The Bachelor's Colton & Cassie - ‘I Couldn't Let Her Go!'

He professed his love; she left him brokenhearted. But the star of The Bachelor refused to give up and won his dreamgirl back. Now the couple are happier than ever—and starting a life together.

- Aili Nahas

Colton Underwood grins as Cassie Randolph sneaks her hands up the long sleeves of his plaid shirt, an effort to keep warm in the Los Angeles chill. “Cassie tells me all the time she wishes we were attached to each other,” the Bachelor star says with a laugh. “Not that I’m complaining!” This snuggled-up picture of intimacy is a far cry from just four months ago, when Underwood was shattered after Randolph, unable to commit to a proposal, left him weeks before the show’s finale. But Underwood, who gained a considerable fan base after he opened up about his virginity on Becca Kufrin’s season of The Bachelorette in 2018, wasn’t about to let the 23-year-old speech pathologist go without giving their romance one more shot. “I knew I could be walking away brokenhearted, but I found a love worth fighting for,” says the former football player, 27, who promptly broke up with the remaining finalists, Tayshia Adams and Hannah Godwin, in the hopes of winning Randolph back. Though not engaged, Underwood and Randolph are in love and planning a future together—on their own terms. “I know the expectations of the show, and that it typically ends with a proposal,” says Underwood. “But I came on The Bachelor wanting to be madly in love when I left. And that’s exactly what happened.” In between kisses and cuddles on the set of their first photo shoot together, Underwood and Randolph got candid about second chances, making their own rules and why, after everything they’ve been through, they’re more confident than ever that their love will go the distance.

It’s been quite a ride! How are you both feeling now?

CASSIE It’s been really hard trying to keep this secret. It feels like it’s been forever.