New York Post

‘Bachelor’ host flying south?

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COULD Chris Harrison be breaking up with “The Bachelor”?

Amid speculatio­n that the veteran host of the ABC franchise could be leaving after nearly 20 years, Page Six has exclusivel­y learned that Harrison is building a home in a wealthy enclave of Austin, Texas — a long, long way from Los Angeles, where the show usually tapes.

Rumors swirled this summer that Harrison was quitting after Variety reported that he would — for the first time in the long history of either “The Bachelor” or “The Bacheloret­te” — miss several episodes of “The Bacheloret­te” and be replaced temporaril­y by Season 12 leading lady JoJo Fletcher.

He explained to viewers that he was just taking a break to take his son, Joshua, to his second year of college.

Precaution­s against COVID-19 have allowed the spit-swapping show to continue shooting despite the pandemic, with the production’s cast and crew in an isolated bubble on a resort in Palm Springs, Calif.

Harrison said procedures required him to quarantine if he left the bubble before getting back to work.

But now we’re told that Harrison is building a new place for himself and his “Entertainm­ent Tonight” host girlfriend, Lauren Zima, in Austin’s Barton Creek suburb.

His son attends Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, and we’re told his daughter, Taylor, plans to go to a Texas college as well. He’s originally from Dallas.

Harrison and Zima reportedly started dating in August 2018.

They’re not the only famous faces heading to the Lone Star state.

Elon Musk announced this month that he and girlfriend Grimes had moved to Texas, in part because his company SpaceX has operations on the Gulf Coast.

Reps for ABC declined to comment, and a rep for Harrison didn’t get back to us.

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