Bachelor Nation Villains Just Found Love After ‘Paradise’ in a Totally Unexpected Way

This season of Bachelor in Paradise has already resulted in romance, but it’s probably not the couple you’d expect. Though these two contestants were never even in Paradise at the same time, Sam McKinney and Alli Jo Hinkes recently hard-launched their love on Instagram after teasing followers for some time.

Sam, perhaps best known for “keeping the main thing the main thing,” was the first impression rose recipient on Jenn Tran’s season of The Bachelorette, who quickly descended into a villain edit. Alli Jo is fresh off an appearance on Grant Ellis’s season of The Bachelor, which aired earlier this year. She was eliminated by week 3, but not before diving headfirst into drama with some of the other contestants. Alli Jo, a fiery Jersey girl, became the self-appointed enforcer of unspoken Bachelor etiquette during her brief stint on the show. These two might be a match made in reality TV villain heaven.

Alli Jo and Sam Connected Before Filming Began for ‘Paradise’ and Went to the Show Hoping to See Each Other

The couple recently sat down for an interview onBachelor Happy Hour: Golden Hour to discuss how they met. Alli Jo shared that she initially slid into Sam’s Instagram DMs while her season of The Bachelor was airing earlier this year. They messaged here and there, and then, naturally, the conversation drifted toward the possibility of Paradise. Neither of them was sure if they’d be joining the cast, but eventually, Alli Jo stopped responding to Sam’s messages just in case they both ended up there, “because if he was going to be on the beach, I wanted it to happen organically.”

In Paradise, Sam showed up during week one, hoping to see if sparks flew with Alli Jo. “I was extremely excited to take her out. She was the only person that I had planned on taking [on a date] . Even in my interviews leading up to it, she was the only name that I dropped.” But unfortunately, Sam was sent right back home before he could even unpack his bags, left roseless at the very first ceremony of the season.Just days later during week two, Alli Jo arrived and was disheartened to hear that Sam had already come and gone. She’d come to Paradise looking only for Sam, “So to find out he had just went home, I was really shocked. I was surprised. I was super disappointed.” Alli Jo took Jonathon Johnson on a date and gave things a whirl with Dale Moss, but it seemed her heart wasn’t in it with anyone else, and she too was sent home without a rose.

On ‘Paradise,’ Sam and Alli Jo Just Missed Each Other, but They Didn’t Let That Stop Their Love

But these two weren’t going to let a few rose ceremonies stop them—they were determined to find each other and see things through. “We didn’t need TV. I didn’t need TV to book a plane ticket and go see,” Sam asserted. In their interview, Alli Jo recounts that she messaged him as soon as she got her phone back. She told Sam how heartbroken she was to have missed him in Paradise, and Sam responded, “Chin up. Here’s my number. Give me a call.” She rang him up before even boarding her flight back home, and from there, the rest is history.

Since then, Sam and Alli Jo have grown closer and have even met each other’s families. They’re doing long-distance for now, with Alli Jo living in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and Sam in Myrtle Beach, SC, but the couple make sure to see each other every other weekend. Despite missing each other on Bachelor in Paradise, it seems they found exactly what they were looking for.

Though Alli Jo and Sam found love off-screen, tune into Bachelor in Paradise, Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC to find out if anyone else meets their match.