Fall TV Blog

The Bachlorette’s DeAnna Pappas and Jesse Csincsak may have called it quits, but it’s not all bad news for reality couples: former Bachelor Charlie O’Connell confirms to PEOPLE he and Sarah Brice are giving their relationship another shot.

“Everything’s going great right now,” says O’Connell, who gave Brice the final rose on The Bachelor’s spring 2005 season. Following the show’s finale, the couple moved in together in Los Angeles, but split in April 2007. Now, after spending most of the summer talking on the phone, the couple are giving love another shot.

“We’re not taking each other for granted,” he says. “I enjoy hanging out with her.”

So, is the couple ready to settled down? Perhaps. “My brother’s got kids coming,” says O’Connell, 33, of his brother Jerry, who is expecting twin girls with wife Rebecca Romijn soon. “We did look at houses together last weekend. I’m not saying moving in isn’t a possibility.”

For now, though, they’re taking baby steps. “Sara and I are babysitting a friend of ours,” he says. “That’s our Friday night date.” – Lisa Ingrassia

John Shearer/WireImage

Former Bachelor Matt Grant has not given up on love since his split with fiancee Shayne Lamas. The British hunk has fallen again — this time for his British-born public relations rep.

Grant, the star of The Bachelor: London Calling, says his relationship with Sarah Robarts, who’s a mother of two, has evolved into a serious emotional bond.

“It’s turned into the best relationship I have ever been in,” Grant tells PEOPLE. “I’m completely in love. She’s extremely beautiful inside and out. She’s one in a million.”

When the two first met following Grant’s appearance (and engagement to Lamas) on The Bachelor, it was all business. But even then Grant says, “I couldn’t help but to think, ‘Man she’s hot.’”
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As newly selected Bachelor Jason Mesnick prepares to choose a wife among 25 women all vying for his love, former Bachelor Jesse Palmer has some words of wisdom to share.

“Just be himself and enjoy the experience,” Palmer, who was the fifth-season Bachelor, told PEOPLE at the U.S. Open Heineken Premium Light players kick-off party in New York Friday. “The biggest thing is to be open minded and enjoy it as best he can and not put too much pressure on himself.”

Though he may not have found the love of his life with final contestant Jessica Bowlin in 2004, Palmer, 29, says he has no regrets doing the show. “I’m really excited and happy that I did it,” Palmer said. “It was a once in a lifetime opportunity so looking back I have great memories and met a lot of good people.”
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Despite his ex-fiancée’s claims, Bachelor Matt Grant is definitely not okay with Shayne Lamas keeping their engagement ring.

“It wasn’t a ‘gift’ so much,” the British-born financier tells PEOPLE. “It’s not a television or a handbag. It’s a symbol of marriage that didn’t happen.”

Lamas, 22, recently told PEOPLE she planned to keep the 2.85-carat Tacori platinum-and-diamond eternity ring “safe and clean and in a glass box — like a glass slipper.” She claimed Grant was fine with that, adding, “He wants to come over and look at it.”

But the star of The Bachelor: London Calling insists that conversation never took place.
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The engagement has ended, but former Bachelor fiancée Shayne Lamas says she has every intention of keeping the ring.

In the first interview since announcing her split from The Bachelor: London Calling’s Matt Grant, Lamas says she has prepared a permanent home for the 2.85-carat Tacori platinum-and-diamond eternity ring now that it’s off her finger.

“I have it and I am going to keep it forever for the rest of my life,” Lamas tells PEOPLE. “It’s safe and clean and in a glass box like a glass slipper.”

And according to Lamas, Grant has no problem with that arrangement. “Of course (he doesn’t),” she says. “He wants to come over and look at it.”

Fans of the ABC reality show watched Grant get down on bended knee and present the ring to Lamas with the winning rose in the final episode of The Bachelor.

But a month after the episode aired, the two were no longer living together. While dogged with persistent Internet reports of discord, Lamas insists the two never had to deal with infidelity.
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Matt Grant has moved out of fiancée Shayne Lamas’s condominium, but the English Bachelor insists that all is well with the two.

The couple have cohabitated at Lamas’s Century City, Calif., place since the Bachelor season ended with Grant presenting Lamas with the rose and an engagement ring. But Grant moved out because he says the two need space to grow.

“I had to get my own life out here (in L.A.),” says Grant. “Get my career and friends and have my own circle. That’s important in a relationship. That you are not entirely on top of someone.”

The couple has been dogged by rumors of discord since their televised engagement, however, Grant says that they are doing well and that living together was always meant to be “a stop-gap.”

“Early on in the relationship, people need a little space,” says Grant. “It’s almost to keep the spark — the romance — that exists in the first year of a relationship. Living together after knowing one another after four months is probably a little bit quick. Certainly for our generation.”

Grant does concede it has been “a difficult time” but insists that most of the pressure has come from external forces. He says the two are still engaged despite having moved into his own condo in the Valley. And he insists that he’s had no second thoughts about choosing Lamas: “I made the right decision.”

When asked if the two are in love, Grant responds: “Definitely. I wouldn’t be engaged if I wasn’t.” –Bryan Alexander

Adam Larkey/ABC

He gave her the rose and an engagement ring, and she surprised him with a photo spread in Girls Gone Wild magazine. But Bachelor star Matt Grant says he has no problem with fiancée Shayne Lamas’s revealing pictures.

“As we English say, I really feel it was ‘a storm in a teacup,’ ” Grant tells PEOPLE. “I believe it was blown out of all proportion. I stand by Shayne 110 percent.”

There was a flurry of media appearances after Grant got down on one knee to propose to Lamas on the season finale of The Bachelor: London Calling, but silence after the announcement of the GGW photo spread on the following Tuesday. The pictures in the issue out June 3 show no nudity, but in one shot Lamas is shown wearing little more than a smile and a wedding veil.

Grant says the couple are also brushing off media speculation that they’re having problems in their relationship.

“We sit down together and just laugh off all the ridiculous stories that get thrown our way,” Grant says. “All things considered we are doing really well.”

The two are living in Lamas’ Studio City condominium and Grant says they are working out their new life. “We have the normal pressures of any couple, but then we have even more added pressures being that we are a reality TV couple, and that I’m leaving my life, friends and family in England to be with her.”

He adds: “It’s been a bit of a whirlwind.” –Bryan Alexander

Adam Larkey/ABC

She may be engaged, but The Bachelor: London Calling winner Shayne Lamas — who got a ring from Matt Grant Monday night — isn’t buttoning up: She’s poised to make her print debut on the cover of Girls Gone Wild magazine.

Apart from a sizzling six-page photo spread, Lamas, 22, is revealing details from her time on the ABC reality show. During the interview, Lamas says she jumped on board the Bachelor show to her find true love. “It’s what every girl wants,” she says in the chat, characterizing her fiancé as being “very casual [and] respectful of women.”

But don’t expect any juicy details about the proposal. Lamas was interviewed while she was contractually obligated to stay mum about the season finale.

Girls Gone Wild publisher Joe Francis says Lamas’ appeal is easy to sum up. “Shayne has a genuine ‘girl next door’ quality,” he said in a press release. “But she also happens to be very hot.”

Lamas’ Girls Gone Wild pictorial features no nudity.

See more of the cover girl after the jump. (more…)

Shayne Dahl Lamas got more than the final rose — she also got a marriage proposal.

After sending Chelsea home, Bachelor Matt Grant got down on one knee and popped the question to Lamas, an actress from Los Angeles, with a 2.85-carat Tacori platinum and diamond eternity ring on Monday night’s season finale of ABC’s The Bachelor: London Calling.

“My knees gave out and I started shaking,” Lamas told PEOPLE about the proposal. “It was a fairytale proposal like I’ve always dreamed about. I forgot that there [were] cameras around. In that moment, it was just Matt and I and it was the most amazing moment of my entire life.”

Grant, 27, a global financier from England, simply described the moment as “incredible. It [was] a beautiful setting, a beautiful day. Shayne [looked] absolutely exquisite.”

The 22-year-old, whose father, actor Lorenzo Lamas, previously told Grant his daughter might not be prepared for marriage, said she’s not too young but also isn’t rushing into anything just yet. “There’s still a lot of growing to do in our relationship. We will not tie the knot until I am mentally and physically prepared as well as Matt,” she said. (more…)

This season’s Bachelor may be a bachelor no longer. British banker Matt Grant chooses between 22-year-old actress Shayne Lamas and 24-year-old pharmaceutical sales rep Chelsea Wanstrath on the finale of ABC’s The Bachelor: London Calling (airing Monday, May 12, 10 p.m. ET). Before Monday’s big reveal, Grant, 27, spoke to PEOPLE’s Carrie Bell and answered five burning questions:

Are you in love?
Definitely. Without a doubt. As far as love at first sight, I am not a big advocate of that. But that said,…when I first saw her I knew I was in trouble in a good way and that it could be [the one].

Have you seen your fiancée since the show wrapped?
We both really pushed for secret rendezvous. We’ve met up loads of times. I didn’t want to fall into this trap. I’d heard that was one of the issues in the past. We have spoken every single day.”
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