Chris Harrison is celebrating a super special event: his youngest child, Taylor’s, high school graduation! The 50-year-old former Bachelor host shared a post to his Instagram page on June 3 celebrating the achievement and gushed about how proud his 18-year-old daughter makes him. “And just like that, in the blink of an eye, this beautiful woman strolled across the stage and into the next chapter of her life. It’s always tough as a parent because if you do your job right your kids grow up to be strong independent people ready to spread their wings and fly,” he wrote alongside a photo of him, his eldest child, son Joshua, 20, and fiancée, Lauren Zima, 34, smiling with the recent grad. He continued, “Tay we love you so much and are beyond proud of you. Congratulations and now…Go Frogs.” Additional photos in the post showed Taylor walking across the stage at graduation and outside her school right after she received her diploma.
On May 1, Taylor committed to Texas Christian University, which Chris boasted about on Instagram as well. “Today is National college decision day. Thousands and thousands of kids who have battled through some incredibly challenging times have come out the other side and now it’s time to celebrate their achievements. Congratulations to all those kids headed to college next fall. In our house Taylor earned the honor of choosing to attend TCU!!!!” the doting dad explained. “I’m so incredibly proud of you Tay. Two frogs are better than one. It’ll be great having both kids in Fort Worth!” As he noted, Joshua is already a student at Texas Christian University.
It seems that Chris has left Hollywood completely behind, as his entire life is now grounded in Texas. In addition to his two children attending university in the southern state, Chris built a brand-new home in Austin, which was completed in late 2021 or early 2022. In a March cover story for Austin Lifestyle magazine, he said he planned to move to Texas, where he is from, for a long time. “I always knew I wanted to eventually move back home to Texas,” he told the publication. “Since I was young, I’ve loved Austin, and when I knew my future was with Lauren – that was the real deciding factor. I realized that I wanted us to start a life together somewhere neither of us had lived, to build our own unique memories, with just us. I took her to Austin and she fell in love with the city, too.”
Lauren exuded love for Austin when she shared a slideshow of photos from their Austin Lifestyle shoot on her Instagram page. “Chris Harrison and I have loved our time in Austin over the past year-and-a-half building our first home together. We’ve been so warmly welcomed and are excited to continue investing in the incredible community of arts, food and people we’ve seen,” she began in her caption. “We wanted to find an Austin publication to share the artistry of some of the local companies who did beautiful work in our house, and when @austinlifestylemagazine reached out for their ‘at home with’ issue, it seemed a perfect fit!”
Lauren, a correspondent for Entertainment Tonight, which is based in Los Angeles, and Chris got engaged in Oct. 2021 after dating for about three years. “We tell each other this all the time, and we said it again in an unforgettably beautiful moment this weekend: I didn’t know love could be like this,” Lauren wrote in a post in which she shared several snapshots from their Napa Valley engagement shoot. “You are the most incredible partner. Thank you for loving me, championing me and asking me to marry you. Here’s to the next amazing chapter, and all the rest.”
Lauren created Entertainment Tonight’s “Roses and Rosé” segment, which covers all things Bachelor. She met Chris through work, and the rest is history. Although Chris is no longer associated with the popular ABC franchise, as he said in his Instagram bio, he clearly “will always love love.”