What happens on The Bachelor, doesn’t always stay on The Bachelor! While many couples have found — or lost — love on the reality TV dating franchise over the years, others have met their match within Bachelor Nation after their season ended.
Katie Thurston joined the club of offcamera Bachelor Nation couples in November 2021 when Us Weekly confirmed her relationship with John Hersey — who she sent home in week two of The Bachelorette season 17 — after her broken engagement to Blake Moynes.
The Washington native got engaged to Moynes in her finale, which aired in August 2021. The duo announced their split the following October, and Thurston shared loved-up videos of her new beau four weeks later.
She debuted their relationship by dedicating Taylor Swift‘s “Begin Again” — a song about finding new love after a major heartbreak — to Hersey alongside some personal videos of her new man. The former bank manager also shared a clip from when they met on the ABC series’ June 2021 premiere.
“Yeah, that’s my type. I think that’s my type,” she said after the bartender’s limo entrance on The Bachelorette. “Did he hear me? Play it cool.”
While Thurston and Hersey got a second chance after the cameras stopped rolling, some Bachelor Nation members never crossed paths onscreen before finding love later on.
Jason Tartick was a guest on Kaitlyn Bristowe‘s “Off the Vine” podcast in January 2019 when he asked her out — on the air! The bold move scored him a longterm relationship. In a podcast episode later that month, the season 11 Bachelorette (who was previously engaged to Shawn Booth) said she considered the Bachelorette season 14 alum her boyfriend after just a couple dates.
“I never thought I would hang out with somebody from The Bachelor franchise!” Bristowe said. “I feel bad for saying that … I was like, ‘You know what? I’ll just be a little more private, low-key. Whatever.’ But you can’t help who you like. … You can’t fight chemistry. You can’t fight a good guy.”
The Dancing With the Stars winner and entrepreneur announced their engagement in May 2021.
“It has been the best, like, two to three weeks of my life since [the proposal],” Tartick exclusively gushed to Us about their engagement later that month. “One of the things I really wanted to do was to surprise her. I know Kaitlyn loves to be surprised. And so that was one of my true goals to genuinely surprise her. And her reaction was absolutely perfect. It was the most Kaitlyn reaction.”
Scroll down to see which former reality stars have found love with other past contestants from the hit ABC series.
Source: US Magazine
