Getty Chris Harrison and guest attend Entertainment Weekly Celebrates Screen Actors Guild Award Nominees.
During the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, The Bachelor host Chris Harrison made his red carpet debut with his new girlfriend Lauren Zima. Zima is a host and producer for Entertainment Tonight, and she covers a lot of Bachelor content.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Zima graduated from Elgin High School in 2005 and moved to Los Angeles in 2010 after attending college at University of Missouri in Columbia. She started work at Entertainment Tonight in 2015 and was previously in the cast of the MTV comedy “Disaster Date.”
Following their red carpet relationship debut, Zima shared a photo with Harrison on her Instagram, with a heart in the caption. Current “bachelor” Colton Underwood commented “Take all the roses;” Wells Adams, a former Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise contestant wrote, “This makes me very happy.”
Just last week, Zima posted a series of photos on Instagram, revealing “tonight on @entertainmenttonight, we were exclusively on set for the “Strong Women” group date. Talked to Cassie, Onyeka, Sydney, Tayshia, @chrisbharrison … colton’s biceps!” One of the photos she shared was with Harrison.
In November, Zima went on Reality Steve’s podcast to talk about The Bachelor, and he introduced her as the person who “covers all things ‘Bachelor Nation’ for the show.” According to her Instagram account, she is also a correspondent for Bravo and ABC’s Dancing With the Stars.
Zima’s own Entertainment Tonight confirmed the news of her relationship with Harrison. Of the new couple, they said: “The two have been dating for months and are very happy, which means Harrison can scale back on his prep to be the next Bachelor.”
Back in December, Zima shared a photo of her and Harrison posing next to a poster of Colton Underwood, writing in the caption “The two most important men in my life, TBH.” This was before they were public with their relationship, but they were likely already dating at that point.
In 2016, Harrison told The Daily Beast “I would love to find love now. Look, as you can tell by the book and by the show, I’m a hopeless, helpless romantic just like everybody else, so hopefully I’ll follow my own advice one day.” Though that interview was a few years ago, it appears as though he’s found that with Zima.
Chris Harrison was in an 18-year marriage with his ex-wife Gwen, but the two split in 2012; they have two children together. Chris and Gwen were high school sweethearts and US Weekly reported that the distance played a role in the divorce, since hosting The Bachelor and The Bachelorette required Harrison to be in production all over the world for several months a year. Of their decision, Harrison told GQ in an interview “As we started to grow apart and hit hard times, we just weren’t equipped to handle it, unfortunately. We’ve always been great friends, and in the end that’s helped us remain amicable.”