Bachelor Nation star Connor Saeli and TikToker Jenna Palek are formally courting.
After months of rumors, Palek confirmed Friday that she and Saeli quietly grew to become a pair final fall.
“It was very arduous actually. Making an attempt to navigate a friendship turned relationship when folks on-line try to let you know what it’s if you don’t even know,” she wrote on her Instagram Story.
“I used to be hesitant … Turned out it was for the higher & we began courting formally in November. Issues have been nice!!”
Palek, 24, admitted she had “all the time appreciated” and been “a fan” of Saeli, 27, after watching him on “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise,” so she messaged him on LinkedIn in 2019 however didn’t obtain a response.
After Saeli and his “Bachelorette” co-star Mike Johnson moved to Palek’s native Austin, Texas, collectively in late 2020, she made a TikTok video poking enjoyable at herself for being ghosted by the fact star. Saeli noticed it, lastly adopted Palek again and requested her to hang around that October.
“We have been associates for a bit and misplaced contact that fall, simply at completely different levels of life,” she recalled. “Reconnected February 2021 and steadily grew to become actually good associates.”
Whereas the social media sensation described their preliminary relationship as “platonic,” she acknowledged she was “clearly falling for” Saeli as they acquired to know one another extra.
“I acquired invited on a [weeklong work] journey to Chicago and milwaukee in June. None of my associates may go bc of their work schedule, so I invited Connor,” she shared. “We have been purely associates throughout that journey & I feel the very fact there was not stress to impress him actually allowed us to simply join otherwise.”
Palek wrote that “some emotions had fashioned” through the journey, and whereas spending time with Saeli and Johnson, 34, in Los Angeles within the fall, she and the Waterboy founder grew to become girlfriend and boyfriend.
“I’m very open about my life however he’s positively extra reserved which I recognize, so I don’t share a lot about our relationship as a result of it’s one factor that I wish to need to myself,” the “Enjoyable on Weekdays” podcast host concluded her submit, including that she additionally tries to “respect” Saeli and “what he’s snug sharing.”
Saeli has solely publicly mentioned Palek as soon as, saying on Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast in September 2021 that they have been simply “actually, actually good associates” who have been nonetheless “attempting to determine” their relationship.
He beforehand dated Season 15 “Bachelorette” Hannah Brown and his “Bachelor in Paradise” Season 6 co-star Whitney Fransway.
