Bachelor Nation, it's time to sit down and pour a glass of wine, because it is story time.
After three years of ups and downs, The Bachelor's Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon are officially dating. You read that right. After drowning half of Mexico in her tears on two seasons of Bachelor in Paradise,Ashley and Jared have decided to make a real go of it.
This is a huge, huge surprise for Bachelor fans who have only seen Ashley and Jared's interactions unfold on The Bachelor spin-off. Ashley unabashedly declared her love for Jared on the summer show three years ago but it never turned into a full relationship. The pair remained friends off camera and Ashley tried again the following summer but Jared left the resort with Caila Queen while Ashley tried to make it work with Wells Adams.
The Bachelor Winter Games' Ashley Iaconetti Says Arie Isn't Boring, He's Misunderstood
Fast forward two years and past Ashley's Bachelor: Winter Games stint, and the couple have revealed the three-year journey to their romantic bliss on her YouTube series The Story of Us. The 45-minute video explains a lot of the behind-the-scenes drama and mixed feelings being traded between the two during their year off from Paradise, and puts Ashley's irrational behavior that second summer into better context. When Ashley hooked up with Kevin Wendt on Winter Games, Jared finally realized that he needed to tell his best friend that he had real feelings for her. Ashley didn't immediately dump Wendt, but the relationship fizzled shortly after and a well-timed love letter from Jared brought the two officially together, finally.
The gist of the story is that after a lot of reality TV set ups, dabbling in other relationships and a lot of back and forth, Ashley and Jared have found true love with each other. At one point Jared even calls her the love of his life.
But what does this mean for the for the rest of us? It means you can stalk the object of your affection, court him on national TV, become his best friend and if you keep at it he will eventually admit that you two belong together. Honestly, after so many tears and dramatic Bachelor confessional interviews, it's so nice to see these two finally happy.
Ashley I., you are a hero. Get it, girl.
Other Links From TVGuide.com Bachelor in ParadiseAshley I.Jared Haibon