The quintessential reality TV show is The Bachelor/Bachelorette. A group of guys or girls live together in one villa and compete to win the same person’s heart, what could be better?
While it is highly entertaining, the show is essentially all about love and making lasting connections. The finale typically ends with an engagement but as we’ve seen, those engagements never really last that long.
The Bachelor is on its 23rd season, and The Bachelorette is currently filming its 16th season. Spin-off show Bachelor in Paradise has aired six seasons. While most of the romances have wilted much like the roses that always feature on the show, there are a handful of Bachelor Nation couples who have beaten the odds and ended up walking down the aisle.
Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter
This couple is the show’s first ever real success story. Trista Rehn, the very first Bachelorette to head a season got engaged to firefighter Ryan Sutter in the finale. Their wedding was televised in 2003 and 17 years later, they are still together. They live in Colorado and share two children.
Ashley Hebert and J.P Rosenbaum
Season 7’s Bachelorette Ashley Hebert chose J.P to be her final love. The pair married in 2012, and their televised wedding was officiated by Bachelor host Chris Harrison. They have been married for eight years and have two children.
Hannah Godwin and Dyan Barbour
The Bachelor Nation rejects met on spin-off show Bachelor in Paradise, where former contestants spend a summer of love together in a romantic destination with the goal of getting engaged at the end. They immediately hit it off and became engaged in the show’s 2019 finale. A year later they are still together and seem to be going strong throughout the lockdown.
Rachel Lindsey and Bryan Abasalo
The first black Bachelorette Rachel Lindsey stunned in her season, and ended up with contestant Bryan Abasalo. After a two year engagement, the pair tied the knot in August 2019 and recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary.
Jojo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers
Season 11’s Bachelorette Jojo knew from a very early stage that Jordan was the one. He won the first impression rose in the first week of the show, and made it all the way to the finale where he went down on one knee. The pair have been engaged since 2016 and were meant to marry in 2020 but the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to cancel their wedding day.
Chris Siegfried and Desiree Hartsock
Hartsock and Siegfried fell in love in The Bachelorette‘s ninth season. Their engagement came with some questioning as the original frontrunner Brooks Forester famously quit the show after telling Harsock he wasn’t invested in the relationship. Luckily for Siegfried, the Bachelorette accepted his proposal and the married in January 2015. Since then, they have had two children.
Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon
Ashley and Jared had not one, but two shots at love. They starred in two seasons of Bachelor in Paradise together, and finally managed to make things work. They got engaged in June 2018 and married in July 2019.
Sean Lowe and Catherine Guidici
Born-again virgin Sean Lowe shocked fans when he chose Catherine Giudici in The Bachelor‘s 17th season. Since then, the pair have tied the knot in 2014 and welcomed three children.
Jade roper and Tanner Tolbert
Another Bachelor in Paradise couple made it to the finish line. Jade and Tanner met on the spin-off show’s second season, and got engaged in the finale. Their televised wedding aired in 2016. They have two kids and are expecting their third very soon.
Carly Waddell and Evan Bass
Carly and Evan didn’t immediately hit it off on the third season of Bachelor in Paradise, but eventually they fell in love. They married in 2017 and have two children together, while Evan has three other children from a previous relationship.
Raven Gates and Adam Gottschalk
This couple met on season 4 of Bachelor in Paradise back in 2017, and the connection was instant. While they didn’t get engaged in the finale, Adam did eventually go down on one knee in 2019.
Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney
The controversial 13th season of The Bachelor saw Mesnick choose finalist Melissa Rycroft as his partner, only to end up breaking up with her and picking things back up with runner-up Molly Malaney. Luckily for them, their relationship has lasted. They tied the knot in a televised ceremony back in 2010 and have a daughter together.
Arie Luyendyk Jr. and Lauren Burnham
In another controversial moment, Season 22’s Arie Luyendyk Jr. asked not one, but two women to marry him. In the two part finale, he first popped the question to finalist Becca Kufrin before ending things and choosing runner-up Lauren Burnham the very next night. He proposed to Burnham in the ‘After the Final Rose’ reunion episode. Luckily, things worked out and the couple tied the knot in 2019 before welcoming their first child later that year.
