Here's Everything We Know About Ryan Sutter's Mystery Illness

There have been hundreds of The Bachelorette contestants since the show's premiere in 2003. It's hard to stand out in such a big pool, but Ryan Sutter has managed to remain memorable. Ryan is most notable as the first winner of the series. He was chosen as the one and only by the first-ever Bachelorette, Trista Rehn. Trista and Ryan eventually got married — rare for the franchise — and most remarkably, have remained married.

Unlike the Bachelor and Bachelorette stars of today, Ryan and Trista did not instantly become big-time influencers or B-list celebrities. Instead, they left Hollywood behind and started a quiet life in Colorado where Ryan worked as a fireman, and he and Trista focused on raising their two children, per Us Weekly

It seemed like Ryan and Trista were destined to live out the rest of their days in peace and quiet, but that dream was shattered in 2020 when Ryan began suffering from a series of mysterious symptoms. Here's what we know.

Ryan Sutter is learning to put himself first

In December 2020, Ryan Sutter, the first-ever winner of The Bachelorette, took to Instagram to fill fans in on his mysterious illness. He initially started to feel off when he finished taking an 18-week course with the Denver fire academy in February 2020. The former reality star described his symptoms as "flu-like" at first, but claimed that they eventually became more severe and included deep body aches and nausea. Ryan went on to add that he has had a series of tests done, but nothing could pinpoint the cause of all the symptoms. It goes without saying that fans were concerned.

Thankfully, Ryan provided another update in March 2021. "Some days you just write off..." he captioned a photo of himself sitting on a couch. "I have a few more of those days lately? Today was one of them," he continued. "Up at 10:00 (6.5 hours later than the 3:30 am I have to wake up for work). Still in my PJs at 12:30 when I took this picture and watching a @warrenmillerent documentary, I struggled with allowing the grace to do nothing – to heal and recover. But I need to heal and recover. We all do. And I guess that's ok..."

While Ryan still does not have a diagnosis, the good news is he's seemingly feeling a bit better. In February 2021, Ryan told his fans that he had finally started making it back to the gym. Hopefully, there will be more good news to come for Sutter.