‘Bachelor’ Stars Who Ended Up With Someone They Met Before the Show

Credit: Mediapunch/Shutterstock ; MOVI Inc. / MEGA ; Courtesy Emily Maynard/Instagram ; Courtesy Nikki Ferrell/Instagram

‘Bachelor’ Stars Who Ended Up With Someone They Met Before the Show

Melissa Rycroft, Nikki Ferrell and more Bachelor stars ended up marrying someone they knew before their attempt to find love on TV. Rycroft, for her part, dated Tye Strickland before she left to film season 13 of The Bachelor in 2008. “Tye tried to call me, like, right as I got back in the country from filming, he was calling,” Rycroft recalled on Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast in August 2020, noting he wanted her back. “I didn't believe [him]. I mean, I was like, ‘Whatever.’ And not only that, I am engaged and I'm happy and you are a tool bag.” While the former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader got engaged to Jason Mesnick during the finale, which aired in 2009, he broke off their engagement to reunite with runner-up Molly Malaney. Following the split, Rycroft reconnected with Strickland. [sendtonews type="float" key="YYunSGCAvS-2832611-14453"] “And then I just started talking to him again as a friend. And three, four weeks after that, we officially got back together under the stipulation that I said, 'This time, it's for good,' you know,” she explained. “He was a hard relationship to get over, which is why I even went on the show and I had just gone through everything with Jason and I was, like, I don't know if [I was] emotionally prepared to really get into a relationship again, but it was with Tye, it was the guy that I had wanted to be with before all of this happened. And I think having the show air, we weren't really allowed to see each other, you know, so we just got to talk and focus on our friendship. And I think that's what made the relationship the second time around that much stronger.” Rycroft and Strickland wed in December 2009 and went on to welcome three kids: Ava, Beckett and Cayson. (Mesnick and Malaney, meanwhile, wed in 2010 and share daughter Riley.) “2008 for me was strange. I left filmed a reality show I got engaged. I got dumped and then come 2009, I got in a new relationship. I'm engaged,” Rycroft concluded. “And by the end of 2009, I was married.” Scroll through for more contestants who met their significant other before their time on the ABC dating competition:

Credit: Courtesy of Melissa Rycroft/Instagram(2)

Melissa Rycroft and Tye Strickland

Rycroft joked in August 2020 that the pair were celebrating 14 years together “minus a bit.”

Credit: Courtesy of Nikki Ferrell/Instagram(2)

Nikki Ferrell and Tyler VanLoo

While Ferrell briefly found love with Juan Pablo Galavis on season 18 of The Bachelor, which aired in 2014, she started dating her longtime friend, Vanloo, after her split from Galavis.

“Sneaking in a #tbt from a couple years ago to when this guy was my best friend and I wouldn’t really admit to anything more … but we all knew,” Ferrell captioned a series of throwback photos in January 2016. “#loveyoukitty #thebestfriend #immakeepyou.”

Ferrell and Vanloo wed in October 2016. While a source confirmed to Us in December 2018 that the pair were separated, they reunited before the end of 2019.

Credit: Courtesy of Ashley Salter/Instagram(2)

Ashley Salter and Austin Brannen

The season 19 Bachelor and season 2 Bachelor in Paradise contestant rekindled her relationship with her college sweetheart after a whirlwind 2015 on TV. The twosome, who met at Auburn University, tied the knot in September 2016. They share son Brooks and daughter Kennedy.

Credit: Courtesy of Emily Maynard/Instagram(2)

Emily Maynard and Tyler Johnson

After a quick engagement to season 15 Bachelor Brad Womack, Maynard was named the season 8 Bachelorette. And while she was briefly engaged to Jef Holm, Maynard ended up with Johnson, whom she met before she took on the lead role in the franchise.

"I met him at church before I did The Bachelorette, he really wanted nothing to do with me," Maynard recalled on Good Morning America in January 2017. "I told my girlfriend I met this guy and he could like not be less attracted to me, he was in the friend zone."

Maynard and Johnson wed in 2014 and share three sons: Jennings, Gatlin and Gibson. She’s also mother to daughter Ricki, whom she shared with her late fiancé, Ricky Hendrick.

Credit: Dave Allocca/Starpix/Shutterstock

Meredith Phillips and Michael Broady

The season 2 Bachelorette got back together with her high school boyfriend after her engagement to winner Ian McKee ended. Phillips and Broady wed in 2011.

Credit: Courtesy of Arie Luyendyk Jr./Instagram

Lauren Burnham and Arie Luyendyk Jr.

While Burnham competed for the former racecar driver’s heart on season 22 of The Bachelor, which aired in 2018, she first met him at the racetrack in 2017.

“I’m watching Good Morning America and he walks out on the stage, and I'm like, 'What? What are the odds that I meet this guy the same summer that I'm cast to go on this show? And he was on it, like, five years ago?’” she recalled to Entertainment Tonight in August 2020 about finding out Luyendyk Jr. was the Bachelor. “It was just an incredible coincidence.”

Burnham later told Us that she didn’t think she would end up with Luyendyk Jr., whom she married in January 2019, without the show.  

“I had never dated someone like Arie before. And I thank the Bachelor Gods every day for bringing us together because I never would’ve dated somebody that's 10 years older than me if it were in regular life,” she admitted to Us in September 2020. “But they brought us together and obviously it was for the best.”