Fall TV Blog

The Bachelorette’s Jillian Harris and her fiancé Ed Swiderski stepped out Wednesday to pick up some sexy unmentionables at the new Victoria’s Secret store on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue because, she says, “I feel like I’m a little down on my lingerie collection.”

Not that Ed is complaining. When asked what he thinks is the sexiest thing a woman could wear, he responded, “No panties.” Jillian gave a similar answer, claiming she thought “no bra” was the sexiest way to go.

The couple, who recently moved in together, were also eager to talk about the news that Bachelor Jason Mesnick proposed to Molly Malaney in New Zealand. “We had no idea they got engaged and we just literally talked to them yesterday,” Harris said, adding that they just found out. “They sent us a picture of them in New Zealand and they looked so happy … I guess I never thought about it, but them being in New Zealand would be the best time to do it. It all makes sense!”

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Unlike the many who’ve come before them, recent Bachelorette couple Jillian Harris and Ed Swiderski took the giant leap from being just another reality show couple to get engaged while the cameras are rolling, to bonafide real-life couple when they moved in together in September.

Now living in Chicago, both admit in the latest issue of PEOPLE that it took a lot of effort to get to this next step in their relationship. Last August, two former girlfriends of Swiderski’s claimed that he continued relationships during his time on The Bachelorette, and even after he became engaged to Harris.

Before he proposed to Harris, “I was a bachelor in ever ysense of the word,” Swiderski admits to PEOPLE. “I am not an angel, but things were exaggerated.”

Harris, who stood by Swiderski days after the news broke, maintains her fiancé did nothing wrong. “It would be more naïve of me to trust [these women] than to trust the person I’m going to bed with every single night and have spoken to every single night,” Harris says.

After a long summer of traveling back and forth to each other’s hometowns, the couple have settled into Swiderski’s one-bedroom Chicago condo.

For more on Harris and Swiderski’s big move, pick up the Oct. 12 issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
– Monica Rizzo

Get the roses ready! ABC has announced that they will reveal the identity of the next Bachelor during the Oct. 13 episode of Dancing With the Stars. Sources tell PEOPLE that Bachelor producers will likely select one of the three runner-ups from the recent edition of The Bachelorette for the job.

Kevin Foley/ABC(3)

For interior designer Jillian Harris, meeting the man of her dreams was the easy part. It was his “total bachelor pad” -– a one-bedroom condo in Chicago -– that took some getting used to, the 29-year-old Vancouver native and former [ITALIC "Bachelorette"] tells PEOPLE.

“When I first saw it, there was a lot of brick and dark brown leather and wood,” says Harris, who’s moving in with Ed Swiderski on Sept. 14. “There were socks and underwear lying around the place.”

While Swiderski was on a business trip to Las Vegas last July, Harris went on a shopping spree to “Pottery Barn, Z Gallerie and Bed, Bath and Beyond,” Harris says. “I tried to keep it masculine, but I replaced some of his dark brown cushions with some cream and light green to lighten it up a bit.”

What did Swiderski think of the home makeover?

“I liked it,” he says. “There are things I like but would never go out of my way to shop for like pillows. I just don’t do that. But I like it a lot.”

As for taking this big step forward in their relationship, Harris says, “I can start [having] a real life again. I’m looking forward to some sort of normalcy –- making dinners, waking up early, cleaning house. It’s perfect.”
– Monica Rizzo

Wes Hayden, The Bachelorette’s “baddest boy of them all,” just wrapped up a guys’ weekend in Austin with some other former contestants from the show.

“Tanner [Pope,] who lives in Dallas, drove up while Mike [Stagliano] and David [Good] and the rest of the guys flew in to have a good time and see me,” Hayden tells PEOPLE. “I loved hanging out with the guys. We had a great time.”

What does a group of bachelors do during a guys’ weekend? While some of the guys went to Lake Austin Spa Resort to get pampered, the whole group hit local hotspot Ranch 616, where they shared dinner, drinks and dish about Bachelorette winner Ed Swiderski — and those claims he was unfaithful to his new fiancée Jillian Harris.

“I had no clue whether Ed had a girlfriend … while we were on the show. I really didn’t know about any of it,” he says. “But if it’s true, I feel really bad for Jillian. I don’t know what to believe to be honest with you. I feel bad for Jillian and for Ed. But if in fact he was doing what everybody’s been saying, then man up and deal with it.” (more…)

It seems every Bachelor rose these days has its thorn.

Several blogs reported that Bachelorette couple Jillian Harris and Ed Swiderski had split, but the duo appeared very much together, showing up at Las Vegas’s LAVO Friday night just after 11 p.m. for drinks and appetizers.

The couple had canceled a reservation at the same restaurant hours prior, prompting speculation of their breakup. The truth behind the canceled reservation: “Ed was working late,” a source told PEOPLE.

Inside LAVO, Harris and her fiancé acted every bit the couple and held hands as they walked in.

Dining on appetizers on the restaurant’s outdoor patio overlooking the Las Vegas Strip, the couple sipped wine, talked and held hands during the hour-and-a-half stay.

“They just want to take things day to day and work on their relationship between them,” the source said.

The couple has been in Las Vegas most of the week while Swiderski has been on business. –Mark Gray

At a time when Bachelorette Jillian Harris and her fiancé Ed Swiderski would like to be celebrating their engagement, they’re being hit with allegations that he was not faithful — and carried on two relationships while filming The Bachelorette.

Two women, Lindsey Johnson and Bethany Steffen, claim that Swiderski, a Chicago computer software consultant, was stringing them along while he was wooing Harris on the ABC reality dating show, and that he continued to do so even after he and Harris got engaged on May 24. The reports claim Harris feels betrayed and that her relationship with Swiderski is destroyed.

“I am not destroyed!” Harris tells PEOPLE. “There’s a little bit of anxiety that comes with this news, but I am absolutely not destroyed.”

“What did he do wrong?” Harris asks. “My biggest concern is with everything that happened after the day we got engaged, and after we got engaged he has been so open with me. He’s told me all of this, every little text message and every little phone call. I use his computer. I know that any communication he had with the girls post-show was platonic. I’m not worried about it.’ (more…)

After a heart-wrenching elimination, Reid Rosenthal returned to Hawaii on the season finale of The Bachelorette at the last minute to try and win back the affection of Jillian Harris. And he thought it would work, he told host Chris Harrison on Tuesday’s “After the Final Rose” special.

But as more than ten million viewers witnessed, Harris let the 30-year-old Philadelphia realtor down gently, confessing that she was in love with somebody else — Chicago computer software consultant Ed Swiderski.

Even though two months have past since the finale was shot in Hawaii, Rosenthal confesses to PEOPLE that his feelings for Harris haven’t gone away. “When I saw her [at the "After the Final Rose" special], feelings came back,” he tells PEOPLE. “But everything happens for a reason. That’s the way I think in life and just knowing that makes everything easier.”

So why did he return? “I thought I was the best guy for her,” he says. “I knew I wanted to spend tomorrow with her. I wasn’t 100 percent sure we’d get married in six months or a year if she’d said yes. [But] I thought our relationship was 15 times better than the other two guys.”

Ready to date again “pretty soon — immediately,” Rosenthal admits his modicum of celebrity has been a hit with women. (more…)

They didn’t think it could happen to them, but The Bachelorette’s Jillian Harris and Chicago computer software consultant Ed Swiderski have now become “the people we used to make fun of that are engaged and want to get married and are in love,” Harris says.

More than ten million people witnessed Swiderski’s seaside proposal to Harris on The Bachelorette season finale Monday night.

The “extremely happy” couple, who sat down to talk to PEOPLE in its latest issue about getting engaged on TV and their future plans, say they can’t believe how normal their relationship is, despite having met on ABC’s reality dating show.

“It feels more normal than any relationship I’ve ever had,” Harris says. “It’s very strange how it’s such a contradiction to have something so normal come from something that’s so manic.”

In the months following their engagement, which was filmed on May 24 in Hawaii, the couple have had to keep their relationship under wraps so as not to give away the outcome of the show. In that time, Harris says they have enjoyed getting into a groove and are talking about a 2010 wedding. (more…)

Well … that’s a wrap! I will keep this post short and sweet as I have an eager man waiting for me and wanting to get OUT IN PUBLIC together … FINALLY! I have been waiting for this day since May 24th — the day that I can openly tell you how madly in love I am, how happy I am and how excited I am for the future.

A wise man once said, “Love, it don’t come easy” — and that is so true. I can honestly say that I have found my best friend but it didn’t come without consequences. Aside from all the crying, surprises, drama, public criticism and most importantly, hurting two incredible men that I will never forget — please understand that it broke my heart as much as theirs — I never imagined in a million years that I would have to let two men go that I love so dearly, and have it hurt so so much in order to be with the man that I am wanting to spend the rest of my life with.

Reid and Kiptyn are both unbelievable men. Some will have opinions of why maybe I should have picked one or the other instead of Ed. Some will see why Ed was perfect for me from the beginning. I embrace ALL of your opinions. I can see why you would all think ALL three of these men would be great for me. For those who want to congratulate my happiness … THANK YOU!!! We are both EXTREMELY happy (still) and truly it gets better and better every day we are together. (more…)