“We have decided to mutually go our separate ways,” Joe Amabile and Kendall Long said in a statement to Bachelor Nation on Jan. 29. “Joe has made the decision to move back to Chicago, while Kendall will be remaining in her hometown of Los Angeles. Our family and friends have always been an extremely important element to who we are as people. We can’t imagine continuing our lives without them closer, especially when thinking of starting a family of our own one day. We both respect each other’s decision and still have a great deal of love for each other. We appreciate all the love and support everyone has given us throughout our relationship.”
Kendall and Joe first met on season five of Bachelor in Paradise in the summer of 2018. Their appearances on the show came after breakups from Arie Luyendyk Jr. and Becca Kufrin on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. The two hit it off right away, but throughout the entire summer, Kendall was hesitant about getting serious too quickly. As their time in Mexico wound down, Kendall let her emotions get the best of her, and she wasn’t able to commit to Joe. He decided to leave the show after the breakup.
However, the split was short-lived, as the two announced that they were giving their love another try during the reunion show in September! Joe even moved to Los Angeles to be with Kendall, and in Sept. 2019, he admitted to HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY that he was planning to propose to his girlfriend. Unfortunately, things did not pan out that way.
Kendall and Joe are not the only couple from season five to perish after Paradise. Jordan Kimball and Jenna Cooper broke up before the season even finished airing, while Kamil Nicalek and Annaliese Puccini also split shortly after they returned from filming. However, Chris Randone and Krystal Nielson got married during summer 2019, and Kevin Wendt and Astrid Loch got engaged in September.
