No! Say it isn’t so! Sadly, Bachelor Nation’s cutest couple has called it quits. Less than a year after meeting on Bachelor In Paradise, Brandon Jones and Serene Russell have ended their engagement.
The reality stars first met during Season 8 of the Bachelor franchise spinoff series and almost immediately fell in love. They even confessed their feelings for each other on their first date. Who uses the “L” word on their first date? Come on, man!
But just like that, it’s over. How can they break my heart this way? I’m taking this pretty hard, y’all.
A joint Instagram statement
The couple announced the shocking breakup news with a joint statement posted to their respective Instagram accounts. Alongside the announcement, they shared photos from their time together on BIP, clips of singing karaoke in the car and a sweet picture of a shared kiss on the beach at sunset.
Though it didn’t air until November 2022, the pair got engaged on the BIP season finale in June. Once filming ended, they moved into a San Diego apartment together, but sneaking around while the show was still airing proved stressful.
It was a relief when they could go public and not have to wear disguises to go to the grocery store or out to dinner. Brandon compared the relief of being openly a couple to being able to loosen your belt after Thanksgiving dinner. “And you’re like, ‘Ahhh,’” he said. “We can finally relax and be ourselves.”
While enjoying their engagement, the couple had started thinking about wedding plans, with an eye toward tying the knot in 2024. “We’re starting to have these fun little conversations,” said Serene.
“I feel like we have two hearts cut from the same cloth,” Serene told Brandon on the beach in Mexico when he proposed. “I have never felt more seen or understood in my entire life. In you, I have found my best friend.”
But even though their relationship seemed like a fairy tale on screen, the pair confessed to having “little growing pains here and there” once they left Paradise. Cracks in their romance became evident when Brandon admitted to Us Weekly in November that they would “bicker sometimes” and “fight” like any other “normal couple.”
And just like other couples, sometimes things don’t work out. Perhaps this will be a temporary bump in the road, and after some time apart, Brandon and Serene may decide they miss each other and get back together. But if not, I’ll just have to accept it.
As one of the calmest, most stable couples to come out of BIP, I really thought they’d last. But nothing is forever. Thanks for the memories, guys. It was sweet while it lasted.
A premiere date for Season 9 of ABC’s Bachelor in Paradise has yet to be announced.
TELL US – ARE YOU SURPRISED TO HEAR THAT BRANDON AND SERENE HAVE ENDED THEIR ENGAGEMENT? OR WAS THEIR RELATIONSHIP JUST TOO PERFECT TO BE TRUE?
