Ian McKee '98, who won 15 minutes of fame and a bride on The Bachelorette last March, split from his wife of almost a year, Meredith Phillips.
"What we experienced together was incredible and we are both sad to see it end," the couple said in statement announcing the split.
McKee, an Economics and Spanish major who played lacrosse and soccer at Bowdoin, claimed "I found my soulmate," in the show's climactic rose ceremony last February. At one point during the program, Phillips described her connection with McKee as "an unspoken relationship that doesn't make sense."
While the demise of the reality TV-founded relationship probably surprised few, McKee may now be on the market for all those Bowdoin girls who, as Ann Sullivan '06 described in the March 5, 2004 Orient, "put aside work each Wednesday night to religiously congregate around the TVs in their common rooms, only dreaming of being in Meredith's position."
Perhaps in the years to come McKee will indeed become one of those Bowdoin alums who end up with other Polar Bears. Good luck, girls!