When you know, you know! Kendall Long and Mitchell Sage dated for nearly one year before he got down on one knee.
Bachelor Nation was introduced to Long on Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s season of The Bachelor in 2018. She went on to appear on season 5 of Bachelor in Paradise, meeting Joe Amabile. The Just Curious author and the former grocery store owner dated for just under two years before calling it quits in early 2020.
While Long previously stated that she didn’t think she would return to Mexico to look for The One again, she and Amabile both appeared on season 7 of Bachelor in Paradise.
“Going back to the beach, I felt I had, like, a romanticism toward Paradise because it was such a romantic experience the first time I went. And then the second time I went, I really had hope for it to be that — not in terms of rekindling anything with my ex, because why would I do that publicly when we had a two-year relationship and there’s so much stuff we can’t talk about on TV? That would’ve taken more than a couple weeks in Mexico to fix,” Long said on Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast in May 2022. “But I really had hopes of being able to find someone and to connect with someone, and I did. I had a little romantic thing with Ivan [Hall] and that was great. But ultimately, seeing your ex in the place where you fell in love initially — it was very difficult for me and I didn’t anticipate that at all. I didn’t think I would be as emotional. I didn’t think that it would affect me. I thought we’d be cool, [we’d be] friends.”
While Amabile found love with Serena Pitt, Long left single. She wasn’t gone for long, however, returning to the beach shortly before the Chicago native proposed to Pitt.
“I was under the impression that Joe was going through a lot of mental difficulty with our relationship and me being there,” she explained to Us. “And so, for me, coming back to talk to him, it would be a way to be like, ‘Hey, this chapter’s closed. It was kind of weird the way we ended it, but let’s make it not weird and let’s move on.’ [I had] no idea there would ever be any sort of proposal at all. … And I even said, like, ‘If there’s gonna be a proposal, I don’t want to talk to him. I don’t want to go to the beach because that’s not my day — that’s their day.’ … Finding out later that there was a proposal actually made me really upset and a bit angry.”
Months after filming BiP season 7, Long was introduced to Sage in late 2021. She went public with their romance in April 2022.
“I have dated since being on the show — multiple different people, been out in the dating scene. And for me, what was really important is that I wanted to be in a solid place with somebody before I introduced them to the public,” Long said on the podcast. “Because as soon as you introduce someone you’re dating, everyone has an opinion. I wanted to make sure we had a really strong base and foundation before going public. I feel really confident about our relationship currently and where we’re going. And I feel confident in him as a person.”
She added that Sage finds her Bachelor past “funny.” When asked whether he’s watched, she explained: “You don’t wanna see me kissing someone else or dating someone else. … I’d be open to watching [Arie’s season], I feel like that’d be fun. Everything else in Paradise, it’s basically, you know, someone that I almost married. It’s weird.”
In November 2022, Long announced two major life updates — she and Sage were engaged and moving to Germany.
“So incredibly over the moon that we get to start our epic adventure together in a new country 🇩🇪 💍 I’ve heard love explained to me by my parents and was scared I would never experience something so wonderful,” she gushed via Instagram. “But with you, love is so much better than I could have ever imagined it to be. I feel so lucky and I can’t wait to officially be a Sagely 💕.”
Amabile, meanwhile, married Pitt in October 2022. He also sent Long his best when news of her engagement broke. “I’m very happy for her. She seems like she’s happy,” he said on his “Click Bait” podcast in December 2022. “It seems like they are each other’s person. So yeah, good for her.”
Scroll through for Long and Sage’s relationship timeline:
