The Truth About Dean Unglert And Caelynn Miller-Keyes' Relationship

The fact that Dean Unglert and Caelynn Miller-Keyes are still together is one of the most shocking things to come out of Bachelor Nation in a while. And the two just keep getting more serious, proving all their haters wrong. But to really understand why the recent developments in their relationship are so surprising to some fans, you have to know how Dean and Caelynn began their Bach Nation journeys — evolving from a commitment-phobe and catty pageant queen, respectively, into pillars of (almost) marital bliss. 

Dean started off as a contestant on Rachel Lindsay's Bachelorette season and made it all the way to hometown dates. He was both vulnerable and reserved with Rachel, the first girl he had ever brought time, sharing his self-proclaimed "eccentric" and "patriarchal" family with her. His father is a converted Sikh, and at the time, he and Dean hadn't spoken in years. That was sort of the problem.

Rachel told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, "Dean was learning a lot about himself, and I felt like some of the emotions he had with me in regards to love were wrapped up in that. I was still going through a lot of 'firsts' with him. I felt like he was still learning so much about himself and he wasn't ready for the same things I was." 

Dean was a fan-favorite at the time, but it did seem like he had a lot to learn before diving into a real relationship. And then Bachelor In Paradise happened. 

Dean Unglert went from a fan-favorite when Rachel Lindsay dumped him after their hometown date to a veritable playboy on Bachelor In Paradise Season 4. He quickly got into a love triangle with two women in Paradise — Kristina Schulman and Danielle Lombard. He was not good at juggling the two women and ended up hurting both of them when he just decided to quit in Week 4.

He later dated Lesley Murphy on Bachelor Winter Games, even going so far as to give her a key to his house, only to break up in April 2018, per People. So when Dean arrived back in Paradise in 2019 and started dating Caelynn Miller-Keyes, no one seriously thought it was going to last. 

Not that Caelynn wasn't there for the right reasons, but she did have her own issues when she came onto the scene during Colton Underwood's Bachelor season. Her and Hannah Brown, a fellow contestant, knew each other from their pageant days and things were contentious between them. While fans were split, it's fair to say that Caelynn got a bit of a villain edit at the end of the day.

So when she and Dean finally got together on Bachelor In Paradise Season 6, it seemed doomed. Caelynn was looking for true love, and Dean? Well, no one knew what that guy wanted. 

Initially, Dean Unglert and Caelynn Miller-Keyes hit it off on Bachelor In Paradise Season 6. But true to form, once they started to get close and it seemed like they might even have a functional relationship, Dean broke up with her and left the show. Then, in a twist that host Chris Harrison surely called the most dramatic ever, Dean came back and asked Caelynn to be with him. They left Paradise together, and in September 2019, they made their after-show romance official on Instagram, per Cosmopolitan.

Since then, the two have been literally inseparable, traveling the world together in Dean's van and posting mushy Instagram posts about each other. When Dean got into an awful skiing accident in Switzerland, Caelynn even flew to be with him while he completed physical therapy and healed. Your heart has to be very, very cold to not believe in these two. Recently, the two were even spotted wearing rings together and Caelynn made a cryptic comment about "already" being married on Instagram, per E! News. 

After fans spotted Dean and Caelynn wearing rings, rumors spread that the two were married, going as far back as February 2020. A source told E! News at the time that they were not "legally married," but that they might have had some sort of commitment ceremony after his skiing accident. But have they really tied the knot?! 

In late June 2020, the Dean Unglert and Caelynn Miller-Keyes finally cleared things up with Chris Harrison on The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons – Ever! Dean said, "I don't need the title of 'husband' to show the world that I'm committed to one person." He added that both he and Caelynn have rings that they wear to symbolize their love for each other, per People, but it's not "like the traditional ring of marriage or engagement ring." It's just their way of showing they're "committed" and in it "for the long haul." 

Caelynn added, "He started wearing a hair tie around his ring finger to fight women off. I liked the idea, and we just talked about getting rings. It's just nice to know we are in a strong committed relationship without necessarily having to get the government involved as Dean would like to say."

They also told Chris, who is ordained, that they would call him up if they ever decide to "get the government involved" in making their relationship status legit. While it might not be the most traditional way of doing things, there's literally nothing traditional about Dean, Caelynn, or the way they met. But they've come a long way to be counted among one of Bachelor Nation's success stories and that's certainly saying a lot. Maybe people can change... for the right person.