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Bachelor Nation star Connor Saeli and TikToker Jenna Palek are officially dating.
After months of rumors, Palek confirmed Friday that she and Saeli quietly became a couple last fall.
“It was very hard honestly. Trying to navigate a friendship turned relationship when people online are trying to tell you what it is when you don’t even know,” she wrote on her Instagram Story.
“I was hesitant … Turned out it was for the better & we started dating officially in November. Things have been great!!”
Palek, 24, admitted she had been “a fan” and “always liked” Saeli, 27, after watching him on “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise,” so she messaged him on LinkedIn in 2019 but did not receive a response.
After Saeli and his “Bachelorette” co-star Mike Johnson moved to Palek’s native Austin, Texas, together in late 2020, she made a TikTok video poking fun at herself for being ghosted by the reality star. Saeli saw it, finally followed Palek back and asked her to hang out in October 2020.
“We were friends for a bit and lost touch that fall, just at different stages of life,” she recalled. “Reconnected February 2021 and gradually became really good friends.”
While the social media sensation described their initial relationship as “platonic,” she acknowledged she was “clearly falling for” Saeli as they got to know each other more.
“I got invited on a [weeklong work] trip to Chicago and milwaukee in June. None of my friends could go bc of their work schedule, so I invited Connor,” she shared. “We were purely friends during that trip & I think the fact there was not pressure to impress him really allowed us to just connect in a different way.”
Palek wrote that “some feelings had formed” during the trip, and while spending time with Saeli and Johnson, 34, in Los Angeles in the fall, she and the Waterboy founder became girlfriend and boyfriend.
“I’m very open about my life but he is definitely more reserved which I appreciate, so I don’t share much about our relationship because it’s one thing that I like to have to myself,” the “Fun on Weekdays” podcast host concluded her post, adding that she also tries to “respect” Saeli and “what he’s comfortable sharing.”
Saeli has only publicly discussed Palek once, saying on Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast in September 2021 that they were just “really, really good friends” who were still “trying to figure out” their relationship.
He previously dated Season 15 “Bachelorette” Hannah Brown and his “Bachelor in Paradise” Season 6 co-star Whitney Fransway.
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