Faded Roses! The 15 Shortest Bachelor Relationships
Find out which couples from "The Bachelor' quickly lost their happily ever afters.
Oct. 15 2020, Updated 3:17 p.m. ET
The Bachelor became an ABC sensation the moment it premiered March 22, 2002. Since then, the television smash hit has given us a few success stories along with 15 of the shortest Bachelor relationships.
Its fanbase even has a moniker — Bachelor Nation. Since its explosive debut, the Chris Harrison-hosted reality dating show seems to have gotten more popular with age, a rarity in the world of reality TV.
History has shown us that the success stories are few over the run of the series. Some couples called it quits so quickly it gave fans whiplash. Others managed to hold on for several months before succumbing to the realities of life and that their TV whirlwind romance was probably doomed to fail from the beginning.
There are a few success stories, and Bachelor Jason Mesnick is a perfect example. He’s enjoyed both facets of being on The Bachelor. Mesnick had one of the shortest Bachelor relationships of all time but then married a contestant and started a family!
Let’s head back into the show’s history and see who else joined the club of the shortest relationships from The Bachelor .
Bachelor: Brad Womack, Final Rose: Emily Maynard
Relationship length: Eight months.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 15
Season 15 saw a second chance at love for Brad Womack. He had enjoyed his time during The Bachelor season 11, and he and his fans hoped he and his choice, Emily Maynard, would make it work. Sadly, it lasted eight months — on and off. The first breakup was not at all gentlemanly. Womack reportedly cc’d Maynard in an email to producers explaining how the relationship didn’t work out. She somehow got over that aspect and the two managed to reconnect following the After the Final Rose broadcast. They broke up for good by May of 2011. The couple cited different life goals and dreams.
Bachelor: Andrew Firestone, Final Rose: Jen Schefft
Relationship length: Seven months.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 2
The tire heir, Andrew Firestone, was wealthy and easy on the eyes. He ultimately chose Jen Schefft, and the two made a delightful pair. Then, reality set in for these reality TV lovers and it seemed that their globetrotting love affair could not survive the day-to-day life of the “real” world. They broke up after eight months.
Bachelor: Ben Flajnik, Final Rose: Courtney Robertson
Relationship length: Off and on for seven months, then over.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 16
When ABC announced that the season 16 bachelor would be Ben Flajnik, the nation was thrilled. He was cute, successful and genuinely seemed ready to find “the one.” He found that “one” in Courtney Robertson. He proposed in the season finale, and the two continued a relationship long After the Final Rose. They would end things then get back together. But by October 2012, it was all over. Interestingly enough, Flajnik dated Kris Jenner, post-split from Bruce Jenner — now known as Caitlyn Jenner.
Bachelor: Juan Pablo Galavis, Final Rose: Nikki Ferrell
Relationship length: Six months.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 18
Juan Pablo Galavis was one of the more controversial men to participate in The Bachelor . Fans complained that he wasn’t taking the process seriously as it progressed. He didn’t ask Nikki Ferrell to marry him (which drew some boos from fans), but who among those Bachelor appreciators would have ever thought that a Galavis relationship with anyone would have lasted a half a year?! Distance and different interests played a role in the split.
Bachelor: Chris Soules, Final Rose: Whitney Bischoff
Relationship length: Six months.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 19
Anyone who watched season 19 of The Bachelor had to know that Iowa farmer Chris Soules had the odds stacked against him when he proposed to Whitney Bischoff (a city gal), thinking that she would give up her cosmopolitan life to move to the rural Midwest. Merely months after the show ended so too did their relationship.
Bachelor: Jake Pavelka, Final Rose: Vienna Girardi
Relationship length: Three months.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 14
After Jake Pavelka proposed to the show’s “villain,” many were skeptical of the relationship lasting. After all, fans of The Bachelor knew what he was getting into, right?! So, it was hardly a surprise when the Dallas-based pilot and Vienna Girardi called it quits after three months. In the period following the breakup, Pavelka and Girardi waged a war of words in terms of who to blame for the split. For her part, Girardi felt that Pavelka was more interested in continuing his 15 minutes of fame than nurturing a relationship. It certainly didn’t help when he accepted the offer to be part of Dancing with the Stars. According to Pavelka, Girardi was quite demanding of his time even though he had hours and hours of rehearsals for the dancing reality TV hit. All told, it added up to a relationship gone south.
Bachelor: Arie Luyendyk, Final Rose: Becca Kufrin
Relationship length: Two months.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 22
Talk about a dramatic season finale! Arie Luyendyk and Becca Kufrin didn’t even make it to the Final Rose show on ABC. Luckily for the network, cameras were on hand when the race car driver chose to end it with Kufrin. The January breakup was two months from the proposal, and that Final Rose show illustrated how badly the breakup had gone. It didn’t help things that Luyendyk made it clear that he wanted to pursue a relationship with his runner-up, Lauren Burnham, who was taken by surprise by his proposal. She accepted, and they are now married.
Bachelor: Jesse Palmer, Final Rose: Jessica Bowlin
Relationship length: Two months.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 5
At the close of the fifth season of The Bachelor, New York Giants backup quarterback Jesse Palmer chose Jessica Bowlin, and the pair hoped to be on their way to scoring a touchdown in the game of love. Sadly, the relationship was not in the cards as Palmer and Bowlin fumbled their love affair out in the real world. When the glare of the spotlight faded, the couple admitted that their love for each other did as well.
Bachelor: Andrew Baldwin, Final Rose: Tessa Horst
Relationship length: Two months.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 10
The tenth season of the ABC juggernaut concluded in a manner that made Bachelor nation utterly giddy. It resulted in an engagement! Andrew Baldwin dropped to one knee and proposed to Tessa Horst. Merely one month after the season finale, the pair decided to end their engagement. Baldwin and Horst decided to stay together, just not engaged. A month after the broken engagement, the duo was done permanently.
Bachelor: Matt Grant, Final Rose: Shayne Lamas
Relationship length: Two months.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 12
The first British Bachelor, Matt Grant, probably had some chats with his parents after they gave Shayne Lamas the third degree before he proposed. She still said yes to his proposal, but Lamas still looked like a deer in headlights after that parental visit. Again, hardly a surprise this one didn’t last. Two months after the show stopped filming so too did their love affair. The couple cited the usual suspects for their relationship failure, including distance, differing life goals and how real life is a different landscape for love than the one shown on The Bachelor.
Bachelor: Aaron Buerge, Final rose: Helene Eksterowicz
Relationship length: Five weeks.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 2
Fans had high hopes for success on the second season of The Bachelor. Talk about being committed ... Aaron Buerge arrived in Southern California to tape his season with his own diamond ring! Most bachelors go for the show-provided rock from legendary ring designer Neil Lane. After a whirlwind second season that spanned the globe, Buerge thought he had found a life partner in Helene Eksterowicz. He proposed. She accepted and sported that home-brought ring. Life outside the show was anything but a fairy tale as the two split five weeks after getting engaged.
Bachelor: Bob Guiney, Final Rose: Estella Gardinier
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Relationship length: One month.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 4
Bob Guiney was quite a character. He was charming, funny and talented in many arenas, such as music. Viewers of the fourth season of The Bachelor had to believe that they had a keeper in Guiney and so did Final Rose recipient, Estella Gardinier. Instead of an engagement ring, Guiney gave Gardinier a promise ring. Four weeks after the show’s season finale, he reportedly phoned her to end it all. Guess that promise was a bit faulty.
Bachelor: Jason Mesnick, Final Rose: Melissa Rycroft
Relationship length: Less than one month.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 13
Harrison is always touting finales of The Bachelor as "the most dramatic ever." Turns out that the final episode for season 13 was truly that. Jason Mesnick gave Melissa Rycroft the final rose and then realized he had made a grave mistake. During the After the Final Rose post-show, he broke it off with a stunned Rycroft and proposed to the runner-up, Molly Malaney. It was the right move as Mesnick and Malaney are married with two kids!
Bachelor: Lorenzo Borghese, Final Rose: Jennifer Wilson
Relationship length: Three weeks.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 9
If one cannot find lasting love with an Italian “prince,” then what hope is there? Lorenzo Borghese and Jennifer Wilson felt that they had found their soulmates on The Bachelor. As history has shown — more often than not — that was just not the case. Borghese didn’t propose but did give Wilson a family ring that his mom had designed. Merely weeks after the show’s finale, their chapter had closed. Borghese then went on to date his runner-up, Sadie Murray, for a short period. He called that Bachelor-based relationship off soon after as well.
Bachelor: Travis Lane Stork, Final Rose: Sarah Stone
Relationship Length: One week.
Season: The Bachelor, Season 8
Travis Lane Stork and Sarah Stone had the highest of intentions that theirs would be The Bachelor relationship to work. But Stork and Stone called it quits one week after the After the Final Rose episode. Stork blamed the show’s requirement that the winning couple not see each other in public until all the show’s episodes have run. "You're in Paris and you're part of this incredible experience, this fantasy world, and then suddenly you come back to Nashville, and living in the same city I think we thought was going to be a great thing," Stork said in an interview with his local paper, The Tennessean. “Instead, you're forced to pretend you don't know someone, for essentially the last four months.” He has a point.
