Why Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon Are the Couple Bachelor Nation Has Been Rooting for This Whole Time
5 minute read
Why Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon Are the Couple Bachelor Nation Has Been Rooting for This Whole Time
By: SARAH GROSSBART
Wed., May. 23, 2018 10:52 AM
As journeys go, Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon's was dramatic. Dare we say the most dramatic in Bachelor franchise history?
When former nanny Iaconetti first spied Kaitlyn Bristowe's freshly scorned suitor on the Bachelor in Paradise beach in June 2015, she quickly declared him her soulmate. Never mind the feelings she had just professed months earlier to Bachelor Chris Soules. Thiswas it.
Haibon was, how you say, less convinced. While he found her "really hot", he worried she was too emotional for him, and far too different from the shy, soft-spoken girls he'd gravitated towards in the past.
But any he's just not that into you signals the onetime restaurant manager may have given off did little to squelch Iaconetti's determination. After she fended off other hopefuls (bye, Clare Crawley!), she even snagged a card to the fantasy suite where the self-professed virgin speculated she just might do you know what. Instead, she lost her heart. Haibon broke off their romance, hopped the next flight back to Rhode Island and left Iaconetti in what, at times, can feel like her natural state: crying in front of a camera.
It's a moment he's looked back on more than a few times since he and the 30-year-old journalist and podcast host starting dating in earnest a few months ago. For real this time, with nary an ABC camera in sight. "It's interesting to think if we left as a couple on Bachelor in Paradise season two if we would still be dating today," the 29-year-old speculated on "Help! I Suck at Dating" May 22, the podcast he shares with fellow alum Dean Unglert and Vanessa Grimaldi, "'cause I go back and forth whether we would be."
Gun to his head, he said, he'd guess yes, but at this point it doesn't really matter. Because when he realized his feelings for his best friend were more than platonic—after several years of internally struggling to decide if the love he felt was that type of love—he knew she'd be receiving all of his roses for the foreseeable future. "We see this as, you know, it for us," he explained. "Life partner, marriage, kids, the whole—I mean, I hope so.
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Why Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon Are the Couple Bachelor Nation Has Been Rooting for This Whole Time
By: SARAH GROSSBART
Wed., May. 23, 2018 10:52 AM
As journeys go, Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon's was dramatic. Dare we say the most dramatic in Bachelor franchise history?
When former nanny Iaconetti first spied Kaitlyn Bristowe's freshly scorned suitor on the Bachelor in Paradise beach in June 2015, she quickly declared him her soulmate. Never mind the feelings she had just professed months earlier to Bachelor Chris Soules. Thiswas it.
Haibon was, how you say, less convinced. While he found her "really hot", he worried she was too emotional for him, and far too different from the shy, soft-spoken girls he'd gravitated towards in the past.
But any he's just not that into you signals the onetime restaurant manager may have given off did little to squelch Iaconetti's determination. After she fended off other hopefuls (bye, Clare Crawley!), she even snagged a card to the fantasy suite where the self-professed virgin speculated she just might do you know what. Instead, she lost her heart. Haibon broke off their romance, hopped the next flight back to Rhode Island and left Iaconetti in what, at times, can feel like her natural state: crying in front of a camera.

PhotosPhotos
Bachelor Nation's Messiest Breakups Ever
It's a moment he's looked back on more than a few times since he and the 30-year-old journalist and podcast host starting dating in earnest a few months ago. For real this time, with nary an ABC camera in sight. "It's interesting to think if we left as a couple on Bachelor in Paradise season two if we would still be dating today," the 29-year-old speculated on "Help! I Suck at Dating" May 22, the podcast he shares with fellow alum Dean Unglert and Vanessa Grimaldi, "'cause I go back and forth whether we would be."
Gun to his head, he said, he'd guess yes, but at this point it doesn't really matter. Because when he realized his feelings for his best friend were more than platonic—after several years of internally struggling to decide if the love he felt was that type of love—he knew she'd be receiving all of his roses for the foreseeable future. "We see this as, you know, it for us," he explained. "Life partner, marriage, kids, the whole—I mean, I hope so."

Courtesy of Los Angeles Dodgers
If he's being truly honest, there's a small part of him that always knew he'd get here. Though he broke things off with Iaconetti twice while they were in Mexico, "It never felt like it was over between us after Paradise," he explained on Iaconetti's YouTube series The Story of Us. (The pair dedicated a 44-minute episode of the show, produced by Married at First Sight and Seven Year Switch's Kinetic Entertainment, to explaining how they made the slow transition from friends to lovers.) That's why, he continued, "I said we were still going to be friends. It just didn't feel over."
After hanging out a few times that summer, Iaconetti invited him to join other franchise alum at a multi-day charity event she was hosting in her Virginia hometown. There, she says, she was finally in her element after spending the entirety of their Paradisecourtship "constantly scared of another girl coming in" and unable to showcase her true self. "I ruled that weekend," she recalled. "I was like total boss woman and Jared wasn't my focal point. It was putting together these two events."
Haibon, meanwhile, was completely keyed in on her. "I was in love," he said of seeing her in such an authentic setting. "You were just so down to earth and easy-going, ambitious and you were working hard that weekend and you looked sexy."
In other words, he realized, it was pretty stupid of him to let her go in the first place. "I was like, 'I'm an idiot,'" he admitted. "This girl is so sexy and sweet and we get along perfectly."
By: SARAH GROSSBART
Wed., May. 23, 2018 10:52 AM
As journeys go, Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon's was dramatic. Dare we say the most dramatic in Bachelor franchise history?
When former nanny Iaconetti first spied Kaitlyn Bristowe's freshly scorned suitor on the Bachelor in Paradise beach in June 2015, she quickly declared him her soulmate. Never mind the feelings she had just professed months earlier to Bachelor Chris Soules. Thiswas it.
Haibon was, how you say, less convinced. While he found her "really hot", he worried she was too emotional for him, and far too different from the shy, soft-spoken girls he'd gravitated towards in the past.
But any he's just not that into you signals the onetime restaurant manager may have given off did little to squelch Iaconetti's determination. After she fended off other hopefuls (bye, Clare Crawley!), she even snagged a card to the fantasy suite where the self-professed virgin speculated she just might do you know what. Instead, she lost her heart. Haibon broke off their romance, hopped the next flight back to Rhode Island and left Iaconetti in what, at times, can feel like her natural state: crying in front of a camera.
It's a moment he's looked back on more than a few times since he and the 30-year-old journalist and podcast host starting dating in earnest a few months ago. For real this time, with nary an ABC camera in sight. "It's interesting to think if we left as a couple on Bachelor in Paradise season two if we would still be dating today," the 29-year-old speculated on "Help! I Suck at Dating" May 22, the podcast he shares with fellow alum Dean Unglert and Vanessa Grimaldi, "'cause I go back and forth whether we would be."
Gun to his head, he said, he'd guess yes, but at this point it doesn't really matter. Because when he realized his feelings for his best friend were more than platonic—after several years of internally struggling to decide if the love he felt was that type of love—he knew she'd be receiving all of his roses for the foreseeable future. "We see this as, you know, it for us," he explained. "Life partner, marriage, kids, the whole—I mean, I hope so.
×
Entertainment News, Celebrity News, Celebrity GossipE! News AppFREE-In Google Play
VIEW
ShareTWEETEMAIL

Why Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon Are the Couple Bachelor Nation Has Been Rooting for This Whole Time
By: SARAH GROSSBART
Wed., May. 23, 2018 10:52 AM
As journeys go, Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon's was dramatic. Dare we say the most dramatic in Bachelor franchise history?
When former nanny Iaconetti first spied Kaitlyn Bristowe's freshly scorned suitor on the Bachelor in Paradise beach in June 2015, she quickly declared him her soulmate. Never mind the feelings she had just professed months earlier to Bachelor Chris Soules. Thiswas it.
Haibon was, how you say, less convinced. While he found her "really hot", he worried she was too emotional for him, and far too different from the shy, soft-spoken girls he'd gravitated towards in the past.
But any he's just not that into you signals the onetime restaurant manager may have given off did little to squelch Iaconetti's determination. After she fended off other hopefuls (bye, Clare Crawley!), she even snagged a card to the fantasy suite where the self-professed virgin speculated she just might do you know what. Instead, she lost her heart. Haibon broke off their romance, hopped the next flight back to Rhode Island and left Iaconetti in what, at times, can feel like her natural state: crying in front of a camera.

PhotosPhotos
Bachelor Nation's Messiest Breakups Ever
It's a moment he's looked back on more than a few times since he and the 30-year-old journalist and podcast host starting dating in earnest a few months ago. For real this time, with nary an ABC camera in sight. "It's interesting to think if we left as a couple on Bachelor in Paradise season two if we would still be dating today," the 29-year-old speculated on "Help! I Suck at Dating" May 22, the podcast he shares with fellow alum Dean Unglert and Vanessa Grimaldi, "'cause I go back and forth whether we would be."
Gun to his head, he said, he'd guess yes, but at this point it doesn't really matter. Because when he realized his feelings for his best friend were more than platonic—after several years of internally struggling to decide if the love he felt was that type of love—he knew she'd be receiving all of his roses for the foreseeable future. "We see this as, you know, it for us," he explained. "Life partner, marriage, kids, the whole—I mean, I hope so."

Courtesy of Los Angeles Dodgers
If he's being truly honest, there's a small part of him that always knew he'd get here. Though he broke things off with Iaconetti twice while they were in Mexico, "It never felt like it was over between us after Paradise," he explained on Iaconetti's YouTube series The Story of Us. (The pair dedicated a 44-minute episode of the show, produced by Married at First Sight and Seven Year Switch's Kinetic Entertainment, to explaining how they made the slow transition from friends to lovers.) That's why, he continued, "I said we were still going to be friends. It just didn't feel over."
After hanging out a few times that summer, Iaconetti invited him to join other franchise alum at a multi-day charity event she was hosting in her Virginia hometown. There, she says, she was finally in her element after spending the entirety of their Paradisecourtship "constantly scared of another girl coming in" and unable to showcase her true self. "I ruled that weekend," she recalled. "I was like total boss woman and Jared wasn't my focal point. It was putting together these two events."
Haibon, meanwhile, was completely keyed in on her. "I was in love," he said of seeing her in such an authentic setting. "You were just so down to earth and easy-going, ambitious and you were working hard that weekend and you looked sexy."
In other words, he realized, it was pretty stupid of him to let her go in the first place. "I was like, 'I'm an idiot,'" he admitted. "This girl is so sexy and sweet and we get along perfectly."
