Miguel And Rebecca's This Is Us Relationship Timeline Finally Makes Sense

Since Season 1, Episode 2 of This Is Us, fans have known Rebecca wound up remarried to Jack’s ride-or-die BFF, Miguel Rivas. The revelation was part of the opening salvo of shocking twists the show introduced before digging into the past. Since then, fans have been asking themselves, how did this happen? How does Rebecca go from the love of Jack’s life to the love of Miguel’s life? It took nearly the entire run of the show, but Miguel and Rebecca’s This Is Us relationship timeline has finally started to make sense.

Warning: Spoilers for This Is Us Season 6, Episode 11 follow. Though the April 5, 2022, episode is nominally about Rebecca’s two wedding anniversaries (her tenth with Jack and her tenth with Miguel), it’s a Big Three-centric episode, showing how the triplets always band together and have each other’s backs when the going gets rough. Kevin and Randall might not have locked Toby in a closet like they did the cranky babysitter the night of Jack and Rebecca’s tenth anniversary, but the way they emotionally shut him down at Rebecca and Miguel’s anniversary party was just as effective.

Sibling drama aside, though, the revelation that this is Miguel and Rebecca’s tenth anniversary is a new tidbit for fans. Up until now, there’s only been a rough outline of how their relationship developed: Miguel was friends with Jack; he always admired Rebecca. He was there to help the family when Jack unexpectedly passed away, having been recently divorced himself. He left town for a while, and then at some point in 2008, he slipped into Rebecca’s DMs after a long absence, eventually leading to their marriage.

The past few episodes have been very forthcoming in laying out the how and why of their relationship. Moreover, it has made it clear that Miguel was not waiting in the wings for Jack to disappear so he could claim Rebecca for his own; it truly happened organically.

Here’s a rundown of the relationship timeline, as far as the show has revealed:

• December 1972: Jack & Rebecca meet.
• Early 1973: Jack introduces Rebecca as “the love of his life” to Miguel.
• Spring 1975: Miguel marries Shelly.
• Spring 1976: Jack and Rebecca marry; Miguel and Shelly are best man and maid of honor.
• 1977-1979: Miguel and Shelly have two children, Andy and Amber.
• August 1980: Jack and Rebecca have the triplets.
• 1980-1996: The two couples live near each other in Pittsburgh’s suburbs.
• February 1997: Miguel and Shelly divorce; Andy and Amber choose to live with Shelly.
• April 1997: Jack and Rebecca separate for a month while Jack goes to AA.
• January 1998: Jack passes away.
• February-April 1998: Miguel tries to help Rebecca and the kids.
• May 1998: Rebecca calls Miguel and asks him to take her to grief support.
• 1998-2000: Miguel and Rebecca become BFFs.
• October 2000: Miguel starts dating Marguerite.
• November 2000: Rebecca starts dating Matt.
• Thanksgiving 2000: Miguel and Rebecca realize they’re in love.
• December 2000: Miguel and Marguerite move to Houston.
• December 2008: Rebecca joins Facebook and gets a DM from Miguel.
• Spring 2012: Miguel and Rebecca get married.
• January 2018: The Pearson Big Three finally accept Miguel as their stepdad.
• November 2018: Miguel tries to make amends with his own kids.
• March 2019: Miguel and Rebecca move to Los Angeles.
• January 2020: Rebecca is diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment.
• Present day: Miguel and Rebecca celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary.

The show still needs to fill in the gap from 2008 to 2012, but with this outline, fans can finally feel confident they understand how Rebecca went from being in love with Jack to getting married to his best friend — no judgement, just love.

This Is Us: The Final Season continues with new episodes every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on NBC and streaming the next day on Hulu.