‘Bachelorette’ Trista Sutter shares the secrets to her 21-year marriage to Ryan Sutter
Trista and Ryan Sutter met 22 years ago on the first season of the “The Bachelorette.” Now, they have been married for 21 years and are sharing how they’ve managed to remain one of the franchise’s few success stories.
While talking with E! News, Trista said “there really isn’t a secret.”
In fact, Trista credits her successful marriage to Ryan to standard relationship advice.
“It’s what you hear all the time. It’s all the advice anyone in a relationship has ever given. It’s communication, it’s trust, it’s respect. Common values. It’s compatibility. All of the things.”
Adding that forgiving each other for the “little tiffs” is important, Trista said “it’s all cliche.”
“It really is truly all the things that you hear about.”
Trista and Ryan are parents of two kids, 17-year-old Maxwell and 15-year-old Blakesley.
Both Trista and Ryan were in the news over the summer after Ryan posted cryptic messages on his Instagram account.
“I know you wish you were here for Mother’s Day. We wish you were too,” Ryan wrote in one of his posts.
“But sometimes being a mom means letting go of their hands, granting independence and stimulating their courageous spirit,” he continued. “Sometimes it’s necessary to exemplify the characteristics you preach - to do rather than say.”
Fans grew concerned that the couple were enduring a rough patch that resulted in their separation.
It wasn’t until November that Trista revealed she and Ryan aren’t struggling in their marriage but that she was keeping a secret.
Her time apart from her family was spent filming the third season of “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.”
“Was it a divorce/nervous breakdown/mid-life crisis/death/trial separation back in May,” Trista Sutter wrote. “Not unless that’s what you call Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, season 3.”
In the trailer, Trista Sutter can be heard telling the cameras, “the devil on my shoulder is going, ‘You can’t do this.’ I’m just trying to believe in the angel that is telling me, ‘You can do it.’”
Sutter told E! News that the frenzy over their marriage was “crazy” but said “it really made me feel like, ‘Aww, you guys still care.’”