Better off! Some Bachelor and Bachelorette stars had more luck in the love department outside the reality dating series, finding forever without the prying eyes of cameras.
DeAnna Pappas, Juan Pablo Galavis, Ali Fedotowsky and Emily Maynard are among the former leads who broke up with their final picks, only to find The One after starring on the show.
Fedotowsky, for one, opened up exclusively to Us Weekly in July 2019 about her intentions for signing on to the ABC hit. “I went on the show for a good time. I didn’t go on for love. Nobody goes on the show for love and then they’re just surprised when they actually do fall in love,” she admitted. “They go on there like, ‘This could be fun.’”
The reality star went on to confess that her motives would be a bit different if she starred on the series in this era. “If I went on the show right now, I [would] 100 percent be thinking Instagram followers. … I think to not think that way is kinda dumb,” she revealed. “Like … That’s gotta be in the back of your mind. … I’m an entrepreneur, I have an entrepreneurial type way of thinking.”
Maynard, for her part, does not have particularly fond memories of her time in the franchise. “I always say I should not give anyone any Bachelor and Bachelorette advice because it has been kind of a train wreck, to be quite honest,” she said during a January 2017 appearance on Good Morning America. “My time on the show was a bit of a mess.”
However, everything is not necessarily smooth sailing for post-show relationships either. Pappas, who wed Stephen Stagliano in 2012, endorsed couples counseling in August 2016. “It forced us to work through our marriage,” she told Us at the time. “This is it, me and him. There is no giving up, no turning back.”
Scroll to discover which Bachelor Nation alums found love after reality TV heartbreak.