Most of the relationships in How I Met Your Mother broke fans’ hearts when they ended. When Barney dumped Nora for Robin, and then Robin decided to stay with Kevin, it was a gut punch. When Victoria and Ted couldn’t make it work, no one was happy about it. Even when breakups were mutual, like when Robin and Barney realized they weren’t good for each other, or Ted and Robin decided they wanted different things, fans were sad to see them end.
Not every breakup was a tear-jerker, though. These relationships were the ones that fans were thrilled to see the end of, whether they were rooting for it from the very start, or were just sick of it by the end.
10 Ted & Jeanette
This one is obvious, as Ted first announces Jeanette in the voiceover as the last relationship he was in before he decided to settle down, and the relationship that made him want to find the right partner and stop dating – so clearly, this was never going to be great. However, no one expected just how bad this would be. Jeanette literally stalks Ted, and is clearly not an emotionally stable person, but he stays with her because their toxic relationship is ‘exciting’. By the time they do break up, and she is throwing the burning pieces of his life out his window, fans were just wondering what took so long.
9 Ted & Zoey
Ted and Zoey were a controversial couple on the show – some fans thought that they were actually great together, but for the most part, this wasn’t a healthy relationship. At first, they were just friends, as Zoey was married, but after she left her husband and they got together, things didn’t exactly improve. They fought constantly, she had been battling his biggest career achievement from the start, and she was a surprisingly angry person – so when Ted finally chose his work over her, fans were thrilled.
8 Barney & Abby
This barely even counts as a relationship, as it was originally conceived as a way for Barney to show Ted how he behaved in relationships, and for Abby to make Ted jealous.
Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work, and Abby starts to believe that the relationship is real – even calling her mother to announce their engagement. Abby deserved better than Barney, but she still should have realized that he wasn’t seriously proposing, and this whole joke was just a bit over the top.
7 Robin & Simon
Simon first appears in flashback, as Robin is telling the gang about her first real love. A cool ‘musician’ when they were both teens, Robin was besotted with Simon, and even included him in one of her music videos, but Simon was just a jerk – and dumped her for another girl with a jacuzzi. Simon reappears when they are both adults, and even though his life has basically not changed or become better, and he has lost the charm he had as a teen, Robin is still smitten, and immediately starts fawning over him like she did as a teenager. Fans knew that this wouldn’t last, and were waiting for her to realize just how much of a jerk Simon still was.
6 Ted & Karen
Another blast from the past, Karen was Ted’s on-again, off-again girlfriend throughout high school and college, and she was insufferable. Ted adored her, but she was pretentious and rude, and she constantly cheated on Ted. When she reappeared in his life as an adult, Ted was convinced that she had changed, but his friends knew that she was just the same as always. And of course, she was – with one flip, that Ted was the guy she was cheating with, for once, not the guy she was cheating on. Thankfully, that relationship came to an abrupt end.
5 Robin & Nick
Nick theoretically had potential with Robin, but they just lacked real chemistry or longevity. Robin was essentially just really attracted to Nick, but she soon started to realize that he was too in touch with his emotions for her (as Robin is infamously harsh and has little time for the touchy-feely stuff), and that she sees him as a bit too ‘dumb’. He just wasn’t liked by fans, and everyone would have been happier if things there had ended sooner.
4 Ted & Stella
Ted and Stella seemed like they might be endgame for a while, and very nearly got married – and while fans could feel the heartbreak when she left him at the altar, in the end, fans were glad about the breakup.
For one thing, had Ted and Stella got married, it would have been the end of the show – because Ted would have moved to New Jersey and started a family, and all his Manhattan hijinks would be behind him. But it was also a strange relationship, where Stella turned him down multiple times, then they moved too fast, and nothing really added up. Ted had a close call, with this one.
3 Marshall & Chloe
This was barely a relationship, but it’s included because fans rooted so very hard against it! During the brief time that Marshall and Lily were broken up, Chloe was the only person that either of them went on a real date with – and while Chloe seemed fine, at first, fans knew that Marshall and Lily would be getting back together. No one wanted to really see Marshall start a relationship with someone else, so everyone was happy when Chloe turned out to be weird and destructive, and Marshall and Lily reunited.
2 Barney/Nora/Robin/Kevin
This is a combo breakup – and a breakup that only half happened, making it more sad than celebratory. For many fans, Robin and Barney were perfect together, and this was the moment that they should have reunited. They had cheated on their respective partners, and decided to tell them, break things off, and get back together… which fans were thrilled about. Until Robin decided not to tell Kevin after all, and Barney was left heartbroken.
1 Ted & Robin
While Ted and Robin were the central couple of the series, many fans actually hated them together, and a huge part of the controversy of the finale comes from the fact that these two get back together in the end. Throughout their relationships, it was clear that while they cared deeply for each other, Ted and Robin just don’t make sense. They don’t want the same things, they have wildly different expectations, and of course, Ted professed his love on the first date. Most of the time that they were together, fans just wanted them apart again.
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