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The question of who the Mother was in How I Met Your Mother plagued fans for years. And fans finally got their answer during the season 8 finale. But the show’s creators, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, once revealed that another woman in Ted’s life could have been the Mother instead of Tracy.

'How I Met Your Mother' stars Josh Radnor and Cristin Milioti sit next to one another during the panel. Radnor wears a dark blue suit over a light blue button-up shirt and light gray tie. Milioti wears a strapless red dress.
Josh Radnor and Cristin Milioti | Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Tracy McConnell ended up being the Mother in ‘How I Met Your Mother’

Much to fans’ surprise and delight, the How I Met Your Mother Season 8 finale revealed the Mother’s face. The Mother, played by Cristin Milioti, walked up to a ticket window in a train station, with her yellow umbrella in tow, and bought a ticket to Farhampton.

Fans discovered more about the Mother during season 9, as she met the entire friend group and finally Ted in the series finale. The final episodes also included flashforwards to her life with Ted, including their first date and when they got engaged.

Unfortunately, the audience learned that the Mother, Tracy McConnell, was dead in the future in How I Met Your Mother. And after Ted finished telling the story of how he met Tracy, his kids encouraged him to ask Robin out. Many fans were unhappy with this ending, so CBS released an alternate version of the finale on the season 9 DVD.

Which of Ted’s girlfriends was almost the Mother in ‘How I Met Your Mother’?

According to Elite Daily, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas planned on Victoria being the Mother in How I Met Your Mother had CBS canceled the show after season 1 or 2.

Ted met Victoria during Stuart and Claudia’s wedding in season 1, and the two had a whirlwind romance. They hit it off at the wedding but agreed not to exchange names or numbers. Ted decided to track her down, though, and when he did, they began dating. Later in the season, Victoria landed a fellowship at a culinary institute in Germany. And she decided to go.

Ted and Victoria tried to have a long-distance relationship, but he cheated on her with Robin, and they broke up. The couple would later reunite in season 7 and rekindle their romance in season 8 before breaking up for good. But if the show hadn’t lasted as long as it did, the How I Met Your Mother creators would have made Victoria the Mother.

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The creators had the series finale planned since the beginning of the show

If How I Met Your Mother ended in season 2, Victoria would have been the Mother. But everything else would have likely been the same. The Mother would still die, and Ted would end up with Robin.

“It’s been the plan all along,” Craig Thomas told CBS News. “What you see [in the series finale] has been the plan. We leave the series with a certain message that we wanted to convey.”

Carter Bays added, “We really did have an eight-year plan. It turned out to be nine years.”

The creators had this ending in the works since they shot the final scene from the series finale with David Henrie and Lyndsy Fonseca as Ted’s kids. They filmed that scene around season 1 because Henrie and Fonseca would’ve aged too much when the series ended.

All nine seasons of How I Met Your Mother are available to stream on Hulu, along with its standalone sequel, How I Met Your Father.

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