Why Sean Lowe Was Celibate When Filming ‘The Bachelor’

Tonight, ABC will begin to air The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons – Ever!, which will be three-hour episodes that recap the best seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. Sean Lowe’s season is the first that will be aired.

The Bachelor famously focuses on sexuality and passion throughout each season, with producers lingering on kisses and putting emphasis on which couples make it into the fantasy suites. The series creator has even said that the average leading man on the show sleeps with three women each season.

That was different when it came to Bachelor Season 17 with Sean Lowe, though. Lowe has been open about his religion and celibacy during his season of the show.

Warning: Spoilers for Sean Lowe’s season of The Bachelor follow. 

The night before his proposal, Sean was having second thoughts because he wasn’t sure about Catherine’s religion.

“What did I really know about Catherine’s faith?” he questioned. “Was she a Christian? Was she serious about faith?”

He was able to have a late-night talk with her to solidify his feelings before the proposal the next day.

Lowe Was a Born-Again Virgin Prior to Filming

VideoVideo related to why sean lowe was celibate when filming ‘the bachelor’2020-06-08T18:41:01-04:00

Lowe wasn’t truly a virgin when he began filming, having said he lost his virginity in his early 20s after college. He was, however, celibate for years, saying that when he had intercourse when he was around 24, he would feel incredibly guilty and decided that he wanted to wait until marriage to do it again.

“I didn’t have sex in college. And honestly, I don’t even know if I knew at that time why I took that stance. After graduating college, I moved back to Dallas,” he told I Am Second. “I was dating other girls and I started having sex, and I would feel extremely guilty afterward.”

“But after that guilt faded, then I’d start talking to some other girl and go down that same path of destruction,” he explained. “At the age of 24, I finally became a man. I said, ‘OK Jesus, let’s do it again.’”

Sean said he was labeled as an outsider after he was labeled as “the Virgin Bachelor,” and he said he’d never actually described himself that way, though it was true.

“It’s a decision that I’ve made,” he added. “But I don’t think it needs to be discussed on the show. That’s my personal opinion … for me, it’s a non-story.”

Lowe and Catherine Stayed Celibate Until Their Wedding Night

The couple got married in 2014 after getting engaged during the final rose ceremony on the show, which took place in 2012.

Their wedding was The Bachelor franchise’s first-ever live TV wedding. During the wedding, Sean’s father said that their love had “been an epic fairy-tale, on display for all the world to see.”

Lowe was the first Bachelor contestant in 17 seasons to marry the woman he proposed to.

The Bachelor leaned into the fact that Catherine and Sean hadn’t had sex yet during the wedding, showing a small video thumbnail on the bottom of the screen that was live streaming from the Honeymoon Suite during the wedding.

Lowe and Catherine are still married, and they have three children together.

Did John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John Ever Date?