Next Bachelorette Revealed—And She’s Not From Bachelor Nation
Taylor Frankie Paul can remember the precise moment The Bachelorette producers asked to steal her for a second.
As her increasingly rocky romance with now-ex Dakota Mortensen was documented on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, social media users began pitching her to hand out the roses on ABC's love hunt, tagging the show in each post.
So, Paul detailed during her Sept. 10 appearance on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast, she made a TikTok about it, never imagining it'd serve as the first step in her journey.
“It was a joke to me, like unattainable," the 31-year-old said. "I heard there was some talking and then we had a meeting. I still didn’t believe it until I got the invitation of will you be our Bachelorette?”
Even then, she wasn't sure she could accept their offer.
Sharing kids Indy, 8, and Ocean, 5, with ex-husband Tate Paul as well as 17-month-old son Ever with Mortensen, "I’m like, 'is this possible for me to do as a single mom?'" she explained. "'Can I make it work realistically no matter how much I want this?' And I was like, 'I can.' You can do anything you want."
When the MomTok star takes her spot at the top of the Bachelor Mansion's well-hydrated driveway next year, she'll follow in some well-heeled footsteps.
Starting with Trista Sutter in 2003—the Miami physical therapist having seen a commercial for the soon-to-launch reality series on TV and applying with the thought that she could travel and meet new people—23 women have handed out those boutonnieres with the belief their husband was among the recipients.
And while the OG lead and her husband Ryan Sutter are one of just four Bachelorette couples to make it from the final rose ceremony platform to forever (see also: Desiree Hartsock, JoJo Fletcher and Charity Lawson), all of the leads have continued to blossom post-show.
Before Paul joins their tightknit sorority, let's cheers to their success.
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Trista Sutter
Then: After a six-week whirlwind of hot tubs and champagne toasts, Miami-based physical therapist Trista Rehn (who first saw an ad for ABC's dating experiment while watching TV) accepted a proposal from dashing fire fighter Ryan Sutter.
Following months of secret rendezvous ("They flew him with a handler and he had to wear a wig," she recalled in a 2022 interview with E! News), they capped off their dramatic journey with a televised December 2003 wedding.
Now: The OG Bachelorette's proposal was met with a lot of doubts. Since the series' first two Bachelors had split with their final rose recipients within a year of the finale airing, "it hadn't really ever been proven by anybody that you could have a successful relationship," Trista noted to E!. "But we proved them all wrong!"
The Colorado-based pair—parents to son Maxwell and daughter Blakesley—will celebrated their 20th anniversary in December 2023, presumably without red roses, which remain among most of the leads' least favorite blooms.
"I want to be married for 72 years, like my grandparents were," Sutter shared with E! News in February 2023. "I love him. I love doing life with him. I love that he's my best friend and I want that to continue."
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Meredith Phillips
Then: Though the model and makeup artist had fully fallen for financier Ian McKee, "I wasn't expecting him to, you know, give me a ring," she told Good Morning America of the 2004 proposal. They broke off their engagement a year later.
Now: More than a decade after filming wrapped, the date night cookbook author—who wed and then split with high school sweetheart Michael Broady—alleged she was sexually assaulted by a masseuse during her season.
"She was hired to give me a massage and she said, 'I'm going to give you a pill,'" Phillips told Reality Steve franchise blogger Steve Carbone in a 2018 podcast episode. "I just assumed it was an aspirin or something to loosen up my back or a Tylenol or something, and it wasn't that, that's for sure."
The last thing Phillips remembered, "is she got naked and she was in the tub with me rubbing my back and rubbing areas that probably she shouldn't have. Then I was put in bed. I woke up naked. Don't remember much."
For years, Phillips added, she stayed quiet on the experience "because in a weird way, I wanted to protect the franchise." ABC and production company Warner Bros. Television did not comment on Phillips' claim.
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Jen Schefft
Then: Proving she can buy her own flowers, Schefft—who ended her engagement from season three Bachelor lead Andrew Firestone in 2003—broke up with both Jerry Ferris and John Paul Merritt.
Now: Not long after writing Better Single Than Sorry, her never-settle strategy paid off when she met her future husband, trader Joe Waterman on a blind date. Settling outside Cleveland with their daughters Mae and Charlotte she asked listeners if they would accept her 35-episode From The Bachelor To The Burbs podcast.
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DeAnna Pappas
Then: Pivoting from being blindsided by two-time Bachelor Brad Womack to handing out the roses on The Bachelorette in 2008, the Georgia native did a full-180, accepting a proposal from snowboarder Jesse Csincsak.
Coming off their engagement high "was really, really difficult," she admitted to E! News in 2022. "I chose someone that I could not be more incompatible with. He loved to snowboard. I freaking hate the snow. He would, seriously, wake up at 5 a.m. to go and snowboard all day, and I am a night owl. He came to stay with me in Georgia. But it was so freaking hot and he hated it. So honestly, when we broke up, I was baffled by how devastated he pretended to be."
Now: In a dramatic finale few Bachelor loyalists saw coming, the corporate flight attendant announced the end of her 11-year marriage to Stephen Stagliano (his brother Michael Stagliano competed for Jillian Harris' heart) in January 2023.
Navigating what she calls her #newnormal, which includes a custody battle with her ex and a commitment to sobriety, Pappas has filled her social media feed with tributes to kids Addison and Austin and the girlfriends she credited as "the ones who rescue you from an aggressive sidewalk."
Following a July 2025 trip to Hawaii with her kids, she gushed about, "Making beautiful memories with the two people who matter most in my world."
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Jillian Harris
Then: Well before several other members of Bachelor Nation asked him to hold his beer, Harris' final rose recipient Ed Swiderski was the franchise villain. Following months of cheating allegations that he called "not true at all," the duo called off their engagement in 2010.
"He was so wrong for me," she later told Popsugar, acknowledging that she tried to force things to work because she was in love. "Ed wasn't honest, he wasn't close with his family, he wasn't close with my family or my friends. He didn't have the same values as I did, he wasn't patient, he wasn't sweet, there was nothing about him that was great for me."
Now: Fortunately, she found her person in Justin Pasutto, "one of the most perfect people on earth," who gave the Canadian entrepreneur the 2016 Christmas morning proposal she'd always dreamed of. Marking their 11th anniversary in June 2023, Pasutto posted a tribute "to the one who stole my heart, my life-partner, and the mother of our two lovely kids" Leo and Annie, adding, "I am grateful for the love we share and can't wait to make more memories with you."
Like the ones that were formed when they wed on a flower-filled farm in British Columbia in August 2025. "After eight years of planning, we’ve decided to really go for it," she explained to People. "It is an actual fairy-tale dream come true. I’m so happy that we waited this long so that we could truly plan the day that we’ve always dreamed of."
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Ali Fedotowsky
Then: The former Facebook employee's romance with insurance agent Roberto Martinez seemed sweet, but ultimately, "we were unhappy more than we were happy, and something needed to change," Fedotowsky told E! News of their 2011 split. "For the first time in my life. I'm happy with me and who I am and being single."
Now: Producers actually had a hand in the TV personality's ultimate happy ending, a staffer on NBC's 1st Look introducing her to now-husband Kevin Manno. "We've been friends for a long time," TV host Manno explained to E! News when they made their red carpet debut in 2013, "and then one thing led to the next." And the next and the next. Married since 2017, the pair share daughter Molly and son Riley.
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Ashley Hebert
Then: Everything appeared to be coming up roses for the bubbly pediatric dentist. When she wed construction manager J.P. Rosenbaum in 2012—a year and a half after Bachelorette viewers watched him propose in Fiji—she became just the second franchise lead to make it down the aisle with her final rose recipient.
Now: Eight years and two kids (son Ford and daughter Essie) later, the Florida-based pair stunned Bachelor Nation when they revealed their marriage actually had its share of thorns. Months after announcing their 2020 split, Hebert introduced fans to her new boyfriend, Foody Fetish founder Yanni Georgoulakis.
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Emily Maynard
Then: After the Brad Womack of it all, the single mom—whose fiancé, race car driver Ricky Henrick, died in a plane crash just before she learned she was expecting daughter Ricki—was tapped to hand out the roses in 2012. Though she accepted a proposal from entrepreneur Jef Holm, the pair split months later.
Now: Take her to church. That's where the Charlotte, N.C. resident found the answer to her prayers in now-husband Tyler Johnson.
After welcoming sons Jennings, Gibson, and Gatlin, and daughter Magnolia, "SURPRISE!" she shared on Instagram in 2022, "On August 31st, Tyler and I welcomed our sweet son, Jones West Johnson, into the world. During my surgery we learned that he was born with Down Syndrome, and while it was certainly a surprise, we have so much peace in God's perfect plan and know Jones is going to be a blessing to our family."
And their brood continues to grow. In August 2025, Ricki announced she was expecting her first baby.
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Desiree Hartsock
Then: Sure, she sobbed over Brooks Forester's departure, but ultimately the bridal stylist decided to create beautiful prose with mortgage broker and aspiring poet Chris Siegfried.
Twenty months after fans watched him slip a four-carat Neil Lane diamond onto Hartsock's finger on her season's May 2013 finale, they embarked on a new chapter. Their wedding reception—held at the Redondo Beach Historic Library—came with one directive from the bride, she told Us Weekly, "No red roses, they're not my favorite."
Now: Her romance with Siegfried remains rosy. "It's so cliche that opposites attract but it totally works!" the designer and Do You See? podcast host raved on Instagram in May 2023. "His strengths are my weaknesses and vice-versa. I'm more introverted, he thrives in crowded settings, I run in conflict he wants to settle things quick, I'm big picture, he's so detailed."
The bottom line: The Oregon-based couple continues to bloom. Already parents to sons Asher, and Zander, they added Noah to their bouquet in November 2024. "He's just as sweet as can be!!" she raved on Instagram. "And looks just like his brothers."
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Andi Dorfman
Then: "I didn't think I found my soulmate," the assistant district attorney said of accepting former pro baseball player Josh Murray's proposal on her July 2014 finale. "I knew it. I was 100 percent sure." By January, though, they had split. Her verdict, she told then-host Chris Harrison in a Bachelor special, "We were both very aware of the fact that we just didn't better each other."
She later accused him of being emotionally and verbally abusive in her 2016 book, It's Not Okay: Turning Heartbreak Into Happily Never After, claims he called "ludicrous."
Now: Bless her Hart. In May 2023, the author married commercial real estate agent Blaine Hart in Italy, where they reconnected in 2021 more than 15 years after they first met. The pairs, uh, hearts grew to welcome daughter Harper in December 2024.
The reality TV alum credits her time handing out the roses as the start of her journey with Hart. "I think if I hadn't done the show, I wouldn't have moved to New York, I wouldn't have moved to L.A., I wouldn't have been in Italy at the time that I met Blaine," she explained to E! News. "So, it's in some weird way led me here."
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Kaitlyn Bristowe
Then: For the former dancer—who briefly shared lead duties with Britt Nilsson—and trainer Shawn Booth, the 2015 finale wasn't all that dramatic. "I never, never really had a doubt, like, ever," the BC Gym founder admitted on podcast Austin AF. "I was always like, 'Yep, she's gonna pick me.'"
Though the Nashville-based duo's engagement lasted three years, the bloom began to come off the rose earlier. "I knew for a year that my relationship wouldn't work," Bristowe shared on The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast in 2019. "I was already grieving the relationship."
Now: Bristowe's tears dried quickly when she interviewed Jason Tartick—one of Becca Kufrin's suitors—on her Off the Vine podcast months later. "It can seem fast," she acknowledged of their relationship trajectory, "but to me, it was perfect timing." Engaged in 2021, they called off the wedding in 2023.
In the years since, Bristowe has been linked to Tayshia Adams' ex-fiancé Zac Clark. Though she no longer spills on her dating life, Bristowe admitted to E! News in 2025 that it can be a challenge.
"I'm so hyper-independent that, when I start dating, I'm like, 'Alright do long-distance forever and we can do our own thing and then come together on the weekends or whatever,'" she shared. "My therapist always tells me it's my coping mechanism."
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JoJo Fletcher
Then: With doubters assuming the real estate developer and former pro football player fiancé Jordan Rodgers would never make it to the end zone following their 2016 engagement, the athlete vowed to E! News that he'd do 1,000 jumping jacks "in a man thong" if they split within a year.
Now: Let's just say Rodgers never had to suit up. Though the pair admitted they came awfully close to sending back her Neil Lane diamond ("We went through a lot of different struggles," said Fletcher), they tied the knot in May 2022 after six years and several COVID-related delays. "Knowing that you're married, it feels a little bit different, she shared with E! News. "You have that partner for life that's always going to be there for you."
Having gotten through a storm or two, they're excited for a sunnier future. “We love you so much already, our sweet rainbow baby,” she shared of her pregnancy in an August 2025 Instagram post. "Baby Rodgers coming January 2026."
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Rachel Lindsay
Then: Despite delivering a picture-perfect happy ending—accepting chiropractor Bryan Abasolo's proposal above a Spanish vineyard—the attorney said her engagement was overshadowed by some made-for-TV drama. Namely, the implication that she chose Abasolo because trainer Peter Kraus wasn't ready to propose.
"So much of my finale made it seem like I'd settled for Bryan because Peter couldn't give me what I wanted," she later recounted in an essay for New York Magazine. "Publicly, I was robbed of my love story."
Now: Now she's writing a new chapter. The L.A.-based author of Miss Me With That and Real Love announced in January 2024 that her marriage had wilted. Following a yearlong battle, the podcaster (she cohosts Higher Learning with Van Lathan) agreed to pay Abasolo a $500,000 lump sum, according to the docs.
"I’m divorced, thank you God," she detailed on Higher Learning in January 2025. "Like, give me some freedom music."
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Becca Kufrin
Then: Arriving in a minivan, declaring his hope "to be a great dad," medical sales rep Garrett Yrigoyen rode away with the publicist's first impression rose and her heart, proposing on the 2018 finale.
Kufrin stood by her fiancé as he apologized for double-tapping transphobic Instagram posts. But the murder of George Floyd ignited hard talks. "I was like...what's important to me?" she told Insider. "Are we going to be able to make a lasting relationship for a lifetime off of our differences?" Months later, they announced their split.
Now: Kufrin's third time in the Bachelor cinematic universe proved to be the charm. After accepting proposals from Bachelor Arie Luyendyk Jr. and Yrigoyen, she decided it was time for her to get down on bended knee and proposed to Bachelor in Paradise co-star Thomas Jacobs in May 2022. The real estate agent returned the favor that October.
One month after they welcomed son Benny in September 2023, they married in a courthouse wedding. A bigger celebration is in the works, as is a sibling for Benny.
"Thomas wanted another baby the second we brought Benny home," she admitted to E! News in June 2024. "And I was like, 'First of all, buddy, let me heal.' And, also, I just wanted to enjoy Benny."
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Hannah Brown
Then: Questioning if he was there for the right reasons (read: had a girlfriend at home), the former pageant queen sent final rose recipient Jed Wyatt and his guitar packing even before her 2019 finale aired. (He later said on Bachelor Happy Hour that while he was dating Haley Stevens pre-show, they were not exclusive: "If I was in a relationship, I would not have gone onto a dating show. That's just me. I'm not a cheater.")
And though Brown and runner up Tyler Cameron certainly showed promise, their rekindling began to fizzle when Gigi Hadid asked if she could steal him for a second.
Now: Following a brief detour with finalist Peter Weber, the God Bless This Mess author landed on her forever with model Adam Woolard. "I love doing life with you," she wrote in a 2023 birthday tribute. "It doesn't matter if we are traveling to see the beautiful world or weeknight cooking in the kitchen—it's all fun with you!"
He was on her arm when she attended brother Patrick Brown's September 2022 wedding—to Wyatt's onetime girlfriend Stevens. "I've come to realize my life is a never-ending plot twist," she wrote on Instagram, "but it makes for a damn good (for sure weird) story."
The latest chapter saw her and Woolard marrying in a July 2025 French ceremony.
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Clare Crawley
Then: Even by Bachelor standards, Crawley's romance with Dale Moss moved at a breakneck pace. Four episodes into her 2020 season, the hairstylist, Juan Pablo Galavis' runner up in 2014, accepted the model's proposal. "We have this connection where it feels like I've known him forever," she explained to producers. "It's that intangible chemistry that you just can't make up and you can't replace. It's something that is so rare to feel so connected to someone when you've only known them for such a short period of time."
Now: Following a January 2021 split and a reconciliation just weeks later, the Sacramento-based salon owner cut Moss out of her life for good. A month after hard launching her romance with Mascot Sports CEO Ryan Dawkins last September, he proposed at the RiSE Festival in Las Vegas.
Having teased her plans for a "very intimate" wedding to E! News, Crawley wed Dawkins at the California State Capitol—the site of their first date—in February. As she told E!, "The love of my life has been in my backyard the whole time."
After welcoming daughter Rowen in January 2024, they saw to one final detail: Making their vows legal with a Vegas wedding, a mere formality, Crawley insisted. "If we didn't have a piece of paper, we're still husband and wife," she told E! News. "We're still so committed to each other, so madly in love with each other."
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Tayshia Adams
Then: They'll always have New York. After accepting Zac Clark's proposal on her truncated post-Crawley season, the native Californian decamped to the East Coast to build a life with the addiction specialist. "The one-way ticket to New York is an amazing start, and we're gonna take it from there," Clark told E! News. "I think in 2021 we're gonna focus on building off of this special foundation that we've already created...and we're gonna have a big ass party in 2022."
Now: Shortly after they crossed the finish line of the New York City marathon together in November 2021, the couple revealed their relationship had run out of steam. "We tried really hard and I still love him very much," Adams shared while co-hosting The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All with Bristowe that December. "And I'm not sure what the future holds."
A new romance, perhaps? The GOAT star had fans speculating about the crossover potential when a friend posted a group pic showing Adams and Summer House's Luke Gulbranson holding hands. Still, she hopes fans will accept her explanation for keeping her dating life private.
"I think what I've learned from all of it is that, that aspect, I just want to keep sacred," she told E! News. "I want it to evolve how it's supposed to."
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Katie Thurston
Then: Despite a thorny finish to her 2021 season—marketing sales rep Greg Grippo and single dad Michael Allio self-eliminated—the marketing manager said yes to conservationist Blake Moynes.
"I knew in that moment, I wanted to love you for the rest of my life," she gushed before handing off the last boutonnière. "You and only you." They announced their breakup that October.
Now: At least she can laugh about it? Enjoying her second act as a stand-up comic, Thurston has turned her time on the series into self-deprecating comedy gold. "The producers are like, 'Bro, if you stay for just one more week, you're gonna have more screen time, more Instagram followers and you can bang this chick,'" she joked in one clip. "And they're like, 'Nah, I think I'm gonna go home.'"
After ending her romance with Bachelorette suitor-turned-pal John Hersey, Thurston wed comedian Jeff Arcuri in March 2025. Her rock as she battles breast cancer, he pushed to move up their vows.
"It was kinda just this really kind gesture of just him saying like truly, in sickness and in health," she told Us Weekly. "He’s proving that he’s here to stay.”
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Michelle Young
Then: Having bounced fellow basketball player Joe Coleman and future Bachelor in Paradise standout Brandon Jones, the Minnesota elementary school teacher accepted a Neil Lane sparkler from Texas-based sales exec Nayte Olukoya—and a $200,000 check from producers to put toward their future home.
Now: Ultimately, Young and the Olukoya just didn't have the right foundation, announcing their breakup six months after their season's finale aired in December 2021. Though he told former Bachelor Nick Viall on The Viall Files, "There was lots of ups and downs, lots of arguments, lots of fights and just not really clicking, not really seeing eye-to-eye," Olukoya acknowledged that not having that final split conversation in person was "a dick move."
Months later, she could hardly remember the boy who broke up with her over the phone. Marking her 30th birthday in June 2023, Young shared a few of the lessons she's already learned in her new decade, including, to "surround yourself with people who will celebrate you even when you don't want to be celebrated."
Those loved ones turned out for her and sales consultant Jack Leius' June 2025 vows. Revealing she and the Minnesota State alum nearly crossed paths several times in the past, she said on The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast, "A lot of times your soulmate or the person you end up with, you’ve been in the same room with multiple times over the course of your life, but you’ve never met."
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Gabby Windey
Then: Sure, her engagement to real estate analyst Erich Schwer didn't last much beyond the 2022 finale (the pair announced their split that November), but weren't we all rooting for her friendship with fellow Bachelorette Rachel Recchia anyway?
"The end of our relationship happened because we weren't completely in step and in sync with each other on our common goals or just the way we approach life," the ICU nurse explained of breaking things off with Schwer while cha-cha-ing her way to a second-place finish on Dancing With the Stars. "We weren't each other's best match."
Now: After completing one dramatic journey, wrapping DWTS' two-and-a-half-month tour in March 2023, she waltzed into another. Less than two years after hard launching her romance with comedian Robby Hoffman, The Traitors alum revealed they'd wed in a private Las Vegas affair.
"In a weird way, it was giving Bachelor because there were roses everywhere," she detailed to Cosmopolitan. "I never envisioned my wedding as a kid or anything, but that's part of what made this feel so right. Actually being there and feeling it, it was so us."
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Rachel Recchia
Then: The pilot's engagement to general contractor Tino Franco stalled when he kissed another woman while their 2022 season was still airing. "I do not stand by what I did at all," he said on The Viall Files. "It was not cool. It wasn't fair to Rachel, and it haunts me daily still. It's something I'm ashamed of and certainly wish I could have done it differently like a million times over."
Now: Recchia, meanwhile, is done living in the past. Though she reconnected with former Bachelor Clayton Echard during a 2025 run on Perfect Match, their reunion was short-lived.
"He wants someone that lives a very active lifestyle and goes to the gym and hits the weights and it’s not me," she explained on the What's the Reality podcast. "It’s never gonna be me. I like to travel and to shop and to sit at the bar. I go on a hot girl walk!"
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Charity Lawson
Then: Dropping to one knee, integrative medicine specialist Dotun Olubeko proclaimed their love to be "perfect," asking the child and family therapist on her August 2023 finale, "Would you do me the honor of turning this fairytale into a reality?"
Now: Though Lawson took a fourth-place-finishing spin through Dancing With the Stars, Olubeko remains her dance partner for life. With plans to have an American wedding and a traditional Nigerian ceremony, "We're just not in a significant rush," she explained to People in March 2025. "We want it to be super meaningful, and I think that's really important, especially with how we met."
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Jenn Tran
Then: Aiming for love-all after courting Bachelor Joey Graziadei, Jenn Tran thought she'd found the right teammate in final pick Devin Strader. But she revealed on After the Final Rose in September 2024 that her then-fiancé gave her the cold shoulder as soon as the cameras stopped rolling.
"He was making bold proclamations of love and then suddenly the next day he was like, nothing and he denied ever being in love," Tran told host Jesse Palmer. "All the promises he had made to me, all of the love that he had wanted to give to me wasn't there anymore."
Now: So she waltzed over to Dancing With the Stars and a romance with partner Sasha Farber that continued after their October 2024 elimination. The pair eventually took a bow in 2025. Exiting stage left from their romance and Farber's L.A. pad, she moved to Miami to continue her physician's assistant studies. As for the new person in her life, she hard-launched her relationship with foster cat Penelope in July 2025.