Joe Amabile, Kendall Long’s Return to ‘BiP’: Bachelor Nation Reacts

Joe Amabile and Kendall Long are the latest former couple set to reunite on the beach on ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ — read more

Kendall Long and Joe Amabile aren’t the first former couple to both return to Bachelor in Paradise, but will they end up like Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon … or Colton Underwood and Tia Booth?

Kendall and Joe met while filming season 5 of the Bachelor spinoff in 2017. Following a brief split on the beach, the twosome continued their relationship off screen and moved into together in Los Angeles. In January 2020, however, they announced their sudden split.

“I did not see it coming,” she said on her “Down to Date” podcast in February 2020. “Every relationship has issues but I feel like — with Joe and I — we were best friends. Everything was fun, we were getting a dog together. We had just moved in … Ultimately what happened was that Joe felt like he would have a better [life] in Chicago.”

Kendall added that she was “literally” planning her wedding to Joe in her head. “But something weird about ending something with some that you thought you were going to marry [is] you almost feel like you have such a better idea of what you’re looking for,” she said.

Fast forward to 2021, and Joe is one of the first people to arrive on BiP season 7. Based on the previews for the season, Kendall’s late arrival will throw a wrench into his relationship with Serena Pitt, which got off to a rocky start of its own after Joe compared on the Bachelor season 25 alum to Kendall.

In years past, Ashley and Jared found themselves at the center of the drama after they both returned to the beach for season 3 of BiP in 2016. During the 2015 season, they attempted to date but went their separate ways. Caila Quinn ended up in the middle of the pair’s second stint.

“I regret most promising to Ashley that I would never date Jared,” the Bachelor season 20 alum dished on Us’ “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast in May 2021. “Because if I never had made the promise then we wouldn’t have been in this predicament. At the same time, she did pressure me to make the promise very hard.”

In the end, Ashley and Jared reconnected off screen in 2018 and wed the following year.

“They were meant to be,” Caila noted. “And you know what? To each their own. And I wish them the most happiness in life.”

Kendall and Joe’s fate, meanwhile, will play out on ABC Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET. Scroll through for Bachelor Nation’s thoughts on the exes: