First Bachelorette couple Ryan and Trista Sutter have sparked confusion with cryptic Instagram activity.
After posting a series of odd Instagram posts, Ryan Sutter has Bachelor Nation unsure what might be going on with his wife, first Bachelorette lead Trista Sutter, is on the run or worse. After the pair fell in love on the first-ever season of The Bachelorette in 2003, they married that same year, with December 2023 marking their 20th wedding anniversary. Since tying the knot, they have welcomed two children - Maxwell, 16, and Blakesley, 14.
Fans were shocked that the franchise’s longest-running couple seemingly have relationship issues with Ryan sharing cryptic posts about Trista starting around Mother’s Day. In his first post on 11 May, he implied that he and his wife were not in contact.
“They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I can think of only a handful of days I have not, at minimum, spoken to this incredible woman,” he wrote. “She is the love of my life and my best friend. I cannot imagine loving her any more or any more fondly. But I guess we’re gonna find out…. I miss her already.”
The post contradicted Trista’s tribute posted a day later, which showed a seemingly happy family.
At first, many fans assumed that perhaps the pediatric physical therapist was joining another reality show, which can often strain a relationship due to long months spent filming. However, later posts led fans to wonder if something more serious had happened to the former Bachelorette.
The cryptic captions didn’t end there.
On 18 May, Ryan clarified to fans that his wife was “fine,” however, he didn’t reveal where she was or what she was up to. He shared a photo - a selfie of the two of them - with the caption: “I really wish I could talk to you. Ask you how you’re doing? How was your day. I’d really like to hear your voice—just for a minute.”
“So many times I’ve called without much to say, not realizing how lucky I was or how much I’d miss the opportunity if it were gone,” he continued, to the ongoing confusion of Bachelor Nation.
“I want to know how you’re doing. I want to support and encourage and cheer you on. I want to be there for you. But I can’t. And that’s ok cause I know you need this time - time to discover yourself again. So I’ll be here for you instead. I’ll be here when you get back. I’ll be here to listen to you, to smile with you, maybe cry with you - I’ll be here to love you… I’ll be here… forever.”
He explained that she was “temporarily inaccessible” to her family.
“I write what is on my mind at the moment. I write my feelings without regard for how they will be interpreted and with absolutely no intent to deceive or mislead anyone—that is the farthest thing from my mind,” he wrote. “I choose to share my thoughts on occasion because it helps me process them and, I hope, may help others navigate their own lives.”
“Trista is fine,” he added. “We are fine. We’re great. Trista is at a place in life where she is searching a bit. An opportunity presented itself that may help her on that quest. With her family’s support, she has taken it. Part of that process means that she is temporarily inaccessible to us. I miss her. We miss her.”
Some fans theorized that the former Miami Heat dancer may have joined the cast of reality survival show Special Forces, while others were bracing for the worst possible scenario. Although many commented with messages of support, some questioned why Ryan was publicizing this struggle in the first place.
“Why publicize all of this?” one fan commented. “Let her ‘search a bit’ without all the attention you are drawing to her.”
He addressed the concerns from fans beneath a photo of his dog, writing: “21 years ago I was pretty famous. I don’t have millions of followers and am not influencing anyone but for some reason, every now and then, people still pay attention. Apparently that has recently been the case?”
He wrote that he was posting the messages for when his wife for “a time when she could eventually read it,” noting that she would understand the “context.”
“It was suggested that Trista had died, we were in trouble or that it must be a mid life crisis among many other creative ideas,” he continued. “Some thought I was intentionally misleading people in order to somehow benefit from it? It got picked up on entertainment news sites and I started getting texts from friends asking if I was ok. All because I missed my wife and chose to share how that felt.”
Ultimately, he clarified that it was everything “turned out ok,” but still wouldn’t say what happened
