By Megan Riedlinger
5:38pm PDT, Jun 26, 2023
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Over the years, many members of Bachelor Nation have romanced other celebs both inside and outside the world of reality television. In honor of the premiere of the 20th season of "The Bachelorette" on June 26, 2023, we're taking a look back at stars of "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" who've dated real celebrities, starting with this duo…
After competing for Ashley Hebert's love on season 7 of "The Bachelorette" — but before he starred on season 12 of "The Bachelor" — Ben Flajnik went on a date with Jennifer Love Hewitt! He opened up about the failed romance to USA Today in 2011, sharing that the actress was "nice" — but ultimately he decided to go on the ABC reality show to find love.
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Back in 2013, Kris Jenner struck up an unlikely relationship with season 16 "The Bachelor" star Ben Flajnik. The two were spotted together often and Ben even appeared on Kris's short-lived daytime talk show. At the time, sources told Us Weekly that things were "romantic," but both denied they were dating.
MORE: The biggest Bachelor Nation scandals
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"Modern Family" star Sarah Hyland spotted Wells Adams while he was competing on JoJo Fletcher's season of "The Bachelorette." Getting sent home ended up being the best thing that happened to his love life, because the actress and the reality TV contestant ended up sharing some flirty comments on Twitter in 2017, which led to Wells sliding into Sarah's DMs… and soon enough, they'd started dating! Wells proposed in July 2019 and the couple married in August 2022.
MORE: Bachelor Nation's messiest breakups
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Model Gigi Hadid and Tyler Cameron connected in a very modern way — Gigi followed the contractor-model on Instagram in July 2019 while his season of "The Bachelorette" with Hannah Brown was still airing. By early August, once the show was over (and the news that Tyler was the runner-up had been made public), the duo were spotted out together in New York City on various dates. Later in the month, he met Gigi's famous friends including Serena Williams and Taylor Swift, and he even tagged along to an MTV VMAs afterparty. The reality TV star even joined Gigi and her family in the Netherlands in September 2019 for her grandmother's funeral, but their romance fizzled soon after.
MORE: "The Bachelorette" stars: Where are they now?
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After Nick Viall — one of Bachelor Nation's most controversial stars — and "Mad Men" actress January Jones got flirty on Instagram in 2017, many speculated that they might have taken things to the next level offline. The actress initially denied a relationship, telling "Entertainment Tonight" that Nick was just a friend, but in January 2020, she confessed that wasn't entirely true. After January — a noted fan of Bachelor Nation shows — repeatedly criticized Nick publicly, "Nick slid into my DMs, and he's like, 'I'm so sorry that your perception of me is so negative, I'd love to take you out to coffee and see if I could change your mind,'" she said on Dax Shepard's "Armchair Expert" podcast. "And I squealed." She eventually accepted his offer. "I was like, 'I hate that guy!' [but] my sister was like, 'If you don't go you will forever regret it,'" she explained, "So I agreed to go on a date with him — or to drinks, or whatever. As I met him I was rounding the corner and I saw him, and he has a very distinct walk, and I had this instinct to run up to him and wrap my legs around his waist, you know like they do? [But] I stopped myself." She said their first meeting was "good" though "all I did was grill him about the show." They then "went on a couple of dates," she confirmed, adding, "The thing that attracted me to Nick was that he seemed — I mean, he was cast as the quote-unquote villain, but he had a bit of a brain, so there was something else there. That's all we were talking about, really. But I got a lot of juicy inside stuff."
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Another Hollywood-reality TV romance seemed to be brewing between actress Rachel Bilson and repeat "The Bachelorette," "The Bachelor" and "Bachelor in Paradise" star Nick Viall. The two got tongues wagging in July 2019 when the former "The O.C." star appeared on Nick's "The Viall Files" podcast then continued a flirtation on social media after that. In September 2019, Rachel played coy when asked by Us Weekly about what was going on with Nick, playfully demuring, "I don't want to talk about it," while pal Jaime King, who was with her, added, "That's private; we'll keep that private, for now." In December 2019, Rachel stopped teasing and told Us Weekly that she and Nick were "just friends… We've always just been friends. He's a really nice guy." According to Rachel — who at that point had started dating actor-comedian Bill Hader, from whom she's since split — all those flirtatious exchanges with Nick was two pals "just messing around."
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Demi Lovato wasn't shy about telling the world she was a fan of Mike Johnson from Hannah Brown's season of "The Bachelorette." The pop star often shared posts about him on their Instagram Stories during the 2019 season, and the attraction was mutual. In September 2019, Mike left flirty comments on one of Demi's Instagram posts, which raised plenty of eyebrows. Days later, the two met up in Los Angeles, "Entertainment Tonight" reported. "Everything went well on the date," a source told "ET." "They had been messaging and then got in touch in real life through Hannah Brown." A source told Us Weekly that the two had started "casually dating" and Mike confirmed a hookup on a September "Almost Famous" podcast with "The Bachelor" alum Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti, even noting that Demi "kisses really well." But by October, things had run their course.
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A country music star and a former "The Bachelor" winner headed to the altar! Though Lauren Bushnell won Ben Higgins' heart and accepted an engagement ring and his final rose on season 20 of "The Bachelor" in 2016, the couple parted ways the following year. Fast forward to 2018 when Lauren met country crooner Chris Lane. The two quickly hit it off and made their red carpet debut in November 2018 at the BMI Country Awards. Chris popped the question in June 2019 as he filmed the video for his song "Big, Big Plans" and they wed in Nashville that October. They now have two kids.
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Every good season of "The Bachelor" has a villain. And on 2012's season 12 starring Ben Flajnik, that was Courtney Robertson. The model, who infamously delivered one of the most famous lines in Bachelor Nation history when she said on the show, "I didn't come here to make friends," ended up winning, though it was later revealed that prior to joining the show, she'd dated a famous actor. Who was he, you ask? "Desperate Housewives" alum Jesse Metcalfe was her man from 2005 until 2007.
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Before he competed for Becca Kufrin's heart on season 14 of "The Bachelorette" and ultimately became the star of season 23 of "The Bachelor," Colton Underwood — who came out as a gay man in 2021 and got engaged to political strategist Jordan C. Brown in 2022 — dated Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman from 2016 to 2017.
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"The Bachelor" fans remember when Hannah Ann Sluss was briefly engaged to season 34 lead Peter Weber on his roller coaster season that aired in 2020. Now she's planning to marry another man: In January 2022, she announced her engagement to Indianapolis Colts running back Jake Funk, showing off her giant emerald-cut engagement ring on TikTok. Hannah Ann and the NFL star took their romance public in February 2022 while celebrating his Super Bowl run with his former team, the Los Angeles Rams.
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A reality show romance! Robby Hayes, who was the runner-up on JoJo Fletcher's season of "The Bachelorette," dated "Vanderpump Rules" star Scheana Shay in 2018, resulting in a serious crossover when he appeared on an episode of her Bravo show.
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"The Bachelorette" contestant Robby Hayes has made the rounds in the reality TV world. Aside from dating "Vanderpump Rules" star Scheana Shay, he also dated a star from MTV's "Siesta Key," Juliette Porter. There was an eight-year age difference between the reality stars, who were linked from May to July of 2019.
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Lucy Aragon, who competed on season 18 of "The Bachelor" starring Juan Pablo Galavis, was later linked to Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel (who's now happily married to model Miranda Kerr).
