Once newly engaged couple Jared Haibon and Ashley Iaconetti officially make it down the aisle, we can add them to the ever-growing list of Bachelor Nation couples who have beaten the odds and tied the knot. While one of my greatest guilty pleasures is looking at cute photos of the franchise leads and Paradise alums who are still with their Final Rose recipients, the dysfunctional family tree that The Bachelor has planted goes far beyond the more well-known couples. Although not every low-key Bachelor relationship has lasted, there were and currently are plenty of Bachelor Nation couples you probably forgot about.
Whether sparks flew when two contestants met on the fratty, defunct Bachelor Pad or when they found a connection with each other out in the real world, the ties of this franchise run deep. I love Sean Lowe's dad jokes about life with his Bachelor pick Catherine Giudici as much as the next gal, but there's something very sweet about less-publicized alums who found love and made their relationship work. Sure, they did a reality TV show that one time, but they're still normal humans who aren't posting sponsored ads on Instagram every day.
While some of these couples' stories are adorable and worthy of more attention, others aren't quite happy, which explains why longtime Bachelor fans have slowly forgotten about them. But if there's any lesson we can take from this list, it's that you certainly don't have to be a lead in a sparkly dress to find love in Bachelor Nation.
Did they have a TV romance? Yes, on Bachelor in Paradise.
Are they still together? No.
Yep, before the power trio of successful Bachelor in Paradise couples solidified, there was another Paradise engagement and marriage. Marcus, the fourth place finisher on Andi Dorfman's Bachelorette season, and Lacy, a Night One castoff on Juan Pablo Galavis' Bachelor, met on the first year of Paradise and started the insane trend of the guy proposing in the season finale.
Season 2 contestants attended their intimate beach wedding in 2015, but the Paradise vibes didn't exactly bless the marriage. Marcus later revealed that they weren't legally married and that Lacy kept delaying their actual marriage, which eventually led to their split less than a year after their Paradise wedding. Speaking to PEOPLE in 2016, he said:
Looking back now, it just seems like [Lacy] became a different person. Her priorities changed, what she wanted in life changed. She was just a very different person from when I first met and got engaged to. It became a toxic relationship at times. She was very controlling. I was more of an appeasing person. I wouldn’t want to fight. There were a lot of barriers that we couldn’t overcome. I think that that made her change her mind.
Ouch. No wonder Bachelor in Paradise has basically seemed to erase any trace of them in their record of show relationships.
Did they have a TV romance? Yes, on Bachelor in Paradise.
Are they still together? No.
I like to think of Michelle as an earlier version of Ashley I. — a franchise mainstay who evolved from the slightly unflattering edit she originally received. After her introduction on Season 15 of The Bachelor, she appeared on Bachelor Pad and then the first season of Paradise, where she met Bachelorette Season 10 alum Cody. The two continued an on-and-off relationship until 2016, when they appeared on Marriage Boot Camp and subsequently broke up for good. As we'll talk about later, Marriage Boot Camp never goes well for the dating Bachelor couples among its casts.
Did they have a TV romance? Technically no, but they appeared on Bachelor in Paradise and then Marriage Boot Camp together.
Are they still together? No.
I present Exhibit B of how Marriage Boot Camp for unmarried Bachelor couples is never a great idea. On Season 2 of Paradise, JJ, from Kaitlyn Bristowe's Bachelorette season, met Juelia, who was eliminated halfway through Chris Soules' season of The Bachelor. However, they didn't date on the show and only became a couple afterwards. Their stint on Marriage Boot Camp led to their decision to split, which Juelia described to Life & Style as "based on information from boot camp, which is the whole purpose of doing it."
However, Juelia is still dating within the Bachelor family — she's currently in a relationship with Evan Bass's brother Aaron, who she met at Evan and Carly Waddell's 2017 Paradise wedding. Aaron has taken his fair share of cute family photos with Juelia and her daughter, who recently even moved to Nashville to be closer to Aaron. I wish them the best!
Did they have a TV romance? Yes, on Bachelor Pad.
Are they still together? Yes.
For all of you franchise young'uns, Bachelor Pad was a pre-Paradise summer spinoff that brought past contestants back to the mansion for a healthy dose of hookups and competition. They participated in challenges to win dates and immunity for that week, and the grand prize for a winning couple was $250,000. The show ended in 2012 after three seasons, and while it would probably be a hit in today's live-tweeting society, its legacy is this amazingly low-key couple who got engaged after meeting on Bachelor Pad.
Holly originally competed for British Bachelor Matt Grant's heart in the show's twelfth season (yeah, I didn't see it either). Blake appeared on Ashley Hebert's 2011 Bachelorette season right before joining Season 2 of Bachelor Pad. Holly was also there, and despite the fact that she ultimately won the competition alongside her ex-fiancé Michael Stagliano, she and Blake fell hard for each other.
In the time between the end of the filming and the season's live finale, they got engaged. Then, in June 2012, Holly and Blake were married, and you can even watch their gorgeous wedding video on YouTube. The franchise strangely doesn't really mention them nowadays, but a quick Google search reveals they're happily living in South Carolina, where Blake is a dentist and Holly writes children's books, runs a princess rental party business, and competes in beauty pageants. Um, why is ABC hiding this power couple from us?
Did they have a TV romance? Yes, on Bachelor Pad.
Are they still together? No
Definitely the reason that Bachelor spinoff shows became a valid way to find love, Tenley and Kiptyn first got together on Season 1 of Bachelor Pad in 2010. They initially bonded over the fact that they both finished as runner-ups in their Bachelor and Bachelorette seasons, and in true cyclical fashion, they came in second place on Bachelor Pad. Tenley and Kiptyn dated on-and-off until 2014, but they each found a happy ending of sorts since then. Tenley got married in April 2018, while Kiptyn welcomed a son in 2015.
Did they have a TV romance? No.
Are they still together? Yes.
We're really digging back into the Bachelor past now. I started watching The Bachelorette just in time to see Chris take Ali Fedotowsky on his hometown date in 2010, and although he finished the season as runner-up, Chris didn't need the Bachelor gig or a spinoff series to find love with another franchise alum.
Peyton Wright was sent home fairly early in Andy Baldwin's 2007 Bachelor season, but she later crossed paths with Chris at a 2010 golf tournament, thanks to Chris's Bachelorette friend Jesse Beck introducing them. The couple married in 2012 and later welcomed a daughter, Lyla, in 2016. They also happen to be a low-key version of Chip and Joanna Gaines — they star together on the HGTV series Going Yard, and Chris has worked on the DIY Network shows Yard Crashers and Lawn & Order. Who needs ABC to create your own TV empire? Clearly not Chris and Peyton.
Did they have a TV romance? No.
Are they still together? Yes.
Another old-school Bachelor couple, Elizabeth and Ty were recently in the news when they welcomed their daughter Blakely after experiencing four years of infertility. Their romance predates the currently engaged Bachelorettes' relationships, having begun when Elizabeth, a contestant on Jake Pavelka's Bachelor season and the first year of Bachelor Pad, and Ty, who competed on Ali Fedotowsky's Bachelorette season, met at a charity event in 2013. They married in March 2014.
Did they have a TV romance? No.
Are they still together? Obviously no.
Never forget that in the long limbo between his Bachelorette season and his stint as the Bachelor, Arie had a fling in 2012 with Bachelor Season 16 winner and "villain" Courtney. In her 2014 memoir I Didn't Come Here to Make Friends: Confessions of a Reality Show Villain, Courtney revealed that Arie was "the best sex I've ever had" and then proceeded to explain why. Yikes. I *don't* love that.
When Arie was announced as the new Bachelor last September, a source also reported that the two were still dating a few months beforehand. The flaw that ultimately ended their on-and-off relationship was reportedly Arie's racing schedule taking him away from home so frequently. Still, it sounds like before The Bachelor, Arie and Courtney saw a lot of each other. The Arizona natives both do real estate, and Arie has even admitted that he's Courtney's landlord. Well, let's hope that Lauren Burnham manages to make a new friend through this wacky connection.
I'm so here for all of the obscure love stories in Bachelor Nation, so here's hoping that the family tree of ABC blesses us with some more in the future.
