Once upon a time, a physical therapist from Miami accepted ABC's wild proposition: Would she like to spend six weeks weeding through a couple dozen potential husbands and commit to forever with one at the end? 

Trista Sutter (née Rehn) had more or less tried out for the inaugural season of The Bachelor for the right reasons after seeing a commercial on TV. "I was like, 'Travel? Meet people? Let's do this!'" she recounted to E! News last year. "I thought it would be a fun experience so I applied online."

And having fallen hard for businessman Alex Michel, she was confident that given the chance to do the picking, she would leave with her perfect match. 

Eleven months after her season debuted in January 2003, some 17 million viewers watched her wed her final rose recipient—sweet firefighter-slash-amateur poet Ryan Sutter—setting a 19-years-and-counting franchise gold standard that is still strived for today. 

Because 21 leads and countless glasses of champagne and red rose boutonnieres later, Trista and Ryan are one of just four Bachelorette couples to make it from the final rose ceremony platform to forever (pour one out for Ashley and J.P.!).

It's an average that season 20 Bachelorette Charity Lawson hopes to improve upon when she begins handing out the roses June 26. 

She's already tapped Becca Kufrin, Michelle Young, Rachel Lindsay and Kaitlyn Bristowe for advice and was met with "reminders of staying true to myself," she told E! News in an exclusive interview, "which was obviously not something that I needed to hear, but from them, knowing that that was also their experience and something that they took away from their time as Bachelorette was huge."

But before we watch the Georgia-based child and family therapist—and her attractive older brother Nehemiah—attempt to remove the thorns from her bouquet of hopeful husbands, can we steal you for a sec?

Because we're checking in on all the series' previous leads and offering a heartfelt "cheers" to their success. 

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 Maxwell, 15, and Blakesley, 14—will celebrate their 20th anniversary this December, 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. "I love him. I love doing life with him. I love that he's my best friend and I want that to continue."

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 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. 

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, 12, and Charlotte, 10, she asked listeners if they would accept her 35-episode From The Bachelor To The Burbs podcast. 

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.

Navigating what she calls her #newnormal, Pappas has filled her social media feed with tributes to kids Addison, 9, and Austin, 7, and the girlfriends she credited as "the ones who rescue you from an aggressive sidewalk. While feeding you cheese & wine. Life is good."

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: Enter: Justin Pasutto, "one of the most perfect people on earth," who delivered the Canadian entrepreneur's happy ending complete with the 2016 Christmas morning proposal she'd always dreamed of. Marking their 11th anniversary in June, Pasutto posted a tribute "to the one who stole my heart, my life-partner, and the mother of our two lovely kids" Leo, 6, and Annie, 4, adding, "I am grateful for the love we share and can't wait to make more memories with you."

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, 6, and son Riley, 5.

Then: Everything appeared to be coming up roses for the bubbly pediatric dentist. When she wed construction manager J.P. Rosenbaum—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, 8, and daughter Essie, 6) 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. 

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, now 17—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, 7, Gibson, 6, and Gatlin, 5, and daughter Magnolia, 2, "SURPRISE!" she shared on Instagram last fall, "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."

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 in bloom. The Oregon-based parents to Asher, 6, and Zander, 4, recently celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary.

"It's so cliche that opposites attract but it totally works!" the designer and Do You See? podcast host raved on Instagram in May. "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."

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. On May 31, the author married commercial real estate agent Blaine Hart in Italy, where they reconnected in 2021 more than 15 years after they first met.

And she credits her time handing out the roses as the start of their journey. "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."

Then: For the former dancer—who briefly shared lead duties with Britt Nilsson—and personal 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 think I knew for a year that my relationship wouldn't work, and I think I knew that he just couldn't give me the kind of love that I needed in my life," Bristowe shared on The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast in 2019. "And I think for a solid year, maybe half a year, 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 because I just knew what I wanted and I just didn't see it happening." Engaged since 2021, "the wedding vibe we are going for is over-the-top fancy," she told E! News, "but at the same time we want Buffalo chicken wings."

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."

Now in the middle of remodeling their Texas home, the hosts of The Big D are contemplating some fairly sizable decisions. "It's in the near future," she told E! of plans to expand their family, "one to two years." 

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 Krause 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: Off-camera, Lindsay continues to live her best life. Though the L.A.-based author of Miss Me With That and Real Love broke up with the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast in 2021, she chats all things Bravo on the Morally Corrupt series and talks society and culture with cohost Van Lathan on Higher Learning. 

As for Krause's comments that she was settling with Abasolo, the couple will celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary this August. "Each year gets better," she wrote on Instagram. "Love you forever."

Then: Arriving in a mini van and 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 and homophobic Instagram posts. But the murder of George Floyd ignited new hard talks. "I was like...what's important to me?" she explained to Insider. "Are we going to be able to make a lasting relationship for a lifetime off of our differences?" Months later, the pair 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, the Bachelor Happy Hour host decided it was time for her to get down on bended knee and proposed to Bachelor in Paradise co-star Thomas Jacobs last May. "I hope that other people can now feel empowered and say it's okay to bend the rules," she told E! News. 

The real estate agent returned the favor that October and six months later, they revealed they're expecting a baby boy. 

Then: Questioning if he was there for the right reasons (read: possibly 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, things 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 May 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! You really are the best person I know and I'm the luckiest girl to be loved by you!"

Her boyfriend of two years 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."

Then: Even by Bachelor standards, Crawley's romance with Dale Moss moved at a breakneck pace. Four episodes into her 2020 season, the hairstylist 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." Soon they'll add a new little love with Crawley revealing in July that "Baby Dawkins will be arriving via our amazing angel surrogate, in January 2024!!"

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. 

Then: Despite a thorny finish to her 2021 season—both marketing sales rep Greg Grippo and sweet single dad Michael Allio self-eliminated—the marketing manager eagerly said yes to conservationist Blake Moynes.

"The night that you said that you loved me changed my life forever," she gushed before handing off the last boutonnière. "Because I knew in that moment, I wanted to love you for the rest of my life. You and only you. You have made me the happiest woman alive." They announced their breakup that October. 

Now: At least she can laugh about it? Enjoying her second act as a stand-up comic, the San Diego resident 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, shared to her Instagram profile. "And they're like, 'Nah, I think I'm gonna go home.'" 

After ending her romance with Bachelorette suitor-turned-pal-turned-boyfriend John Hersey last year, Thurston is focused on self-love. As she put it in a June 5 post, "Me time is starting to sound better and better tbh." 

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, the Bachelor Happy Hour host can hardly remember the boy who broke up with her over the phone. Marking her 30th birthday June 8, 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."

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: She's completed one dramatic journey, wrapping DWTS' two-and-a-half-month tour in March. And now she is making some more big moves. "I feel like I've lived a million lives in my recent adulthood and have been craving roots for a long time now," she recently posted of leaving her Denver home behind for L.A. "Moving has been terrifying and consuming (mostly fb marketplace) but I can honestly say I never thought life could look this good with so much love around me."

As for the love of one person in particular, "the dating door is open," she told E! News in December when asked about her flirtation with fellow DWTS competitor Vinny Guadagnino. "Ultimately, I am always open to a relationship, but I just really want it to be with the right person. I think that is going to take some time and patience. I'm excited to just be in the moment, see what happens and kind of gather more data on myself."

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: While her flirtation with sales exec Aven Jones never really took off after he asked her out during the finale last September, the Florida transplant has made a connection with another member of Bachelor Nation. She and Genevieve Parisi—who grew close while competing for Clayton Echard's heart—recently traded the Bachelor mansion for an L.A. pad. 

"It's been so amazing living with Gen," Recchia told Distractify in April. "One of us will come home from a date and then we'll [say] tell me everything, and then we just dish everything. So it's really nice to have her here before and after the date."