m just trying to get to know people and try to take everything slow,” the Nashville-bsed singer-songwriter shared. “Some people assume it’s easier to date after the show, because people know who you are and people are comfortable with who you already are. But I’m like, no, it’s more complicated because people assume things, and everything’s in the public.”
He also pointed out that it's strange meeting women like Danielle L. whom he would have been wooing on TV had he gotten the Bachelor role over Viall.
"'Oh, well, we were supposed to meet on the show but now we’re meeting in person,'” he said of meeting the season 21 contestants. “How do you react to that, because you don’t pursue it the same as you would on the show?”
We guess he's figured it out.