The Bachelor alum Kendall Long has welcomed her first child with husband Mitchell Sagely.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
"Hearts are SO full! Just enjoying our first few days as a family with the new BABE!" Kendall wrote. "Will share more soon."
Kendall shared a picture of her newborn swaddled in a blanket, but she placed a big white heart over the baby's face.
Kendall chose not to reveal the baby's sex or name in her initial Instagram Stories message, both announced both in a subsequent Instagram post on March 7.
"Welcoming our sweet baby GIRL to the world!! Elise Patrice Sagely," she captioned a carousel of photos.
"I can't even begin to tell you how enamored we were as we witnessed her first breath," she continued. "Love is truly an understatement for the emotions of the past few days."
"Through all the congratulations to the both of us, Mitch would say, 'She was the baker, I just threw in a few ingredients' and tho I feel like that's somewhat hilariously on point, I couldn't have imagined going through labor without my husband by my side, encouraging me and kissing my forehead through every push."
Kendall announced she was pregnant in September 2024.
"We have had quite the escapade these past few years but our most exciting adventure is yet to come," the couple wrote in a joint Instagram post at the time. "Baby Sagely due February 2025!!"
She later added on social media, "Mitch and I are completely over the moon at the thought of becoming parents!! It was very HARD keeping this little secret but so grateful for you all and excited to share more as our lil nugget grows! Here is to the start of my second trimester! Xoxo."
Kendall met Mitchell through mutual friends in December 2021 at a volleyball game and they apparently "clicked" right away and felt "a lot of chemistry."
FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS!
Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source!
Mitch asked Kendall to be his girlfriend on Valentine's Day in February 2022, and then Kendall went Instagram official with Mitchell in April of that year and bragged about how she was "in love" already.
Kendall and Mitch eventually eloped and secretly wed in 2022, but they waited until August 2024 to announce the news.
"We eloped and moved to Europe!" Kendall revealed via Instagram last summer.
"So I've been keeping a little secret these past few years. Days before Mitch and I jumped on a plane to move to Germany we got married in Santa Barbara!"
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
Kendall, who competed on Arie Luyendyk Jr.'s season of The Bachelor and multiple editions of Bachelor in Paradise, announced in October 2022 that she'd be moving to Germany with Mitchell for his job as an aerospace engineer.
Kendall revealed at the time she and Mitchell got engaged in late November 2022, and they quickly moved into an AirBnB in Germany in December of that year.
Kendall wrote on Instagram how her California wedding around that time was "such a special day" because she and Mitchell celebrated with their beloved immediate family members.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Bachelor in Paradise alum gushed about how she and her spouse have had an "unforgettable adventure together" since exchanging vows.
"We've traveled to some incredible places around the world and we have also [grown] closer from the struggles and small victories of adjusting to a life abroad," Kendall explained.
"It's truly bonkers to me that we've already been married for nearly two years!"
Kendall added, "Starting our life together abroad has made me so grateful for my husband and every day I wake up incredibly proud of the life we are building together."
Kendall and Mitchell looked forward to having a larger ceremony with family and friends in the United States but they said they "couldn't wait to start" their lives together.
After Kendall and Mitchell moved into a place in Germany together in December 2022, Kendall revealed on the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast how she and her man were "doing very good," even though life was "a little chaotic" at the time.
Kendall said leaving Los Angeles, where she lived her entire life near family and friends, and starting over in a brand new country was "a crazy transition" and adjustment for her. Mitchell is also from California.
"Germany does things a lot differently, so it's just adjusting to that. Learning the language, I know how to say, 'I don't know how to speak much German,' so that's helped me," Kendall shared with a laugh.
However, Kendall and Mitchell both hoped to return to California eventually.
"Our families live so close together, and so that's the ultimate goal. [Germany] is moreso an adventure before we settle down and have kids," Kendall explained.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
When Kendall announced her engagement, she wrote on Instagram, "It's always been a HECK YES with you Mitch. I love your brain, I love your family, I pretty much just love every single thing about you! So incredibly over the moon that we get to start our epic adventure together in a new country."
ADVERTISEMENT
Kendall agreed to move to Germany even though she had repeatedly refused to give Chicago, IL, a chance with her ex-boyfriend Joe Amabile, which resulted in the Bachelor in Paradise couple splitting up.
Kendall had dated Joe for nearly two years before they broke up in January 2020.
Kendall and Joe fell in love on Bachelor in Paradise's fifth season in 2018, and then they moved in together in Los Angeles in April 2019.
Kendall and Joe attempted to remain friends after calling it quits in 2020, but Kendall previously explained their breakup was difficult for her because they never fell out of love; it was logistics that broke them apart.
Kendall said she wanted to continue living in Los Angeles, but Joe hoped to move back to his hometown of Chicago to be near his loved ones.
"What happened was we broke up, we fought... we had our differences... but then I came back to [Los Angeles] four months after and I was pushing to have that conversation," Joe recalled on Bachelor in Paradise's seventh season.
"You were pushing to have me move to Chicago," Kendall argued with Joe.
"I was pushing to have you try -- yeah," Joe clarified, "to come move to the city where I grew up in, where my friends and family are. I think if you just would've tried, we could've figured something out."
Kendall said things probably would've ended the same way regardless because she had made it clear from the start of their relationship that moving away from her hometown was "a dealbreaker" for her.
"I wasn't going to change my mind and I think you were hoping I would," Kendall said on the show.
"Your thing was that you didn't want to move anywhere for a man... I should've been more than just 'a man' at that point, and we could've tried it," Joe pointed out.
ADVERTISEMENT
"If she really wanted me back," Joe said of Kendall on the ABC reality series, "she should have told me before I got here and before I started this. Because I really, really loved her."
Kendall ultimately decided to quit the show because she said it was too difficult to watch Joe with Serena and her feelings for Joe registered as painful realizations that she wasn't over him. She didn't want to sacrifice her mental and emotional well-being to stay on the show.
Joe is currently married to Serena, whom he wed in October 2022, and the couple is living together in New York City.
Joe reacted to Kendall's engagement in December of that year on his "Click Bait with Bachelor Nation" podcast.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Interested in more The Bachelor news? Follow our Bachelor Nation News Page on Facebook or join our The Bachelor Facebook Group!
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
