Back in the game! Bachelorette alum Jordan Kimball spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about dating following his breakup from ex-fiancée Jenna Cooper.
“I’m very excited to open my heart up again,” the 26-year-old model told Us at the Supermodels Unlimited 18th Anniversary Celebration in Hollywood on Saturday, October 13. “You’ve gotta kind of take that on with excitement.”
Kimball added: “You can’t walk into it with ‘Ah I hope this doesn’t happen again.’ You just have to let that go, let it be the situation it was, let it burn, and then move forward. And so every night that I am walking around on this earth as myself, I’m very excited to meet someone that is for me. And if that happens, hey that’s fantastic. If I don’t meet her anytime soon, then we’re going to keep tick-tocking until it rocks.”
The Florida native — who proposed to ex Cooper on the season 5 finale of Bachelor in Paradise just to call things off the day after the episode aired in September — also opened up to Us about the qualities he seeks in a partner.
“I’m looking for someone that is very intelligent, someone that can handle a lot,” Kimball said. “Someone that maybe can handle distance at times because I’ve been in a different city every day for quite some time now.”
He continued: “I’m looking for someone who is intelligent … I’m looking for a sweetheart. I’m looking for my girl.”
Kimball and Cooper’s breakup played out in the spotlight after their time on the ABC reality dating competition. Following their public engagement, Reality Steve published screenshots of alleged text messages between the 29-year-old and an unnamed man, claiming her infidelity.
Kimball told Us at the event that to him, the controversy was “behind us,” adding that he’s not yet fully over the relationship.
“It’s something that just kind of hits you here and there. It just kind of strikes,” Kimball explained. “You get in your feelings and you deal with it. You just flood yourself with positivity and you hope that you can get through the rest of the day. It is still very recent. It’s not easy. But I’m getting through it.”
Cooper, for her part, had a security company scrub her iPhone, iPad and iCloud backup, which allegedly proved she was not unfaithful.
“A comprehensive forensic examination of Jenna’s devices by an independent third-party expert has definitively confirmed none of the text messages in question came from Jenna’s phone,” Cooper’s rep, Steve Honig, told Us on Monday, October 15. “Given the conclusive findings of the forensic report, Jenna’s team is considering all options available to Jenna relating to the fraudulent texts.”
With reporting by Nicole Pajer
