Some Bachelor and Bachelorette stars had more luck in the love department outside the reality dating series, finding their forever without the prying eyes of cameras.
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.
“I went on the show for a good time. I didn’t go on for love,” Fedotowsky told Us Weekly exclusively in 2019. “Nobody goes on the show for love and then they’re just surprised when they actually do fall in love.They go on there like, ‘This could be fun.’”
While she and Roberto Martinez were briefly engaged, the pair split and Fedotowsky moved on with now-husband Kevin Manno, with whom she shares two kids.
Maynard, meanwhile, married Tyler Johnson in June 2014, and the two have gone on to welcome five children together. (Maynard shared her eldest child, daughter, Ricki, with her late fiancé Ricky Hendrick.)
Scroll to discover which Bachelor Nation alums found love after reality TV heartbreak:
Gabby Windey
The Bachelorette season 19 co-lead split from her final rose recipient, Erich Schwer, shortly after the season came to an end. In August 2023, Windey revealed she was dating a woman, whom she later revealed as writer and comedian Robby Hoffman. In March 2025, the couple announced they secretly tied the knot in Las Vegas two months prior.
“Husband and wife!! 1/11/2025 🥂💍,” Windey captioned Instagram pics from their intimate Sin City ceremony.
Jesse Palmer
Palmer split from season 5 winner Jessica Bowlin just months after filming wrapped in 2004 . He moved on with Emely Fardo, proposing in July 2019. The couple quietly tied the knot in June 2020, but they didn’t confirm the marriage until October 2021. Their daughter, Ella, was born in January 2024.
Vanessa Grimaldi
The season 21 Bachelor winner split from Nick Viall in August 2017, five months after the finale aired. The Canada native moved on with businessman Joshua Wolfe in 2019. The pair wed in August 2021 after getting engaged one year prior. Their son, Winston Franco, was born in September 2022.
Michelle Young
The season 18 Bachelorette left the show engaged to Nayte Olukoya during her December 2021 finale. By June 2022, they called it quits. Young has since moved on with Jack Leius, whom she went public with in October 2023. A year later, the pair got engaged. Young and Leius tied the knot in June 2025.
Seinne Fleming
After competing on Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s season of the dating series in 2018, Fleming found love with Doug Filmore. The former TV personality and the real estate agent got engaged in August 2021.
“I knew he was the one from the moment I met him, because I’d never felt the way I felt for him with anyone else," Fleming exclusively told Us Weekly after the romantic proposal. “He has become my best friend and is truly the most kind and loving person I’ve ever known.”
Fleming and Filmore got married in December 2022.
Haley and Emily Ferguson
The twins both vied for Ben Higgins’ heart during season 20 of The Bachelor in 2016. They later starred on their own spinoff, The Twins: Happily Ever After? and appeared on seasons 3 and 4 of Bachelor in Paradise. Emily got engaged to NHL player William Karlsson in December 2020. Five months later, Haley announced that she and Finland hockey star Oula Palve were also getting married.
Emily and Karlsson got married in July 2022. Their son Beckham was born in May 2023 and in November 2024, the couple announced that they were gearing up for baby No. 2.
Haley and Palve, meanwhile, tied the knot in June 2022. Their first baby, Lovi Lavigne, was born in April 2024.
Lauren Bushnell
The season 20 Bachelor winner ended her engagement to Higgins in May 2017 after getting engaged during the show’s finale in March 2016. The Oregon native found love with musician Chris Lane one year later and tied the knot in Nashville in October 2019. They welcomed their first child, son Dutton, in June 2021. Their second child, Baker, was born in October 2022.
Ben Higgins
The former Bachelor, who was previously engaged to Bushnell from 2016 to 2017, slid into Jessica Clark’s DMs in late 2018. The pair became Instagram official in February 2019. Higgins proposed to the Tennessee native one year later in March 2020 at her parents’ home in Franklin. They got married in November 2021 and announced in August 2024 that they were gearing up to welcome baby No. 1.
Wells Adams
The season 12 Bachelorette contestant started dating Sarah Hyland in 2017. The pair got engaged two years later and were supposed to tie the knot in August 2020 but had to postpone amid the coronavirus pandemic. Two years later, the pair finally exchanged their vows.
John Graham
Nearly one year after Becca Kufrin’s Bachelorette season aired in late 2018, Graham went public with his relationship with Brittni Nowell in February 2019. The pair announced their engagement in November 2020.
“It’s official! I love you @bee_nowell for making me a better person with my friends and family, helping me feel & articulate my emotions, and always putting our relationship first,” he wrote via Instagram. “I’m blessed to have won at life by finding you ❤️.”
The engineer continued, “I proposed along the Sonoma coast. I was so nervous when I got down on one knee. I’m pretty sure I blacked out in the moment, but then she pulled me up and wouldn’t let go of me. Don’t ever let me go!”
