Another famous KC couple: ‘Bachelor’ stars moving back, ‘in time for Chiefs’ 3 peat’
Kansas City’s Bachelor is coming home — with his family.
Tanner Tolbert, who grew up in Overland Park, found reality TV fame when he took time off from his job at Legends Honda in KCK and competed on the 11th season of ABC’s “The Bachelorette” in 2015.
Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe didn’t give him a rose.
But the University of Kansas grad found the love of his life, former “Bachelor” contestant Jade Roper, when he competed later that year on “Bachelor in Paradise.”
He proposed on a Mexican beach, they got married in January 2016 on a special episode of “The Bachelor” and began married life in Johnson County.
But for more than five years they’ve lived in suburban L.A., Orange County, California, raising three children and becoming one of Bachelor Nation’s most popular couples.
In two Instagram posts this week, they surprised fans by announcing they were packing up and leaving California.
The first post on Wednesday was a tease.
“IT’S OFFICIAL!!! We are on to the next adventure and are moving! Any guesses on where we are off to next? There might be a clue in this video,” they wrote.
Was it Tanner’s button-down shirt covered with flower blossoms? (Hawaii?)
Their daughter’s black tutu and red beret? (France?)
Turns out, the giveaway was the red Kansas City Chiefs hat on their youngest son’s head.
A second post on Thursday revealed they were headed this way.
“The Tolberts are home! So many memories we’ll take with us from the past three years in our old house in the canyon (5 1/2 years in CA total), and so many more we’re ready to create in this new chapter,” they wrote.
“Wherever we are together, that is home.”
Fans who must have forgotten, or didn’t know, that Tanner is a “good Midwestern kid” as his boss at the car dealership once described him, asked: “Can you share why Kansas?”
Tanner, who graduated from Blue Valley West, responded by posting an Instagram Story with screenshots of news stories and rankings naming Overland Park one of the best places to raise a family and buy a house in the country.
Their daughter, Emerson, turns 7 next month. Youngest son Reed is 3. Middle son Brooks, who was born on the floor of his mom’s bedroom closet, turns 5 later this month.
Tanner used another Instagram Story to explain that “if you are from here … you know it really is the best place to raise a family.”
Plus, Kansas City is closer to Jade’s family in Nebraska, he wrote. (She’s a Denver native and Los Angeles transplant who grew up in western Nebraska.)
He also pointed out “the sense of community here … the schools … my friends.”
And, the Chiefs.
“Plus I had to be back in time for the 3 peat,” he wrote, adding icons of a Chiefs helmet and the Super Bowl trophy.
He has a direct connection to that “guy on the Chiefs” currently dating Taylor Swift.
Tanner’s sister, Kara Tolbert, appeared on the 2016 reality show series “Chasing Kelce,” where she represented the state of Kansas in competing for the affection of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
She didn’t win. But maybe the Tolberts, Kansas City’s newest celebrity couple, will find themselves in a certain suite at Chiefs games this coming season?
Guaranteed, Bachelor Nation will be watching.
“We are excited for the Tolbert family as they head out on this new adventure,” Bachelor Nation, the official website of “The Bachelor” franchise, wrote this week.
“We can’t wait to see all that the future has in store for them in Kansas!”