Ben Higgins on Whether He's Ready for Marriage With Girlfriend Jessica Clarke (Exclusive)

The former 'Bachelor' also opens up to ET about 'The Bachelor Live on Stage.'

Ben Higgins is feeling the love. 

The former Bachelor couldn't help but gush about his own love life while speaking with ET's Lauren Zima at the Bachelor in Paradise season six finale taping, set to air on Tuesday. 

"Jess is the best," he raved of his girlfriend, Jessica Clarke. "She is the greatest." 

Fans saw a bit of Clarke when she and Higgins attended Chris Randone and Krystal Nielson's wedding, which aired on Bachelor in Paradise this season. That event had Higgins thinking about his own wedding one day. 

"That was the first time Jessica got to meet everybody from this world, and we sat there and she looked around and as you saw on television, she's like, 'This is wild. This is crazy.' But she realized that she doesn't have to be intimidated anymore," he said. "She was intimidated for a while, but now we're just, it was really good for our relationship, because now she looks at me and she goes, 'I mean, I get it.' Everything's a little weird in this world.'"

Higgins revealed his relationship with Clarke to fans in February, nearly two years after he and Lauren Bushnell ended their engagement. The Generous Coffee co-founder told ET that he and Clarke set Aug. 15 as the date to reevaluate their relationship -- and they couldn't be happier. 

"Jessica has just recently taken a job in both Nashville and Denver, she's gonna be bouncing back and forth. We are taking steps to continue on and further our relationship. I'm ecstatic about it. Like, it's the coolest thing to have been a part of ever. She's just the best and I'm really excited to see where this takes us," he gushed. 

Higgins is definitely in love. "[I'm] dropping the L-bomb," he revealed with a smile. "I love Jessica Clarke. Isn't that sweet?"

The couple will soon take their relationship on the road as Higgins hosts The Bachelor's newest endeavor, The Bachelor Live on Stage. The show will take the Bachelor experience to 65 shows across the country, where pre-chosen eligible Bachelors will go on a series of dates in front of a live audience. 

"There is a team pre-choosing [the men]. We're not like, looking in the audience, going, 'Hey dude, you look tired. Yeah, you should come up here and shake up your life a bit,'" Higgins joked, confirming the women participating in the show are pre-chosen as well. "Then when they get out of the limo, it's the first time he's meeting them as well." 

For now, there aren't plans to introduce same-sex couples to the live show, like Paradise did this season with Demi Burnett and Kristian Haggerty. "But you never know where it will take you," Higgins noted. 

Bachelor in Paradise season six concludes Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. See more in the video below. 

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