Former Jackson resident Tessa Horst said that she and her fiancee, U.S. Navy Lt. Andy Baldwin, are “more in love than ever” following their engagement on ABC’s “The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman.”

In a phone interview conducted through ABC on Tuesday morning, their first since the airing of Monday’s two-hour season finale, the couple spoke about their experiences filming the reality series, watching their love story unfold on national television and their future plans together.

“I am so astounded that I could really, truly and honestly be in love after this, but I am,” said Horst, who lived in Jackson three years ago and worked at The Wort Hotel’s Silver Dollar Bar. “It’s great and it’s totally shocking. I’ve never felt this way about anyone else before.”

Horst accepted Baldwin’s marriage proposal during the conclusion of Monday night’s episode. While they have postponed making wedding plans to focus on living in the “real world” as an engaged couple, Horst, a San Francisco-based social worker, will move to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where Baldwin is stationed by the end of the summer.

Since the series wrapped filming nearly three months ago, Horst and Baldwin have spent three weekends together and have spoken on the phone several times each day. In that time, they have grown closer and have gotten to know each others’ quirks. Horst calls Baldwin “the biggest early bird ever” and Baldwin has become acquainted with Horst’s nighttime retainer.

Even though Horst and Baldwin have cultivated their relationship since the show’s filming, Horst said that the past two months have been “really hard.”

Due to contract agreements with ABC, she was not permitted to share the news of her engagement, not even with family members or close friends, until the airing of the final episode.

“You know, it’s one of those things that you want to share with everyone, important people in your life,” Horst said. “When you’re not able to do that, it seems secretive and shameful.”

Horst also found it difficult watching herself on national television.

“I found myself hardly even watching the episodes,” she said. “At first I couldn’t get over how awkward I felt watching myself on TV, hearing my voice and everything. Toward the end it was more like Andy and I were there, but should everyone else be there? It’s almost like being on a date with a spy there, or your parents there, everyone you know.”

It was also difficult for Horst to watch Baldwin develop strong feelings for several of the other women on the show, often kissing them and, during the final episode, even telling Bevin Powers that he loved her.

“It’s tough especially watching it now, but I have to be able to take myself back to where I was at when it was being filmed, and I have to think about how late in the game my feelings developed,” Horst said. “If you isolate it and think about it that way, it’s not as hard to watch as if I think of my feelings for Andy now and watch it.”



‘Adventure’ leads to love

Horst is still “shocked and surprised” she fell in love with Baldwin on the show. She decided to participate in the reality series to “have a good time and have an adventure,” not expecting that her feelings would grow so intense within nearly two months of filming.

“I was really doubtful about the show being able to work,” Horst said. “I don’t doubt at all that I’ve fallen in love. I think I’ll always have some sort of issues with the way it happened.”

Throughout the filming, Horst expressed reservations about her participation in the show and her feelings for Baldwin, qualities that he found attractive.

“Tessa’s unlike so many of the bachelorettes that have ever been on ‘The Bachelor’ in the fact that she was not right out of the gate like, ‘I love you, Andy, I love you,’” Baldwin said. “She was more normal. She had her reservations and actually made me work for it. The tides were turned and the bachelor was going for the bachelorette. It made it much more normal for me.”

Horst said she began falling in love with Baldwin during their date in her hometown of Washington, D.C., when he met her parents, sister and best friend, Sam Holloway, a former employee of the Community Children’s Project and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

“I was able to see Andy in a more natural environment for me and see him interact with my family, and that just made it very real to me,” Horst said. “Before that it was just with the other girls.”

After her hometown date, Horst spent time with Baldwin apart from the other women, making it easier for her to focus less on the competition and more on her feelings for him. She said during Monday’s episode that her overnight date with Baldwin brought their relationship “to the next level,” but when asked about what happened in the fantasy suite after the cameras left, Horst consulted with Baldwin.

“Andy says we played dominoes,” Horst said, laughing. “It was that point in our relationship to talk about how serious we both were about it. The next morning we went for a long run, the whole 24 hours, it felt really great for both of us.”

Given the time constraints posed by the show, Horst felt pressure to decipher her feelings for Baldwin quickly. While she never felt pressure to tell Baldwin she loved him, by the end of the filming, she realized she did.



Officer felt this was for real

When Horst expressed those feelings to Baldwin during their last date, he knew that she was the one he would choose. After riding horses on the beach in Hawaii and swimming in the ocean during the sunset, he recalled Horst running up to him and giving him a big hug. In that moment, Baldwin finally found reason to believe that his feelings were reciprocated.

“I could tell she was in love,” Baldwin said. “She was telling me that before, but I really just needed to feel that from her, feel that energy and affection, and once I felt that, that was the one thing I needed.”

Baldwin said that Horst “sealed the deal” that night when she gave him a collage she had made, comprised of pictures of them and magazine clippings that referenced memories they had made – from their first meeting when Horst introduced herself to Baldwin with a muffin joke that bombed to various conversations they shared during their dinner dates. Horst also wrote him a note that said, “I don’t want to go back to the life I was living before I met you.” She told him that she found herself “totally and completely falling in love” with him and while it had been hard for her to express her feelings throughout, she would regret not telling him how she felt.

“I knew right then and there,” Baldwin said. “I needed to feel that she was willing to go along with the format and that she was truly in love with me. On the other side I had Bevin who was head over heels in love, and it was this very, very powerful expression of that. ... I needed to feel the same from Tessa, and once I felt that, it was everything I needed in Tessa.”

Believing that they understood their feelings for one another, Horst felt “pretty confident” going into the final rose ceremony.

“I thought to myself, ‘there’s no way I can feel this and he doesn’t,’” she said.

After sharing a tearful goodbye with Powers, Baldwin told Horst that she was everything he had been looking for, someone who is elegant, sophisticated and makes him laugh so hard he gets side stitches. He then got down on one knee.

“Tessa, will you marry me?” he asked.

Having accepted his marriage proposal, Horst can now easily project where she sees herself in five years, a question she had found difficult to answer during her hometown date with Baldwin’s family.

“I see myself with Andy,” Horst said. “Maybe on our way to having a family and having so much fun together.”

At that point in the conversation, Baldwin could be heard smacking kisses all over Horst’s face as she laughed.