'The Bachelor' 's Bekah Martinez Opens Up About Her New Boyfriend: 'We Just Hit It Off'

Bekah Martinez went on The Bachelor to meet a man — but she ended up finding love the old-fashioned way

Bekah Martinez went on The Bachelor to meet a man — but she ended up finding love the old-fashioned way.

Martinez, 23, opened up about her new beau Grayston Leonard, 29, on PeopleTV’s Chatter.

“We had a bunch of mutual friends, and we just hit it off,” said Martinez, one of the women who vied for Arie Luyendyk‘s heart.

Leonard, who is opening a rock climbing facility called Long Beach Rising, started dating Martinez five months ago while The Bachelor was airing, but he has chosen not to watch the show.

“His friends were like, ‘Dude, are you gonna watch it?’ ” said Martinez. “And he was like, ‘No, I don’t want the show affecting my opinion of who I know her to be.’ ”

“We’re just keeping it on the DL,” she continued. “Didn’t want a bunch of people speculating and chiming in on the Internet. And also, you don’t want it to be one of those things where you’re with somebody for two months and then post stuff about it and then break up and have to deal with all that.”

Earlier this month, Leonard posted a sweet Instagram of the couple and wrote, “The training wheels are off and this lil boy gets to run wild and share my love and affection publicly. This is my lady and I’m proud of it.”

Martinez posted her own snapshot and added, “I’m sorry for the gushiness but I’m excited cause I’ve waited a while to open up about mah boo thang!!”

Martinez recently told PureWow that she opted out of Bachelor in Paradise because of her romance with Leonard.

Leonard, meanwhile, is getting used to having a recognizable girlfriend.

“He’s pretty familiar with it now, but it definitely is weird, especially when we travel out of state,” Martinez said on Chatter. “I think people in L.A. are a lot more chill. We were in Utah and Colorado, and people don’t quite have the same sense of personal space there.”

Martinez also got candid about the heated responses she has received to her headline-making turn on The Bachelor, which included discussion of her pixie cut and her time on a missing persons list.

“To be fair … I gave them a lot of material to dissect,” she said. “But yeah, it can be frustrating. Even now, I’m somebody who puts it all out there.”

Her message to haters? “Get a life!”