Ben Higgins and wife Jessica Clarke are expecting a baby! The Bachelor star teases the sex and due date

The Bachelor’s Ben Higgins and Wife Jessica Clarke Are Expecting Their First Baby: The Next Chapter of Our Love Story!’

Clarke revealed in the caption of their Aug. 18 Instagram announcement that their baby-on-the way is a girl, due in February

Ben Higgins and Jessica Clarke are going to be parents!

On Sunday, Aug. 18, the former Bachelor star, 35, and wife Jessica Clarke announced in a heartfelt Instagram Reel that Clarke, 29, is pregnant and expecting their first child, a baby girl.

The video — which the couple shared jointly on their respective Instagram accounts — features clips of different moments in the pair’s relationship, including their engagement proposal, scenes from their wedding and sweet footage of them hugging.

Also in the video, which was set to country singer Cody Johnson’s song “On My Way to You,” fans can see a clip of the couple’s dog Waylon wearing a handkerchief reading “Big Brother,” Clarke injecting herself with a shot into her stomach — seemingly a hormone injection for promoting pregnancy — and a few short moments of their friends and family reacting to the news of her pregnancy.

Higgins and Clarke also featured footage of a sonogram, which showed that Clarke was 12 weeks pregnant when it was filmed.

“The next chapter of our love story! Baby girl coming in February ❤️,” the pair captioned the video, teasing the baby’s due date.

Back in 2022, the former reality TV contestant spoke to E! News about the couple’s plans to have kids, stating at the time that they wanted to wait.

“We’re excited for kids,” he told the outlet. “I believe that, God willing, we will have kids. But right now it’s not a conversation we have often and it’s not something I believe either of us are craving. You know, you hear the ‘baby fever,’ I don’t know if either of us have baby fever right now.”

Higgins and Clarke tied the knot in November 2021 in a romantic ceremony at The Estate in Cherokee Dock near Nashville.

Guests included fellow Bachelor franchise alums such as Nick Viall, Becca Kufrin and Thomas Jacobs, Jared Haibon and Ashley Iaconnetti, and Wells Adams, who also served as a groomsman.

Higgins and Clarke, who met via social media in 2018, gushed to PEOPLE about each other days before their wedding.

“Ben doesn’t just make me want to be a better person, but he actually makes me a better person,” Clarke said at the time. “He assures me in all of my dreams and all of my goals. I never thought I’d have a partner that accepted every part of me.”

Said Higgins: “Jessica is so incredibly empathetic and caring. She encourages me and she supports me and I know she cares about who I am and where I’m going. I’m so excited that I get to love her — and be loved by her — every single day. And I am so thankful that I found her.”