The Bachelor franchise gets its first-ever same-sex proposal after 17 years
Demi Burnett and Kristian Haggerty made history when they got engaged in the Bachelor in Paradise season finale. (ABC)
Demi Burnett and Kristian Haggerty made history when they got engaged on the Bachelor in Paradise season six finale, becoming the first same-sex couple to do so in the franchise’s 17-year history.
Bachelor in Paradise is a spinoff of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette which brings together previous contestants, this time in Mexico, for a second chance to find love.
Burnett, who identifies as sexually fluid, was initially attracted to co-star Derek Peth, but then revealed that she had started to fall for a woman outside of the show, Haggerty.
Producers decided to bring Haggerty into the show, and the couple’s romance blossomed.
Demi Burnett and Kristian Haggerty in Bachelor in Paradise season six finale. (ABC)
In Tuesday’s finale, the couple held hands on the Mexican beach and Haggerty told Burnett: “Demi, you changed my life forever.
“I think back to the first time we kissed and it felt like the whole world had stopped… I’m in love with you and I give you my full heart. I promise to protect yours, now and forever.”
Burnett said: “I know that this has been really hard… I never knew that someone could be that patient.
“There were a lot of things that came between us, mostly myself and my own struggles. Like you said, I came here to find myself. But I found myself in you.
“I’m so in love with you and I didn’t even think it was possible to feel this way about someone.”
Burnett then got down on one knee and asked Haggerty to marry her.
After the show, Burnett told The Hollywood Reporter: “I know it’s a big deal that it was the first same-sex [engagement] on this franchise in the US, but we weren’t thinking of the significance of that at the time.
“It was just about us loving each other and that’s really what the focus was.”
