Many Bachelor Nation couples struggle to stick together after the show, but the original Bachelorette, Trista Sutter, seems to have found her happily ever after with husband Ryan Sutter.
“I decided going in that I needed to give myself wholeheartedly to the experience in order for it to work,” Trista recalled to Us Weekly exclusively in 2020. “I still believe that for anybody who’s the lead, if a person is not willing to be vulnerable and willing to express themselves and be truly themselves without fear of criticism or skepticism or whatever, I don’t think it’ll work out.”
The then-physical therapist and the firefighter were always true to themselves. On the 2003 finale of the show, they got engaged, and one year later, they got married in a TV special. Trista and Ryan now share two children and continue to fight for their romance.
“We’ve had our bumps in the road, just like anyone else, but it’s really about staying focused on each other and dedicating time to each other,” Trista said on the Today show in 2015.
Scroll down for a full timeline of their love story: