Desiree From 'The Bachelorette' Is Pregnant With Baby No. 2, Proving The Show Actually Works

The Bachelor franchise takes a lot of flak for promoting unrealistic relationships, but with the news that The Bachelorette's Desiree Hartsock is pregnant again, it's worth noting that the franchise is on a bit of a hot streak. Desiree confirmed the news in an interview with Us Weekly, telling the magazine that she and her husband Chris Siegfried "both felt joy" at the news. The happy news is just the most recent in a long line of Bachelor Nation good fortune. Multiple Bachelor Nation pairs have gotten engaged, welcomed children, or begun planning weddings in 2018, resulting in an atmosphere that feels almost — dare we say? — optimistic.

Desiree and her now-husband Chris met on Season 9 of The Bachelorette, getting engaged during the finale. But even though her season landed in a downturn in which seven out of nine relationships failed, Desiree and Chris have managed to make it work. The pair moved in together just after their May 2013 engagement, tied the knot in January 2015, and announced Desiree's first pregnancy in May 2016. Five months later, in October 2016, the couple welcomed Asher Wrigley Siegfried. And now, Asher's about to be a big brother. Desiree and Chris informed Us Weekly that their second child is due in January, and the soon-to-be mother of two posted the news on Instagram, writing, "We are beyond excited to finally announce that we're expecting baby number two!!"

At just under two years old, little Asher is a toddler now, so it's been all-hands-on-deck in the Siegfried home. As she told Us Weekly, Desiree took time off from her career for the first pregnancy, but she won't be doing that this time around. "I've been putting in the work," she told the outlet, and Chris has been stepping in to make up the difference. "I’ve jumped back into it," the 32-year-old shared, adding, "I cook and let Des relax as much as she can." In other words, it's a solid partnership, mirrors of which have been cropping up all over Bachelor Nation, with many coming directly from The Bachelorette.

Desiree's fellow Bachelorettes from Seasons 1 and 7 are still happily married: Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter's kids Max and Blakesley are 11 and 9, respectively, and Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum are the proud parents of 3-year-old Fordham Rhys and 20-month-old Essex. And if current Bachelorette Becca Kufrin's engagement to the as-yet-unknown winner goes the distance, she'll be the fourth Bachelorette in a row to leave the franchise with a successful relationship, a complete reversal of the stats during Desiree's time on the show. (Season 13's Rachel Lindsay, Season 12's JoJo Fletcher, and Season 11's Kaitlyn Bristowe are all still engaged to their season's winners, with Rachel and her fiancé Bryan Abasolo aiming for a Spring 2019 wedding.)

Also engaged and planning weddings are Jared Haibon and Ashley Iaconetti, whose twisting road to romance started on Bachelor in Paradise Season 2, and The Bachelor Season 22's Arie Luyendyk, Jr. and Lauren Burnham, who had a similarly rocky start, but plan to wed in Hawaii on January 12, 2019.

There's also Raven Gates and Adam Gottschalk, who are the rare case of a Bachelor Nation couple who's still together a year after their show wrapped, but not engaged. The two met on Bachelor in Paradise Season 4 in Summer 2017, and even though Adam didn't pick out a ring with Neil Lane, they've made it work off-camera as well. Raven relocated to Dallas earlier this year to move in with Adam, and according to Us Weekly, an engagement isn't far off.

And that's just the engaged couples. When it comes to the married-with-children set, Desiree and Chris aren't in bad company there, either. Just four seasons in, Bachelor in Paradise has already started its fair share of little families. Season 2's Tanner Tolbert and Jade Roper married in 2016 and welcomed daughter Emerson "Emmy" Avery Tolbert in August 2017, while Season 3's Carly Waddell and Evan Bass wed in 2017 and had their first child, Isabella Evelyn Bass, in February.

And finally, there are even success stories from the original show that started it all. Over in The Bachelor camp, the success rates are slightly lower, even with more seasons, but both Season 13's Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney and Season 17's Sean Lowe and Catherine Giudici have stood the test of time. Jason and Molly are the parents to Riley Anne, born in 2013, and 13-year-old Ty, Jason's son from his first marriage, while Sean and Catherine welcomed their second child, Isaiah Hendrix, just two months ago. Their oldest, a son named Samuel, is two.

So no matter how optimistic it seems to imagine that real love and lasting relationships can come out of a reality show, the proof is right here that sometimes they do.