Kurt and Carolyn Seemed Like Endgame on 'Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer' — So What Happened?

It doesn't take leading man Kurt Sowers long in the Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer premiere to take a liking to Carolyn Moore. They show interest in each other right away, and even most of the other women can see it.

So at the start of the season, Carolyn is a natural frontrunner for Kurt. What fans want to know now, after the March 10, 2022 finale, is whether or not Kurt picked Carolyn in the end.

Like The Bachelor and other similar reality dating shows, the point of Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer is to find love. It's not necessarily supposed to also result in a marriage proposal, but Carolyn was all in with Kurt.

From Kurt's perspective, the fact that Carolyn was already married once was cause for concern — but it was hard to deny their chemistry.

Unlike shows in the Bachelor franchise, there weren't a ton of leaked spoilers about Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer. So when Kurt picked Amanda Pace as his final leading lady instead of Carolyn, it was a surprise. Kurt went back and forth between his feelings for both women leading up to the finale. And at the last minute, he revealed his choice to let Carolyn go and be with Amanda.

Throughout the season, Kurt and Carolyn's connection was so strong that some of the women even told Carolyn they would feel like they were stepping on her toes if they went for him, even though he was technically fair game. When Kurt developed feelings for Carolyn, she was sure that he planned to pick her.

In the finale, ahead of Kurt's decision, Carolyn tells producers that she's eager to get it over with so they can start their life together. Unfortunately, she's blind-sided when Kurt tells her he chooses Amanda instead.

In the finale, Kurt explains that he does have genuine passion with Carolyn. However, his past experiences with women showed him that the passion eventually fades. After he reveals to Carolyn that he doesn't choose her, she leaves.

Carolyn says in the episode, “He made the right decision, because if he was that insecure that whole time, he's not the one for me. I'm the girl that got away.”

Although Kurt explains that his concern about fading passion is his reason for letting Carolyn go, his issue with her relationship with her ex-husband likely also played a role. Kurt says earlier in the season that he doesn't have a problem with Carolyn having a child, but she also has to have a relationship with her ex in order to effectively co-parent, and that was always a thorn in Kurt's side.

Although Kurt picked Amanda in the Joe Millionaire finale, he revealed exclusively to Distractify ahead of the episode that they're no longer together. He explained that they realized they're "too different." Hopefully the experience was still worth it to everyone involved, even though there's plenty of heartbreak to go around.