The OG Bachelorette, Trista was the first to prove that a stint in the mansion could lead to love, marriage and even Bachelor babies. “Nowadays they shoot the show for, I believe, three months. So it’s like 12 weeks,” the author shared with Us Weekly of her 2003 season. “My show was shot in six weeks. So Ryan and I met, got engaged, got married a year later, after knowing each other for six weeks. So that’s how it used to be.”
Their nine years holding it down as the show’s sole success story have taught the Colorado-based pair they can handle pretty much anything. Including months sheltering in place with their middle schoolers, son Maxwell, 13, and daughter Blakesley, 11. “It’s really hard for us to get a date night. I think when the kids are working, we try to take advantage of that time as much as possible,” she said of scheduling around the firefighter’s early bird tendencies. “But yeah, we’re good. We’re 16 years and this too shall pass, as they say.”