Haaaave you met Ted’s girlfriends?! How I Met Your Mother may have been about how Ted Mosby (played by Josh Radnor) found his future wife and the mother of his two (incredibly patient) children, but there’s no denying that we met a lot of women who weren’t the mother of his children along the way. Cobie Smulders, Ashley Williams, Cristin Milioti, Sarah Chalke and more talented actresses played his various love interests through the seasons, and they each had an unforgettable stint on the longtime sitcom.
And lucky for Ted (or should we say, lucky for Radnor, who played the lovesick architect), there were countless gorgeous and talented women who he met along the away. In fact, there were so many women, that towards the end of the series, people joked that it was more about how Ted “met a million women who aren’t your mother,” rather than how he met the one who is. But, according to Josh, the show was never really about how he met the mother — it was about, well, everything else leading up to it.
“I thought the title of the show was always a bit of a fake-out,” Radnor told Vulture in 2014. “It was more of a hook to hang the thing on. Really it was more about these are the crazy adventures and these are the lessons I had to learn before I met your mother.”
You can definitely say that again! He sure did learn a lot, went on a lot of adventures, and met a lot of women in his quest for “The One.” Some may even say his journey was legen… — wait for it! — dary!
Smulders was one of the breakout stars from the show and reflected over how grateful she was for the nine-season run. “To be able to have that happen on a show, like that doesn’t happen,” she explained at Build Series in 2018. “Usually, you do a pilot of a TV show, and if it gets picked up, then you get 13 episodes. And if that goes OK, then you get nine more episodes. And if you’re lucky, you get a second season. We were so lucky to have that long of a time to play around with these characters so much and see it through the way the creators wanted to see it through. It was really wonderful and a really beautiful thing to be a part of.”
Curious what the real-life ladies that entered his life are up to since we said farewell to HIMYM back in 2014?! Keep scrolling to find out.