Farmer Wants a Wife‘s Sean and Emily Reveal What Life Is Really Like After the Show Stopped Filming (Exclusive)

Sean Cavanaugh and Emily Rushnell share how their romance grew after filming and why they’ve been “inseparable” ever since

Sean Cavanaugh and Emily Rushnell on ‘Farmer Wants a Wife’.Credit : FOX

NEED TO KNOW

Farmer Wants a Wife stars Sean Cavanaugh and Emily Rushnell are revealing where their relationship stands after the season 4 finale
The pair tells PEOPLE the romantic promise they made during filming and why their connection grew off camera
Sean and Emily also open up about long distance, meeting each other’s families and plans for the future

The cameras may have stopped rolling, but for Sean Cavanaugh and Emily Rushnell, their love story is only just beginning.

The fan-favorite couple opened up to PEOPLE before the Tuesday, June 9 season finale of Fox’s Farmer Wants a Wife about what happened after filming wrapped — including the romantic promise they made on their first solo date, the challenge of hiding their relationship for months and why they now consider themselves “inseparable.”

While viewers watched their connection blossom throughout the season, which premiered on April 21, Sean admits he knew fairly early on that Emily was different. “You can’t fake chemistry,” he says. “Right off the bat, if you put any person in a room with five people, you would know right off the bat who you have the most chemistry with.”

Though he signed up for a process that required him to give each woman a chance, Sean says his feelings for Emily quickly became impossible to ignore.

Sean Cavanaugh and Emily Rushnell on ‘Farmer Wants a Wife’.FOX

“To be completely honest, I kind of always knew in the back of my mind,” he says. “Especially at the point of our solo date. We really had a lot of time to spend with each other, and we really got to know each other. I think that was just an undeniable day. It went so well that I pretty much knew what I was going to do after that.”

Emily felt it, too. “We had this little moment where I gave him a wave, but he waved back and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” she recalls of meeting Sean on day one. “It was sort of an immediate spark.”

One of their favorite memories from the experience never even made it to air. Sean says that during their winery date, they spent far more time together than viewers saw on television.

“We actually got to stomp grapes in a barrel and try our own grape juice from the winery,” he says. “It was a very special, fun, playful moment.”

The date also led to a promise the couple still talks about today. “We went to the wine cellar and picked out a bottle of wine on our solo date, and we got to kind of make a promise together that in a year’s time, when we’re still together, we’d open this bottle in celebration of where our relationship started,” Sean says. “I think that was a very romantic, memorable moment.”

Emily adds, “We have the bottle in the barn.”

While viewers are just now watching their relationship unfold onscreen, Emily says their romance truly took off after production wrapped. She adds that is when the couple “really started to get to know one another.”

The pair later spent Thanksgiving together before Emily returned to Florida for work. The distance proved difficult. “We were apart from December 1 to Christmas, and we talked on the phone every single day for hours and hours,” Emily says.

When Sean eventually flew out to visit her, neither wanted to experience that separation again, she says. Soon after, Sean packed up his truck and drove across the country to help Emily move to Georgia. “We’ve been together every day since,” Emily says. “We’re inseparable.”

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According to Sean, keeping their romance under wraps for nearly seven months has been one of the most challenging parts of the experience. They’ve had to “stay in the house,” avoid going out to dinner and stay “very private about everything we’re doing.”

Now, he’s looking forward to finally showing fans how their lives have actually looked away from the cameras. “Opening that up to the public and saying, ‘Hey, this is what we’ve really been up to for these past seven months. This is how real our relationship is,’ is going to be very exciting.”

For Emily, the secrecy has been equally difficult. “It’s so weird when you love someone so much and you just want to shout it from the top of your lungs, and you can’t,” she says. “So we’re very excited.”

As for what’s next, Sean and Emily confirm they’ve already had conversations about marriage. Sean encourages fans to “stay tuned,” teasing it’s “definitely in the works.” Emily echoes his answer with a laugh: “Stay tuned.”

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For now, they’re simply enjoying life together — something they say feels even better than they imagined when they took a leap of faith and signed up for a reality dating show. “Another one of my favorite things is she’s truly my best friend,” Sean says. “We can go out to dinner and hang out for six hours and just sit there, laugh and spend time together like we’re best friends.”

He adds, “But we love each other so much. She’s also the love of my life at the same time.”

Sean pauses before concluding, “It’s literally everything I’ve ever imagined in my entire life and more.”

Season 4 of Farmer Wants a Wife is now streaming on Hulu.