Mixed feelings! Lauren Burnham is on the fence about whether she wants more babies with Arie Luyendyk Jr. after his January vasectomy.
“I wasn’t necessarily ready to close that chapter yet just because, I know it’s hard right now [with three kids under 3], but once we’re out of this space, I might want another one,” the Shades of Rose designer, 30, exclusively told Us Weekly on Friday, February 18, while promoting their Lauren & Arie YouTube channel. “Who knows?”
The Virginia native, who shares Alessi, 2, and twins Senna and Lux, 8 months, with the former Bachelor, 40, noted that they can “always adopt” in the future or get his procedure reversed.
“They’re reversible if we have some heartaches in five years’ time,” the Bachelorette alum told Us of his vasectomy. “This is the first time we’ve ever really felt an age gap. She’s 30, and I have a little bit of a different outlook. I want to be a younger dad. I’m not a young dad, but I don’t want to be an even older dad than I am know.”
The Netherlands native explained that their decision to stop expanding was “based around” his age, concluding, “Five years from now, I’ll be 45. I feel like that might be a little bit too late for me to be active with [babies].”
The Bachelor Nation members documented Luyendyk Jr.’s vasectomy in a YouTube video earlier this month. The race car driver compared the procedure to “being kicked in the nuts as hard as someone could kick you” at the time.
“I’m resistant to local antibiotics, which is what they use,” Luyendyk Jr. told Us while reflecting on the “painful” experience on Friday. “So I don’t know if it worked for me. Everyone was like, ‘Man, I didn’t feel anything.’ I was like, ‘No, I definitely felt everything. I could tell everything that was happening down there.’ It was not pleasant.”
The real estate broker first announced in September 2021 that it was “vasectomy time,” telling his Instagram followers: “No more babies.”
The following month, Luyendyk Jr. told Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti that three “is it” for their family. “I think we’re so happy because we have our boy, we have the two girls. And I’m already 40, guys,” he explained during an October 2021 “Almost Famous” podcast episode. “I can’t be having kids any later than this in life. I want to be, like, an active dad. So, I think three is OK.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi