Why These Bachelors And Bachelorettes Were Never The Same After Their Seasons

ABC's Bachelors and Bachelorettes have bared their souls for millions of viewers several months at a time as they tried (sometimes successfully) to find love, no matter if their seasons were the best or the worst. Many of the past leads of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette started out as regular people before suddenly finding themselves as minor celebrities with millions of followers on social media. Being thrust into the spotlight, even if the Bachelor stars signed up for it, is undoubtedly life-changing. We've seen former leads go on to join (and, in Hannah Brown's case, win) Dancing With the Stars, host podcasts or even their own TV shows (we're looking at you, Jojo and Jordan), and start their own companies (want one of Kaitlyn Bristowe's $15 scrunchies, anyone?).

But aside from receiving new business opportunities on a silver platter and very smartly capitalizing on them, do The Bachelor and The Bachelorette stars change after their seasons? Well, it depends on who you ask.

At the end of her season of The Bachelorette, Jojo Fletcher gave her final rose to Jordan Rogers. Unfortunately, it wasn't always smooth sailing from there. According to People, Rogers was plagued by scandal after scandal while the show was airing, and cheating accusations continued rolling in even after he had already moved in with Fletcher. Despite all of this, Fletcher told Us Weekly that she was "very thankful" for how The Bachelorette changed her life.

Since she spoke to Us Weekly in 2017, the wins have kept coming for the couple. After The Bachelorette, Fletcher and Rogers began renovating homes together, getting back to a level of normalcy that, according to the couple, helped them navigate their new relationship, as reported by E! News. The two turned that business into a renovation show on CNBC, Cash Pad. But despite all the career moves the couple has made since their time on The Bachelorette, the pair remains one of the franchise's few successful couples.

As the first black lead in the entire Bachelor franchise history, Rachel Lindsay had a lot of pressure before she even started handing out roses. Despite being part of one of the franchise's few successful couples, Lindsay has not been afraid to call out the show's faults. As reported by USA Today, she's been vocal about the show's lack of diversity, and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, she's pointed out how unfairly the ending of her season was edited.

But Lindsay hasn't just been using her newfound voice and platform to get real about The Bachelor's faults. She told Bustle, "I do a lot of speaking, especially at colleges, just about knowing your worth and knowing who you are. I love to speak to women in that regard." She further explained that the show gave her this new platform and she wanted to use it to help others know their worth and further a message of empowerment.

It's hard to imagine a Bachelor more hated than Arie Luyendyk Jr. The Bachelor star infamously proposed to Becca Kufrin on his season's final rose ceremony, only to break her heart by ending their engagement and going back to runner-up Lauren Burnham. Fans had to watch the entire soul-crushing thing unfold on TV, and, according to The Washington Post, people were super unhappy with Luyendyk after seeing how it all went down.

But Luyendyk's shock ending might have been the best decision he ever made because it set him up with the life he has now with a wife, a daughter, and the kind of family most people only dream of having, as noted by E! News. 

Before he started a family though, Luyendyk was a notorious player, a fact he freely admitted in an interview with GQ, saying, "What 36-year-old man hasn't dated around if they're single?" Fair enough, but, if his post-Bachelor life is any indication, those days are very much behind him.

Former Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky's season was, in her own words, "another lifetime ago," as reported by People. As the star of The Bachelorette's sixth season, Fedotowsky got engaged to Roberto Martinez, but, as is the case with many Bachelor franchise seasons, it wasn't meant to be. Still, Fedotowsky told Parade that she is a "superfan" of the show.

Like many Bachelor franchise stars before and since her season, Fedotowsky enjoyed newfound stardom after her season ended — and that is what led her to her now-husband, according to E! News. The two met through a producer on a show Fedotowsky worked on after her Bachelorette season ended. While The Bachelor didn't change her life by introducing her to her future husband, she did admit to Parade, "I know that I owe my life to the show." 

Now a blogger, Fedotowsky uses her post-show platform to share what she chooses about her life (via Parade).

Ashley Hebert became the Bachelorette after Bachelor Brad Womack chose Emily Maynard on his season. That wasn't the last Hebert heard of Maynard, though, as the "winner" of Womack's season was popular with Hebert's cast. The men who were supposed to be vying for her heart were, according to People, openly talking about how they would have preferred it if Maynard was the Bachelorette. According to The Daily Beast, the comparisons to Maynard were just one ingredient in the torment Hebert had to endure during her Bachelorette season. She also had to deal with one of the series' worst villains, Bentley Williams, who cruelly roasted her on a group date — marking one of the most cringeworthy moments on The Bachelorette — and she had a contestant turn down her offer of a fantasy suite date.

Despite all of that, though, Hebert is grateful for her experience on The Bachelorette. In a post on Instagram, she said being a part of the Bachelor family was "one of the best things [she'd] ever done." She explained, "It gave me my husband, my babies, and the courage to be who I've always believed I could be." Despite the inarguable difficulties she faced during her season, Hebert met her now-husband on the show and is clearly very thankful for it.

Sean Lowe has the distinction of being one of the only successful Bachelors in the show's long history, as noted by Entertainment Tonight. As such, Lowe has become somewhat of a poster child for the franchise, frequently appearing on the series' newest seasons to offer advice to the new leads. However, that doesn't mean he still considers himself a part of Bachelor Nation. In fact, far from it.

Sean Lowe and his wife, Catherine Giudici, are, in Lowe's words, "not the typical Bachelor couple." He further explained to Entertainment Tonight, "We don't do a lot of the Bachelor reunions and go and meet up — that's just not us." Even though they've distanced themselves from Bachelor shows, that doesn't mean the couple didn't face their own set of struggles when their season ended.

According to Entertainment Tonight, Giudici struggled after the show when she moved to Los Angeles to be with Lowe while he filmed Dancing With the Stars. She left behind everything she knew to pursue her relationship with a man who, just a few months prior, she didn't even know. 

These days, Lowe told Us Weekly that he doesn't even watch the show.

Andi Dorfman didn't find lasting love on either The Bachelor or her own season of The Bachelorette, but she did learn a thing or two about dating. Dorfman told The Washington Post, "Obviously on the show you're not going to love 25 people, but you're going to have to date some people you know you're not going to end up with. It kind of taught me to converse with somebody without having to be in love with them or promise them anything."

After her break-up with Josh Murray, the winner of her season, Dorfman moved to New York, where, according to The Washington Post, she settled into life as a single woman. Though, like presumably all Bachelor contestants, Dorfman originally set out to find love, she learned something else about herself instead: "I think about my life as a whole and realize I'm generally happy being alone."