Can you really find love on reality TV?
It’s a question that crops up with every new season of Love Island, Married At First Sight and, until its recent cancelation, The Bachelor. Depending where you sit on the spectrum from ‘Reality TV sceptic’ to ‘I am hosting weekly watch parties for the rose ceremonies,’ you likely either believe wholeheartedly in the power of these reality-romance formats, or you think the whole thing is a load of rubbish.
In honour of it recently being axed by Channel 10 (for now, at least), the marie claire decided to use The Bachelor Australia as a sort of litmus test.
Across 11 seasons, the show has seen 15 bachelors (seasons 10 and 11 had three bachelors each) hand out that final rose to one of the lucky ladies who had been competing for their heart.
Out of the 15 final couples, one-third are still together.
As an aside, spinoff series The Bachelorette has a significantly poorer success rate, with only one of the eight final couples still being an item: season 2’s Georgia Love and Lee Elliot.
So if you’re wondering which lucky five Bachelor couples made things work outside of the show, scroll on to find out who is still together.
Tim Robards & Anna Heinrich, The Bachelor Australia Season 1
Tim Robards made waves when he became Australia’s first-ever bachelor in 2013.
At the end of the series, he chose to give his final rose to criminal lawyer Anna Heinrich.
Over ten years on and the pair are strong as ever. In June 2018 they were married in Manduria, Italy and welcomed daughter Elle in November 2020. Anna gave birth to her and Tim’s second child, another baby girl named Ruby, earlier this year.
Sam Wood & Snezana Markoski, The Bachelor Australia Season 3
Right from the start of The Bachelor season 3, the chemistry between Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski was electric. The pair announced their engagement in December 2015, two months after Australia watched him choose her in the season finale.
They wed in Byron Bay in 2018 and are stil together today. What’s more, Sam is a certified girl dad. In addition to being step-dad to Snezana’s daughter Eve from a previous relationship, the couple share three daughters; Willow, Charlie and Harper, who were born in 2017, 2019 and 2022, respectively.
Matty Johnson & Laura Byrne, The Bachelor Australia Season 5
In 2016, Matty J, as he was affectionately known, lost out to Lee Elliot in the finale of Georgia Love’s season of The Bachelorette. Ultimately, coming runner-up worked out well for him in the end because he was chosen to lead The Bachelor the following year. It was there that he would meet Laura Byrne, who he chose in the finale and is still with today.
In fact, the pair announced their engagement in 2019, and would welcome two daughters in 2019 and 2021, before tying the knot in Mollymook in 2022.
Locky Gilbert and Irena Srbinovska, The Bachelor Australia Season 8
In exciting news, earlier this year season 8’s Locky Gilbert and Irena Srbinovska became the most recent Bachie alumni to become first-time parents.
The pair announced their engagement in 2022, just over two years after they met. They were married in 2023, before welcoming their daughter Ava in February 2024.
Jimmy Nicholson & Holly Kingston, The Bachelor Australia Season 9
The fifth and final couple to have survived after the Bachelor finale is season 9’s Jimmy Nicholson and Holly Kingston. Since exiting the show as a pair, Holly and Jimmy have spent much of the past few years travelling, documenting their trips on their respective Instagram accounts.
They were married in a stylish Palm Beach wedding in August 2023. They even had a sweet little reference to the show at their reception, with “Will you accept this seat” written in the centre of their seating chart.
