Were Going to Make ThisWork

Unlike the many who’ve come before them, recent Bachelorette couple Jillian Harris and Ed Swiderski took the giant leap from being just another reality show couple to get engaged while the cameras are rolling, to bonafide real-life couple when they moved in together in September.

Now living in Chicago, both admit in the latest issue of PEOPLE that it took a lot of effort to get to this next step in their relationship. Last August, two former girlfriends of Swiderski’s claimed that he continued relationships during his time on The Bachelorette, and even after he became engaged to Harris.

Before he proposed to Harris, “I was a bachelor in ever ysense of the word,” Swiderski admits to PEOPLE. “I am not an angel, but things were exaggerated.”

Harris, who stood by Swiderski days after the news broke, maintains her fiance did nothing wrong. “It would be more na ve of me to trust these women than to trust the person I’m going to bed with every single night and have spoken to every single night,” Harris says.

After a long summer of traveling back and forth to each other’s hometowns, the couple have settled into Swiderski’s one-bedroom Chicago condo.

For more on Harris and Swiderski’s big move, pick up the Oct. 12 issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. — Monica Rizzo

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