We saw The Bachelor Sean Lowe pick his would-be bride on the finale of the show earlier this week. It was assumed that Sean and his fiance, Catherine Giudici, were waiting until their wedding night to do the deed. Sean graced the cover of US Weekly last month, when a source told the magazine that Sean was a “born-again virgin,” had found religion and was pledging not to have sex again until he was married. In the new issue of People, Sean and Catherine confirm that they’re waiting to have sex until their married. Do you think the women he passed up on the show feel like they dodged a bullet?
Millions watched their romantic proposal in Thailand – and now The Bachelor’s newly engaged Sean Lowe and Catherine Giudici can finally proclaim their love to the world.
“I’m just so excited that the secret is out,” Lowe tells PEOPLE.
Adds Giudici: “Now, we can be a normal couple and hold hands in public!”
Hold hands they will, but Lowe and Giudici have vowed to save being intimate until after the wedding.
“From my perspective, I’ve lived life kind of selfishly for a long time,” says Lowe, a conservative Christian and born-again virgin. “Now, I’m going to try to live it the way I know to be right.”
As for his bride-to-be’s feelings on the topic? “I honor him,” she says.
The pair, who announced they will tie the knot on a televised special for ABC, most likely don’t have too long of a wait, though.
“I’m a guy. I’d go to the courthouse tomorrow if she’d let me,” says Lowe. “We just fit so well together. We both know it’s right.”
For more on the newly-engaged lovebirds, including wedding details, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday
When Sean says “I’m a guy. I’d go to the courthouse tomorrow,” I hear “I’m a guy, I really want to have sex finally.” I really don’t get this “waiting until marriage” thing, but I never did have an understanding of religion, even when I tried to practice it. Also, what happens if you end up married to someone who is a total dud in bed and nothing can be done to fix it? Isn’t that a possibility, or that you’re not sexually compatible? I guess they’ll find out. Plus they get publicity, a free wedding and some kind of temporary media career out of the deal.
Speaking of that, Sean is going to be on Dancing With The Stars. They made the announcement on Good Morning America Monday.
Well they’re in for some surprises.
Think it’s really odd in this day and age not to sleep together before marriage, but I respect Sean for this decision and respect Catherine “for honoring” his beliefs–how refreshing.
I LOVE this couple and think they are the real deal.
I guess I respect that decision…? But for me, I’d need to know what I was working with. I like a little test drive before purchase, you know? I mean sometimes you can have great chemistry with someone and things just do not work well in the bedroom.
Amen. More than anything, what if your sex drive is drastically different? He stopped having sex since college. That would be around 22. So he hasn’t had sex for seven years. I’m sorry, I find that odd for a man with a strong sex drive. I can see cutting out random sex hookups and respecting what sex should signify, sharing it in a relationship with someone you care about, but nothing until marriage and marriage isn’t coming until seven years or eight years of no sex all throughout your twenties?
Also, I just wonder, was he getting BJs? I know several girls who would get naked and give a guy a BJ on the first date but brag they didn’t have sex, like they were all pure. All righty. Sure. Maybe he considered that no sex.
But if he truly had no sex for seven years in any form, I just find it odd and wonder what his sex drive is. I read also her sisters said when they met him on her hometown date that she usually got bored in her relationships and moved on and that she really wanted to work on her career and move to New York. He seemed concerned, because she had never told him that. She had a good job I think at Google or Amazon.
I don’t know. Call me skeptical with them wanting to marry rather soon when they have only had a few private weekends together since the show wrapped and now he’s going to be focused on Dancing With The Stars in Hollywood or LA the next few months with her hanging around I guess. Then she will move to Dallas, where he lives, another big change in her life from living in Seattle, with now living in a new state and town with no friends and getting married within a few months after that.
They both seem like nice people, but we’ll see . . . Plus, I saw the finale and the guy was saying he was in love with both and couldn’t make up his mind. His mom was freaking out and crying and saying then you shouldn’t be marrying either one of them. He said he didn’t make up his mind until after the last date, the day before proposing, which one he was choosing. I find that disrespectful to marriage, not knowing who he wanted to marry until the last minute practically for a TV show. LOL He did seem very in love on the show reuniting them, but I would be insulted that he was so torn between them both and in love with them both. It makes a mockery of what getting engaged signifies.
OK, I’m rolling in the floor with your comment (not disagreeing, mind you). The entire premise of the Bachelor/Bachelorette/any reality show that tries to marry people off is that it is a parody of courtship, engagement, and love. It’s not just the “in love with two people” thing. It’s the whole concept that’s disrespectful, and really undermines that two people should get married because they are WHOLE people unto themselves who have decided they want to take on a partnership and be a better team. Not that they can’t change and grow, but that marriage happens organically, not because they signed up for a TV show.
Also, I would like to see a gay Bachelor/Bachelorette. If we’re going to have this crappy premise, let’s at least make sure it’s trampling on EVERYONE’S attempts to find love and marriage fairly.
I guess the whole concept is that you find someone that is great on every other level, and THEN you work together to make sex better. Growing up in the Bible belt, that is what we were taught (at least, those of us who had parents/family members who acknowledged that sex existed-everyone else was just told, “Sex is bad. Don’t have sex.” Great for your mental, physical, and emotional health.) Sex with the same person for your entire life is what you make of it. It can be explosive and energetic and fun-if you’re both willing to work to keep it that way. OR it could suck, and if you don’t communicate and aren’t honest with each other, it will continue to suck for the rest of your life. That’s true if you’ve had sex before marriage or waited til it was “right.” But if you’ve gotten married for the right reasons, you’ll be able to communicate with each other and make it better.
That’s the THEORY. I don’t know how often it works out in FACT. In my personal experience observing my friends and colleagues, because so many Christians are repressed sexually, they either can’t communicate about their needs OR their needs pop out in fetishes or “kink” because they have been repressing it for so long. ETA: there is a whole section on Christian, Married Sex in the Christian Bookstores. I have a couple of friends who bought books to either prep for their marriage, or whose mother/sister/father/brother bought them the book. Sex in Christian households is either taboo conversation, or straight up part of life. The part of life kids turn out more normal, I think.
I lived with MrTarheel before our wedding, so I can’t offer my personal insight into waiting. Getting busy with the same person for going on 5 years is working out pretty well, though.
HEE! @ your last paragraph. Mr. S and I were “intimate” prior to marriage (despite my stellar Christian upbringing) and after 12 years, we’re still explosive.
Like you, I understand the reasoning, but the application seems…lacking somehow.
As someone who waited til marriage I can say mine worked out perfectly. I grew up in a Christian home. Sex was not considered evil but a gift you share with your husband. My mother never told me that I’d be a slut if I had premarital sex or anything like that.i just remember her pretty much brainwashing me that no one can touch my “flower” other than my husband. She was very honest with me telling me she had slept with 30+ guys before she met my dad (imagine me at 14 horrified lmao). Although it gave her much experience she said she regretted being so used up when she met dad. I feel so blessed in that I feel comfortable and have no inhibitions when it comes to sex with my husband even though he’s my first everything.
When I have kids I would like for them to wait but it sure wouldn’t be a requirement. I would want them to decide for themselves. At the end of the day they are their own person and whatever decision they make ill support coz I love them.
THIS!!!!
He actually has eyebrows on that cover.
Good for them for waiting. I was in a similar situation with my now-husband (minus the whole, ya know, Bachelor show) and we waited. I’m glad we did–it was something I felt strongly about and so did he. We’ve been married 3 years and we’re doing great. While sex is really important, we made the decision of who we married based on other things in addition to chemistry, And you work at it for a lifetime. I know that’s not how a lot of people feel about it, but that’s how it’s been for us.
People who feel the need to broadcast their sex life ( or lack of) are plain trashy. There is not need for anyone who is not in a relationship with you to know that information.
And now even more reason to avoid DWTS. I was already planning on not watching after the dirty judging last season. The judges couldn’t even hide how far up basic Melissa’s behind they were.
I just keep hearing Jessica Valenti in my head:
“I don’t care if you choose to have sex or not before you marry and nor should anyone else”
I have the benefit of time.(20 years) Of all my Christian friends that “waited” to have sex, they are all divorced with the exception of 1 couple. Of my friends that either had sex with their mates, or had previous sexual partners, they are still married. No judgments either way, do what works for you.
I’m sick of hearing about this guy!! The Bachelor hasn’t been relevant in forever and who the hell cares if your a virgin, buddy?! If you want to remain a virgin or have sex with randoms, it’s truly no ones business but yours.
The thing that really bugs me is he’s not even a virgin, as he’s been billed on tabloid covers, but a “born again virgin.” Um, you can’t undo the fact that you had sex. He was celibate. This new terminology irks me to no end!
Just another angle to keep the franchise alive. I lost interest after Andrew Firestone, seems like a million years ago.
Funny you say that because that was the last season I watched too……
Well they’ve succeeded in making him look a bit creepy on the cover. I think the show is more entertainment than reality but I’m choosing to believe that he was never really that torn between Lyndsay and Catherine but it’s part of the show, he can hardly declare he knows who he’s picking can he?
I’m hoping they’re the real deal cos that would be sweet, the no sex before marriage is their business and I really wish the whole born again virgin thing never come out. I’d just prefer not to think about it. Interestingly the three couples to wed on screen are still together (as far as I’m aware).
I don’t know why my usual cynical side is staying quiet….
So we see that being a “virgin” has nothing to do with being modest about sex. I’ll take a slut with discretion over that any day.
Amen to that!
I didn’t watch the show, but there was no escaping this guy! I feel about him the way Olivia Wild feels about the Biebs- put on a shirt already!!
The “saving” issue- seriously, they won’t get married anyway, none of them do, so shut up about it.
First of all, I hate this whole “born again” thing. You can’t unring a bell…..you had sex, you are no longer a virgin. The end.
And second, I don’t believe he has been 100% abstinate for 7 years. Come on. He may not have put his P in anyone’s V, but I can almost guarantee there was plenty of other activity going on.
Haha, yes. I said pretty much the same thing above, although you phrased it much better. I obviously didn’t scroll down far enough.
My husband and I both grew up in very religious homes and we didn’t sleep together until marriage (I was 22 when we got married). Sigh. I love my husband and it’s all good for us but I am almost 40 now and I still really wish I would have slept around when I was young like a normal person.
Amen. I regret being such a goody two shoes when I was young, I should have had a little more fun and worried less about ” what will people think?!?”
“Do you think the women he passed up on the show feel like they dodged a bullet?”
Yes. Yes I do, and I feel like this girl isn’t all that thrilled about it, but hey that’s a PR relationship for ya.
Anyhow, there simply is no such thing as a born again virgin, and I really don’t believe him about it anyway.
For some people it works out not having sex before marriage, but IMO that’s just good luck. I wouldn’t agree to it, the risk of finding each other sexually incompatible is too high. And then there’s that pesky religion lurking in the background.
I guess the theory sounds good, but what about inescapable realities? My daughter dated a guy she was really crazy about but anatomically they weren’t a good match. He was, ahem, EXTREMELY well endowed and though women say they love that, in her case he just didn’t fit. He caused her pain often, and after a while she just decided it wasn’t worth it. What would they do then?
Tell their dads about it?
Eek, why do you know this?
I love that people are referencing this with a straight face as if these two are actually going to get married. Name me one “couple” from this show that have ever ended up together longer than an obnoxiously publicized *cough* few months? (Trista & Ashley don’t really count as they were leads on “The Bachelorette”)
It’s THE BACHELOR folks. Quite possibly the most fabricated ‘reality’ tv show out there. (Just listen to/watch interviews with past leads/contestants.) Enough said.
Why have they been photoshopped to look like they’re in Twilight?
^THIS!
My exact first thought at the picture. Sean looks like a vampire and Catherine looks caucasianified. The photoshopping is hideous! It doesn’t look like them at all!
Love Sean, but wish he hadn’t talked about being a “born-again virgin”–that’s just too much.
He should have said he had made a religious choice to change his ways and remain celibate until marriage. I hate anything that says “born again”…it goes all over me. And no one can be RE-VIRGINIZED.
If so, I qualify at this point.
I am guilty this year of actually watching the bachelor, I think Sean is an honest guy, or trying to be. I have yet to hear him or read of him actually using that term. I think this is a term the tabloids used in headlines to describe his decision to stay celibate until marriage after a period of not being celibate. And the rest of the press and gossip sites ran with that term cause everyone knows what it means even though it sounds completely disingenious. As others have said, you can’t unring a bell.
I must say though that I am just as disgusted with people who harp on about their celibacy as with those who harp on about their slutiness. It’s not about shame it’s about decency. The public at large does not need to know your sexual status one way or the other, and celebrities shouldn’t be expected to answer such obnoxious questions. Some things should remain private: boundaries people, boundaries.
I was watching some entertainment show and they were saying that the average bachelor sleeps with at least 3 women on the show….all I can say is ewww.
Personal decision, clearly. But who cares, really? Does this guy think it makes a difference, in the larger scheme of things, whether or not he sleeps with someone now or two months from now? I hope he’s not vain and self-centered enough to think that it would make any difference to the god he says he believes in. I’m sorry, but it just seems silly.
This is the reason why so many young Christians get married right out of college. They meet at 18 and don’t have to wait too long to have sex. They marry either at 20 or 21-22.
Didn’t he just say he doesn’t like fame or something and now he’s on DWTS. Remember Jake and that long nosed girl Vienna. He went on DWTS too. I’ll bet he’ll be paired with Cheryl Burke. I swear there’s something going on with her and every dance partner she has.
They won’t last now.