Bachelor and fiancée talk dancing and farming
Dinner and a movie high on agenda for couple, but no wedding date yet
The first thing Bachelor Chris Soules and his fiancée Whitney Bischoff were planning to do now that their relationship is out in the open was dinner and a movie, and not just any movie.
“My first goal is to go to the American Sniper movie because I’ve been waiting to go to that . . . and not had anybody to go with since it came out,” Soules told media during a conference call on Tuesday, the day after millions of viewers watched him propose to Bischoff on the season finale of The Bachelor.
He added, “I will take her to dinner as a thank you for watching it,” suggesting perhaps Sniper wasn’t Bischoff’s first choice.
The couple were in Los Angeles, where they’d been doing the rounds of ABC shows, including The Bachelor: After the Final Rose on Monday night, and Good Morning America and Live With Michael and Kelly on Tuesday morning.
There’s no wedding date yet for Soules, 33, a farmer from Arlington, Iowa, and Bischoff, 29, a fertility nurse from Chicago.
And when it does come, Soules wasn’t certain it would be televised, as the nuptials of former Bachelor Sean Lowe and former Bachelorette Ashley Hebert were.
“Obviously we just spent a few months on a reality TV show falling in love together,” Soules said. “I don’t think our No. 1 goal is to be on TV right now, but who knows? We’re pretty open-minded and we’ll see what happens.”
For the time being, Soules and Bischoff will both live in Los Angeles while Soules competes on Dancing with the Stars, which begins its 20th season on Monday (7 p.m. on ABC).
Soules started rehearsing two Saturdays ago with professional partner Witney Carson, last season’s winner.
He called DWTS “an exciting op- portunity to learn to dance, to do something that’s kind of a once-in-alifetime opportunity for a farmer from Iowa,” and said he’s already having fun.
“I’m his biggest fan and I’ll be there every week cheering him on,” Bischoff said, adding that “Arlington is definitely in our future.”
Soules and his family reportedly farm thousands of acres, growing soybeans and corn, and raising hogs. Bischoff said she planned to find a role in the family business but would also continue her work with the fertility clinic.
“I’m not actually in the trenches at work anymore; I work behind the scenes,” she said, which gives her the flexibility to work from anywhere.
Asked how she’d handle the transition to farm life, Bischoff said, “It’s gonna be a change, but it’s something that I’m up for and that I’m excited about.”
Bischoff, who has avoided watching Soules date other women on the show and coped during filming by blocking out what was happening around her, said “the main thing is to stay focused on what’s important and that’s Chris and I.”
“I think we’ve done a really good job of trying to block out all the noise that really comes with this.”
And Soules, who described being the Bachelor as mentally, emotionally and physically tough, indicated at least two other people have it tougher than him: the two women chosen as co-Bachelorettes for next season, Hollywood waitress Britt Nilsson and Vancouver dance instructor Kaitlyn Bristowe.
“It’s hard enough to be the Bachelor, the Bachelorette, let alone going into something where you’re once again competing with another woman. That’s a tough position to be in, which I don’t envy,” said Soules.
“It will be fun to watch. I’m glad it’s not me.”