A different journey to “I do!” Madlyn Ballatori and Colby Kissinger are the first success story to come from Netflix’s The Ultimatum.
Ballatori was 24 and Kissinger 25, respectively, during the 2021 productions of the reality series. The twosome, who had been dating for a year and a half, were at a crossroads when he was ready to propose, but she wasn’t in a rush to tie the knot. As part of The UltimatumThey each took part in a trial marriage with one another.
Ballatori, for her parts, lived with Randall GriffinFor three weeks. Kissinger was paired up with April MarieHe found a connection outside the show and he dated an unnamed woman during production.
“It wasn’t the right thing to do, obviously. And secondly, I should’ve just owned my mistake right there and then,” he told Us WeeklyBefore the debut of the show, it was March 2022. “It just was so much going on. I felt kind of attacked, I guess … and I just felt cornered and my way of handling was obviously poor. Overall, I knew what I had do to keep my desires. And so that was just manning up and owning my mistake in the end.”
Ballatori, meanwhile, noted she had a “great” connection with Griffin, but any chance of romance was “overshadowed” by her relationship with Ballatori. The stars reunited and the twosome survived the process. However, they almost split up. In the end, however, they were ready to commit, and Kissinger not only proposed during the finale — the pair got married.
“Once I knew I was committed in [the]I knew that I was ready for the next great thing. I knew it was engagement. Why not take advantage of the opportunity?” Kissinger explained to Use. “And I figure since she said yes to the engagement, why not say yes to the marriage.”
Three months later, they found out they were going to be parents.
“I am ready to have my girl. Just the past couple weeks, I’m, like, ‘Get this baby outta me!’” Ballatori told UsShe was 35 weeks pregnant when she was born in March 2022. “But I love being pregnant. I mean, this is, it’s been such a blessing.”
Scroll through for a timeline of Ballatori and Kissinger’s relationship:
