As fans of the long-running sitcom How I Met Your Mother know, the central mystery of the show was who the main character Ted Mosby would end up marrying and having children with. Throughout the show’s nine seasons, Ted dated many different women and had several serious relationships before finally meeting “the Mother” in the final season. But who exactly did Ted end up with in the end? Let’s take a look back at Ted’s main love interests over the course of the show to see who he finally ended up with.
Robin Scherbatsky
In the pilot episode of How I Met Your Mother, it is revealed that Ted is telling the story of how he met the Mother to his kids in the year 2030. The very first scene of the show depicts Ted running into Robin at MacLaren’s Pub, marking their first meeting. Sparks immediately fly between Ted and Robin, and they start dating soon after. Their relationship progresses quickly, and on their first date Ted impulsively tells Robin that he loves her. Robin, caught off guard, cannot say it back. This leads to some tension in their relationship going forward.
Ted and Robin date for about a year but ultimately break up when they realize they want different things. Robin’s busy career-oriented lifestyle doesn’t mesh well with Ted’s desire to get married and start a family. They part on good terms, deciding to remain friends. Though they try moving on and dating other people, Ted and Robin still harbor feelings for each other. Over the course of the show they get back together and break up several more times, with their unresolved romantic tension continuing to affect their friendship.
Stella Zinman
In season 3 of How I Met Your Mother, Ted meets Stella, a dermatologist, when he goes in for a botched tattoo removal. Ted is immediately smitten with Stella, and they start dating. Their relationship gets serious quickly, helped along by the fact that Stella’s daughter Lucy adores Ted. After dating for a few months, Ted proposes to Stella. At the beginning of season 4, Stella accepts Ted’s proposal and they plan a wedding. However, on the day of the wedding, Stella leaves Ted at the altar to get back together with Tony, Lucy’s father. Ted is understandably heartbroken over Stella’s betrayal.
Zoey Pierson
In season 6, Ted meets Zoey when he tries to win her over as part of a bet with Barney. Zoey is married at the time so Ted’s courting goes nowhere. Later in the season after getting divorced, Zoey approaches Ted about designing the new headquarters for the Goliath National Bank. Ted is working on the project for GNB and hits it off with Zoey, and they start dating. However, conflict arises between them when Zoey becomes determined to save a historic building, The Arcadian, that Ted’s design plans to demolish and replace. Zoey actively protests and petitions against Ted’s project. This fundamental disagreement over The Arcadian’s fate takes a heavy toll on their relationship. After being together for about 7 or 8 months, Ted and Zoey break up over the irreconcilable Arcadian issue.
Victoria
Ted first meets Victoria at Stuart and Claudia’s wedding in season 1, where they are both part of the wedding party. They hit it off right away and Ted winds up taking her back to his apartment that night. Ted wants to date Victoria, but she leaves the next morning saying she has a boyfriend back in Germany where she’s from. She tells Ted to look her up if he’s ever in Germany. In season 7, Ted takes her up on this invitation while traveling to Germany for work. They rekindle their romance and start dating long distance. Victoria eventually moves to New York to be with Ted. However, there are signs of trouble when Victoria insists that Ted stop being friends with Robin before she’ll accept his marriage proposal. Ted makes the promise but ends up reneging on it, angering Victoria. She moves back to Germany, and their relationship ends.
Jeanette Peterson
Ted meets Jeanette in season 8 when they are out in the same group one night. They hit it off and start dating. At first Jeanette seems great, but over time Ted starts to see her jealous, unstable side. She trashes his apartment looking for signs he’s still hooked on Robin, and eventually accuses him of still being in love with her. This leads to their messy breakup punctuated by Jeanette throwing a drink in Ted’s face and screaming, “I hope you die a lonely old man!” So yeah, probably not “the Mother” material.
Cindy
Ted briefly dates Cindy, his graduate student in season 1, before finding out she already has a boyfriend. Though their romance is short-lived, years later in season 5 Cindy sets Ted up on a blind date with her roommate…who turns out to be the Mother! So while Ted and Cindy’s relationship led nowhere, she still played an important role in his story.
Naomi
In season 4 Ted meets Naomi, the mother of Emily, another girl he briefly dates. After things fizzle with Emily, Ted ends up asking Naomi out next. Their relationship is very short-lived however, when Naomi discovers a list Ted made ranking all the women in the city by hotness and she was #83. Understandably offended, Naomi breaks it off.
Karen
Karen is Ted’s girlfriend for a significant chunk of season 4. They started dating after meeting at a club, and their relationship lasted long enough for Karen to be invited to Thanksgiving with Ted’s friends. However, trouble arose when Karen said “I love you” to Ted prematurely, and he couldn’t say it back yet. This caused Karen to become emotionally unstable, overly attached to Ted and paranoid about the state of their relationship. Eventually Ted has to break up with crazy, clingy Karen for his own sanity.
Becky
In season 6, Robin orders Ted a date online through a matchmaking service. She gets overwhelmed sorting through his thousands of matches and randomly picks Becky. On their date, Becky reveals she’s a massive fan of Robin’s news show. Ted and Becky’s nascent romance soon fizzles out when she obsessively continues to talk about Robin throughout the evening.
Royce
Ted briefly dates Royce, an interior decorator, in season 7 after meeting her while shopping for furniture. Though their time together was short, Royce made a lasting impression on Ted’s love life by giving him a valuable piece of romantic advice. She tells Ted to call up Robin, whom he’s clearly not over, and invite her to run away with him to Paris. If Robin says yes, they’ll know they belong together. If not, Ted can finally move on. Ted ends up taking Royce’s advice, minus the Paris part.
Amanda & Lindsay
In season 8, Barney tries setting up Ted with random women to help him get over being left at the altar by Stella. None of these very brief relationships go anywhere. First there’s Amanda, who Ted accidentally calls Blah Blah because he can’t remember her name. After that comes Lindsay, who messes things up with Ted by saying the only reason she agreed to the date was so she could meet Barney.
Matchmaker
After striking out with online dating in season 4, Ted lets the matchmaker service pick out his dates instead of choosing them himself. First he goes out with Petra the Serbiansynchronized swimmer. After that comes Violinnya, a violin player Ted can’t seem to have a normal conversation with. Neither match gets him any closer to meeting the Mother.
So as we can see, over the many seasons of How I Met Your Mother, Ted had romantic entanglements with numerous women, but none that ultimately lasted…until the arrival of “the Mother” aka Tracy McConnell.
The Mother – Tracy McConnell
After so many failed relationships and close calls, Ted finally meets the future Mother at Barney and Robin’s wedding in season 9. Tracy performs in the wedding band, and she and Ted have a brief, intriguing interaction on the train platform as Ted is heading back to the wedding. They make an instant connection but no names are exchanged. Ted doesn’t find out her name is Tracy until the series finale.
In the last season, we learn more about Tracy and see her relationship with Ted develop. They get engaged, then married, and have two kids named Luke and Penny. Tracy turns out to be everything Ted has been searching for over the years – she shares his values on love and family, appreciates his quirks and romantic gestures, and is his perfect match. After so many seasons of buildup, Tracy was worth the wait and viewers agreed she was the perfect titular Mother.
So by the end of the series in the timeline of 2030, Ted’s children finally know the answer to the question posed in the show’s title – their dad met and married Tracy McConnell, aka the Mother. That mystery solved, How I Met Your Mother comes to an end.
Conclusion
While over the course of nine seasons viewers were introduced to many different girlfriends and get glimpses of future wife Tracy McConnell, ultimately Ted winds up with only one great love – the Mother herself. After so many missteps and failed relationships, Ted finally finds happiness and starts a family with Tracy. Their meeting may have come later than Ted expected, but Tracy lives up to his lofty romantic ideals and their long journey to love and marriage plays out like destiny. Thanks to them meeting that fateful night at a wedding, the lives of Ted Mosby and Tracy McConnell end up joined together forever.
| Name | Relationship Duration | How It Ended |
|---|---|---|
| Robin Scherbatsky | 1 year (on and off) | Realized they wanted different things |
| Stella Zinman | Several months | Left Ted at the altar |
| Zoey Pierson | 7-8 months | Fight over The Arcadian caused breakup |
| Victoria | Several months long distance | Ted’s friendship with Robin caused issues |
| Jeanette Peterson | A few months | Messy breakup, accused Ted of loving Robin |
| Cindy | Very briefly | Cindy had boyfriend, but set Ted up with roommate Tracy |
| Naomi | 1 date | Mad about Ted ranking women |
| Karen | A few months | Crazy and clingy, Ted had to end it |
| Becky | 1 date | Obsessed with Robin |
| Royce | Very briefly | Gave Ted advice about Robin before breakup |
| Amanda & Lindsay | 1 date each | Didn’t work out, set up by Barney |
| Matchmaker dates | 1 date each | No connection made |
| Tracy McConnell | Several years, married | The Mother, Ted’s destiny |
As we’ve explored, Ted had many ups and downs while searching for “the one,” but finally met his match and soulmate in Tracy McConnell. After so many false starts, his journey ended happily with the woman of his dreams.