Demi Burnett Opens Up to Ellen DeGeneres About Coming Out on Bachelor in Paradise
Demi Burnett may have made history when she and fiancé Kristian Haggerty became Bachelor Nation‘s first same-sex couple, but that doesn’t mean reaching that milestone came easily.
Burnett, who first joined the ABC dating franchise during Colton Underwood‘s season of The Bachelor, opened up to Ellen DeGeneres on Friday, telling the talk show host that she was afraid to come out not only on national television, but to people she knew in real life, too.
“It was a lot of fear, it was fear of judgement, it was fear of disappointing people in my life, making them uncomfortable. It was just really hard, it was really scary. But, I mean it all worked out in the end,” the 23-year-old told DeGeneres, 61.
DeGeneres then lauded Burnett and Haggerty — who was seated in the audience — for their bravery.
“It was a huge thing, and I know it was scary for you, but you ultimately became comfortable with it and worked out your relationship and I just, I admire both of you for doing that,” DeGeneres said.
Burnett previously told PEOPLE of her experience, “I’ve learned that it’s okay to be myself and embrace that and own it.”
“I want to be honest and open. Love is love!” she said.
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Later on Ellen, the two started talking about the other couples who joined Burnett and Haggerty in Paradise.
“You know honestly at this point I’m worried about Chris [Bukowski] and Katie [Morton],” Burnett said. “I know Katie is an optimist and she sees the good, she gets glimpses at the good parts of Chris, but I think Chris needs to step it up if he wants to keep her — and I think she needs to tell him to step it up.”
Burnett added that she thinks Bukowski and Morton could benefit from “couple’s counseling.”
During the in-studio portion of the BiP season finale episode, Morton wasn’t wearing her engagement ring and admitted that her relationship to Bukowski had been “rocky” since leaving the beach.
But Morton told PeopleTV’s Reality Check that since filming the finale, she and Bukowski are doing much better.
“Since then, it’s been so great,” she said. “We’ve been able to be together, and he’s met my family and my friends, and seeing him with them, has been … it’s just been so much better now that we can hang out.”
“I think both of us excel in public settings, you know with our friends, with our family. And not being able to do that, it was tough,” Bukowski added. “It made it tough, but at the end of the day, I actually think it made us better and stronger. So sometimes it takes things like that to get to a point where we are at today, and I think every day we get better in our relationship.”
