Robin Scherbatsky wasn’t the lead character in How I Met Your Mother, but she might as well have been. While the show was ostensibly the story of Ted Mosby’s quest for love, recounted to his kids from the year 2030, it evolved into an ensemble sitcom in the style of Friends.
All of the characters had fully fleshed-out story arcs carrying them from the pilot episode to the series finale, but as Ted’s true love, Robin was the most developed out of the supporting cast. So, How I Met Your Mother devotees, here are All Of Robin’s Major Love Interests, Ranked.
10. George
George was the two-timing, philandering jerk in the episode “Little Boys.” He was the father of one of the boys in Lily’s kindergarten class, Doug. Doug drew a picture of a woman that described her as his “new mommy.” Robin assumed it was her, so she developed a relationship with Doug and had to break up with him as she was about to break up with George.
But she later found out that George had been cheating on her – or having an affair with her, depending on who came first – with a woman named Brooke, the woman in Doug’s drawing.
9. Simon Tremblay
Simon Tremblay was a terrible guy, but he was also a very funny character, and James Van Der Beek played him brilliantly as a total douche. He was Robin’s first ever boyfriend back in Canada and he wasn’t a good partner for her. He still lives with his mom, he works at a water park, and he’s in a band moronically called the Foreskins.
When he reappears in 2008, Robin still thinks he’s cool and can’t see that he’s gone rapidly downhill since they were teenagers. So, she gets back together with him, and yet again, he breaks up with her in the back of his van.
8. Nick Podarutti
Season 8 is a strong contender for the weakest season of How I Met Your Mother. The storylines dragged on and went nowhere, the characters acted uncharacteristically and made a lot of stupid decisions, and most of the jokes failed to land. Plus, season 8 gave us Nick, perhaps the most boring character in HIMYM’s history.
It wasn’t actor Michael Trucco’s fault – he just wasn’t given any material to work with. Throughout the first half of season 8, we were teased about “The Autumn of Breakups,” like it was a bad thing, but we actually just spent the whole time waiting for Nick to go away.
7. Derek
“Pfft, Derek!” There’s a reason that the older Ted giving the voiceover narration would say that every time he mentioned Derek’s name. Robin dated Derek early on in season 1, after Ted had struck out with her and she was moving on (and he wasn’t).
The gang called him a “billionaire,” even though he was technically just a multimillionaire – but come on, multiple millions of dollars is still a heck of a lot of money. He was just as pretentious as one would expect a multimillionaire to be, and he was also often too busy to spend time with Robin, so he didn’t deserve her.
6. PJ
Ted set up and shut down his own architectural firm, Mosbius Designs, within a single episode, which was pretty depressing. He hired an assistant named PJ, and since they were working out of Ted and Robin’s apartment, Robin ended up sleeping with him. She found his dominion over the bathroom key to be so overwhelmingly attractive that she couldn’t stay away from him.
She broke up with him when he was fired by Ted and lost the bathroom key, but then got back together with him when he was rehired. It was all down to the power of the bathroom key. PJ didn’t have much of a future with Robin and it was blatantly a temporary fling, but he was harmless and they enjoyed each other’s company.
5. Gael
Gael was just the “rebound guy” after Robin broke up with Ted and went to Argentina. She brought Gael back with her and, at first, they had a great time. The passion and excitement of Robin’s vacation traveled back to New York with her.
Gael turned out to be a nightmare in the long run, inviting his extended family to come and stay in Robin’s apartment and smashing her laptop in the throes of passion. But for a short time, Robin had a great time with Gael, and although he may not have been the smartest guy, he looked like Enrique Iglesias, so he didn’t have to be.
4. Barney Stinson
Let’s discount the events of the series finale, because that episode ruined Barney’s already perfect ending. In the penultimate episode, “The End of the Aisle,” he showed real maturity, vowing to never lie to Robin again. He’d spent his entire adult life deceiving women and even followed a cunning plan to get Robin to marry him.
But when he promised never to lie to her again, we really felt that he meant it. So, it was a shame when they got a divorce in the finale and he went back to being the same old Barney (minus the forced baby storyline).
3. Don Frank
Don appeared in Robin’s life right after she’d sworn off dating and Ted and Marshall saw that as a sign that she was about to meet the love of her life. As a veteran of over 30 morning news shows, Don was hired as Robin’s co-anchor on Come On, Get Up New York!, the one that aired at four o’clock in the morning.
He had previously been married and wanted to take things slow. He was a mature guy, and Robin needed that, because she was also a mature person. Even when Ted and Barney showed up drunk to badmouth Don and declare their love for Robin, Don just gave them some water and put them to bed.
2. Kevin Venkataraghavan
Kevin was easily the most mature guy Robin ever dated. They could’ve had a very bright future together if Robin hadn’t cheated on him – which he was even mature enough to look past – or if she wanted to get married and have kids like he did.
Their relationship began in a pretty adorable way, as their therapy sessions ended, Kevin didn’t want to date Robin due to his ethics, and they ended up eating breakfast together every day for a week until they realized they wanted to be together. Kevin got along with the rest of Robin’s friends and he was a fun addition to the gang. Plus, Kal Penn was great as ever in the role. So, it was a shame to see him go.
1. Ted Mosby
From a few moments in the pilot episode, we knew that Ted and Robin were meant to be together. And the fact that Ted revealed to his kids in that episode that Robin wasn’t their mother made the entire series pretty much redundant. There was no way the series was ending without Ted and Robin getting together – for good this time.
While the series finale was generally disappointing, it was at least a relief that we got that closure. Robin didn’t want the same things Ted wanted, but deep down, Ted didn’t mind that, because he cared about her too much.
