Bachelor Happy Hour - Cindy: Finding Home and Vacation in Mel | Happy Hour

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Today on “Happy Hour,” our guest hosts Joan Vassos and Jonathon Johnson sit down with Cindy from this season of “The Golden Bachelor”! Between securing the final one-on-one and heading into Hometowns, Cindy sits down for her first podcast episode to discuss all the magical highs from this season so far. She tells us all about her journey to the show, her expectations going in, and how she prepared her heart. We also get insight into her one-on-one with Mel; what does their relationship really look like behind closed doors? She even gives us a sneak peek at what we can expect for her Hometown date! Tune in now to hear all this and more and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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kind of like the perfect storm in a sewer that was dumb do not follow my example listen to crimeless hillbilly heist on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, it's Ed Helms host of Snafu, my podcast about history's greatest screw-ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new snafu every single episode. 32 lost nuclear weapons. Wait, stop? What? Yeah, it's going to be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of fabulous

guests. Paul Shearer, Angela and Jenna, Nick Kroll, Jordan, Klepper. Listen to season four of Snafoo with Ed Helms on the IHeart Radio. app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved for years until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. America, y'all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to binge the entire season, ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. In early 1988, federal agents raced to track down the gang they suspect of importing millions of dollars worth of heroin into New York from Asia. Had 30 agents ready to go with shotguns and rifles and. You don't know. Five, six white people. Pushed me in the car. Basically, your stay-at-home moms were picking up these large amounts of heroin.

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Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts. What's going on, everybody? to Bashar Happy Hour. You're here with me and Joan Bassos. We're filling in for Joe and Serena this week and we are here with the beautiful Cindy Kohlers. Hello. I am so excited to have you on that we get to interview you of all weeks that Joe and Serena are gone. They're like gone on this week and I have you've been like my soulmate through this whole journey because you are a fellow nerd. I was a computer science major in college and wrote code and you. And you You are biomedical engineer, and then we both kind of retired when we raised our kids.

So I just feel like we have so much in common, and I've been dying to talk to you. I love that. Geeks forever. Yes. Can't wait. You guys are my mom. My mom's a double major in bio and chem, so I'm very familiars at all. We're going to love her.

We love her. We love it happen one day. She could be part of our club. Yeah, that's it. She would love it. She would eat it up. Nerds rule the world. So that's the truth.

I agree. Okay, so I think we should probably just start by getting to know you a little bit. And maybe just tell the audience, like, where you're from, kind of what you do and how you ended up on The Bachelor, because that's always a freaky story. Right. So, yeah, I'm Cindy. I live here in Austin, Texas. Literally, this is my place.

There is the river right there. I've lived here for 30 years and raised my kids here. I'm a biomedical engineer who got into medical aesthetics after I trained my kids, after I grew my kids up. And I've been divorced seven years. And I think my kids just really were happy and anxious for me to find love. So in April of this year, my youngest daughter decided to sign me up for the show. And to take it back a little bit further in January of this year, I made a deal with the universe with God to just say yes to the opportunities in front of me.

You know, we have a tendency, especially as you get busy, like, oh, you know, it's not a good time for me. let's do it next time or I'll circle back and and I just kept putting off life and just in January I just decided it's it's time just to say yes so this is my year of saying yes and the opportunities that has brought me and the joy and happiness and the memories that's brought me I just encourage everyone to start their lifetime of saying yes so Caroline my little one signed me up for the show and it was just kind of like yes of course I'll do it and And it's never that easy because you go through all the interview process. And I thought, there's no, listen, there's, there's no way they're going to pick this girl from Austin, Texas.

What am I going to do on this show? And we get a little deeper. And I'm like, well, the taping seems to be a problem for us. My middle daughter is getting married. I can't change that. And the taping dates don't work out. I can't go on the show. There was just a million reasons that the universe should have said no to this.

I had the same story. I had the exact same thing. I just wasn't ready to date, wasn't doing anything to make my life better. It was just kind of in, you know, just go along with life and let it just happen around you. And I started saying, like, I got to do things that scare me. Like, I need to get weddings as a single person and I need to just do the things that make me uncomfortable. And one of them was doing the show. And I did the same thing.

Also, dates didn't work out. My daughter had a baby eight days before I was supposed to. be on the show and I was like if anything happens and she's late or something happens like with the baby I won't be able to go on the show but the universe just aligned sounds like it was this bachelor or a bachelor for you Joan this is golden bachelor yeah wow wow so when I was like I was you I was a contestant on the show yeah right yeah two days after filming I left for Italy for the wedding wow so it was it was like back to back and you just you just have to say this unlike you I was dating a lot I think I've I've tallied like 1.2 million men that I've dated

So I wasn't scared of dating. I love that. What was missing beforehand? Why all these people, but not a single person? Because I'm in a similar boat right now. I'm finally back out on the market, dating around, and I'm like trying to figure out what it is that I want and don't want. What is it that was like not letting you find that person?

You know, everybody's picky. Listen, we have our things. I'm not that picky, to be honest, but there was always one thing or another. Like I dated a great man. just probably my most recent relationship. And he just wanted a little compartment of his life to share with me. And I kind of want the whole thing. I want the family.

I want to be involved with his career. I want to be there on a Tuesday as well as on the Saturday and for the big events. And I have other men who may have a different viewpoint of what family looks like. And my family is super important to me. And I've promised them I don't want to bring anyone in to our family that will mess up the magic that we have. So there's always been, you know, geography is not a problem. I can move. I live here by myself.

All my kids have grown and flown the nest. So moving has not been a problem, but if you're not in the same city, it's hard to get to know each other. And Jonathan, you might have experienced that too. It's all the stars have to align. Yep. Couldn't agree more. I have faith in both of you.

Yeah, thank you. And then off of that as well. So, obviously, dating, pre-show, didn't go as planned. But when you found out that you were going on the show, how did your, like, friends and family react? I know you said your daughter signed you off, but she's stoked. Were, like, the grandkids or just kids in general, like, were they excited for you? What did your friends say? I think it was so much fun, like, telling my group of friends that I was doing this.

What, were they excited for you? What did they think? Were your kids like, oh, my God, mom, this is going to be so embarrassing? Oh, they were like, just don't kiss them. I was like, guys, I'm not looking for a roommate. I might have to kiss him. I kind of want to kiss him. If I don't want to kiss him, then what am I doing there?

It's a problem, right? It's a problem. Is that really what you want for me? But my kids were super supportive. And again, they want me to find love. They want me to be happy. And my friends do too. But my friends were like, well, of course that's what you're doing. I'm just a bold person.

And I end up finding myself in crazy circumstances. And most of them said they could never do it. Putting yourself out there this way. And I would determine to be vulnerable, to be authentic, to just show my real self on the show. It's hard. And a lot of people would be uncomfortable with that. For sure. So how did you prepare for it then?

How did you get ready to come on here and just put yourself out there like that? Prepare for it. What are you talking about? I had a wedding. I was elbow deep. And like, what flower arrangements were doing. And so I had two sets of suitcases. I had my Italy suitcase for the wedding.

And I had my bachelor. And honestly, you just let go at that moment. And it was more important for me to prepare my heart more than preparing for my gowns and what I was going to wear and just, you know, deciding to jump in. Yeah. Yeah. Love that. You killed it on the gowns. So I think you did both.

live them really well. Thank you. Coming from an icon, thank you. I don't know. I'm telling you, you had beautiful. Oh, your clothes were all beautiful. I loved every dress, plus you look really good in clothes. So that does help, obviously. So let's talk about night one. Let's just kind of jump in. Like we're talking about evening gowns. I know both Jonathan and I have done it. I don't think Jonathan has a shy bone in his body. So I'm not going to even like say, were you nervous. So let you and I talk about being nervous because I know Jonathan wasn't. Well, first of all, I came out like I was nervous. I came. You hardly had any clothes on. I know.

I'm confident in my body. I don't know if I'm confident in my night one walk-ups. That's two different things. All right. Now you're old, your old, your experience. Now I do it again. I don't care. Yeah.

Now, yeah, second time is probably easier. If we only knew, right? If we only knew. I know. But that first time getting out of that limo, first of all, like, were you terrified? Like, how was it getting out of the limo? And what did you think of Mel when you first saw him? Oh my gosh.

So you guys spoke. can both relate. Like, they don't tell you where you are in the lineup. So we load up, we're in the limo, and we're driving to the mansion, and they're like, well, so Cindy, you'll be the first one out of the limo for the night. Oh, no. Yeah.

And my entire limo group was like, oh, thank God, it's not us. I had tried to rock paper. I was the last one. I don't know, which is worse. Just as bad, right? No, first is 100% the best one because there's nothing to judge you on, and they're very excited to start the night. I wish I had that perspective. I did not have that perspective.

I was so incredibly nervous. And then I thought, so you drive up and you can't really see Mel through the window. It's blackened out, but I see his hair and I see his shirt. And I notice, like, he's taller. He has a physical presence about that. He's a big guy. Yeah. Yeah.

That I really, by the way, it's on my. checklist check check check and so you're excited about it and then you open the door and honestly mel just draws you in he's got laser beams for eyes and he's so engaging and charming and handsome so you know once you get into the moment it's it's it is great yeah it takes you the first 15 seconds and then you're like okay I could do this did you ignore the 30 cameras that are like right behind you as you walk up at first because that's all I could phase engine 2. I think I blacked out.

If you don't ignore them, you could have never gotten into a bikini and rolled around on the surf like we did. Seriously? Oh, I love that day. That was great. You just literally was like, but you have to.

You just have, I committed from the first step, the first step onto the mansion driveway that I'm here for Mel and for me and for the women, which was a big surprise for me. But you're here for the experience. and you've got to let go of who's watching

and what they're going to say about you. Yeah, you got to go all in. So you just made a funny comment. You said, I didn't know I was here for the women. That was a surprise. So you walk in, you were all along. I thought y'all were faking it. Y'all were all faking it on your shows.

No. Isn't it crazy? It's the crazy. It's crazy. It makes the entire difference of the show. It's crazy. So you were the first one in there. So you got to welcome people kind of coming in.

Who did you kind of bond with on night one? Did you find your friend on the first night? Yes, I found 22 of them. 22 of them. Honestly, Mileen was in my limo super close. Tracy, who let Tracy and Lisa went home the first day. Carla, I gravitated immediately to Nicole. She and I just sat down and had a great conversation.

And then Robin, once Robin and I met, we were magnetized. We were inseparable. and I just wanted to sit on her lap just where's Robin if you want to find a picture of me I'm next to Robin that's how yeah and there's also Jerry was so sweet I didn't get to know her the first night or Carol or Terry those were they're all great those were three that snuck up on me and a Carol in the end was such a surprise to me like yeah I love her but everybody flocked to her the first night so I didn't have my chance to get to know her as well.

Yeah. Yeah. And there's a long list of them. I know. And Jerry lives in my hometown. She lives like right down the road for me. I haven't met her yet, which is crazy. No way.

Yeah, she lives in Rockville, Maryland. My dress is Rockville, Maryland. I mean, we are like neighbors. So I have to figure out how to get a hold of her and, like, meet up and have dinner or something. Yeah. We will figure that out. I have a, that should not be a problem.

And you two will be thick as thieves. She is, she is a jab. She is a gentle soul. It's so funny. And I'm going to be in Austin in a couple weeks. I'm going to look you out. Oh, yes, for sure. I can't wait.

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You're here. What was that like for you to soft launch into the show? Sorry, Jenna, I'll be asking the questions today. I forgot whose podcast we were doing. Nick Kroll. I hope this story is good enough to get you to toss that sandwich. So let's see how it goes. Listen to Season 4 of Snap-Foo with Ed Helms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

All I know is what I've been told, and that's a half-truth is a whole lie. For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved. until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. I'm telling you, we know Quincy Kilder, we know. A story that law enforcement used to convict six people, and that got the citizen investigator on national TV. Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran. My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, producer,

And I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find. I did not know her and I did not kill her, or rape or burn or any of that other stuff that you all said. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I poured gas on her. From Lava for Good, this is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame. America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County in the Bone Valley feed on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to binge the entire season ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of heavyweight, I help a centenarian mend a broken heart. How can a 101-year-old woman fall in love again? And I help a man atone for an armed robbery he committed at 14 years old. And so I pointed the gun at him and said, this isn't a joke. And he got down, and I remember feeling kind of a surge of like, okay, this is power. Plus, my old friend Gregor and his brother try to solve my problems through hypnotism.

We could give you a whole brand new thing where you're like super charming all the time. Being more able to look people in the eye. Not always hide behind a microphone. Listen to heavyweight on the I-heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Decoding Women's Health. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Pointer, chair of Women's, Health and Gynecology at the Adria Health Institute in New York City. On this show, I'll be talking to top researchers and top clinicians, asking them your

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and that's just like so kind of you because obviously like this is like an important day for you also um so i just want to say first of all i love that you did that and that shows how like important the relationships in the house really become so you yeah it was a great moment and we were talking about it beforehand too and i was like i know i went through something similar when i was going through the process where i'm very aware of everybody around me almost before i am of myself and it seemed like when you got that one-on-one rather than just completely being like yes i got it i did that like you're you got emotional i think and you can correct me if i I'm wrong because, you know, this girl that you care for and Carol didn't get the chance to get

this and you knew how much it meant to her, but also you want to celebrate yourself at the same time and watching you kind of navigate through that feeling in those probably, like it was a really fun and just like sweet moment to watch as you like kind of reassured her as you also celebrated yourself. Yeah. It's both sides of it. You know, you have a group of women who are left. You've got Cheryl who got the first one-on-one with Mel and clearly their relationship has grown. He's kept her around and he wants to have more time with her. You've got Debbie who had her one-on-one and she's still around. You've got peck.

So it's like a litany. If you don't have that one-on-one, you know, I did get a rose and Carol did get a rose, but it didn't come with extra time like Nicole's did. So that time is what's important. And Carol and I are very aligned in how we see our family. and we don't introduce people to our family often. And so going to having a one-on-one date is essential, not just for Mel to know us,

but for us to help know if we want to bring somebody into our family's lives. Yeah. Because your collective time with him at this point is ours. Like you're like, how am I going to bring him home? I've met him hours. I know. I've talked to him for 42 minutes. Yeah.

Let's talk about that a little bit. So you said many of your interviews that you felt like you were developing strong feelings for him, but we saw very little of your interaction with him, really very little. And so I'm kind of wondering, like, how did you really feel about your relationship? Did you really feel like you were taking the steps to get to a good place? Did you feel pretty confident? Mel and I would start a conversation and within a breath would be covering 10 topics. our relationship is absolutely effortless when he was named as golden bachelor my oldest daughter

was the first one to discover it and she texted me immediately and called me and said mom i think they picked him for you yeah mel is uniquely designed to be in a relationship with me and so i was not surprised with this and i leaned into it and early on you know i knew enough about him and I needed to explore the chemistry, check, check. Now we're looking at compatibility. It's going very well. But, yeah, my conversations with him ended up on the editing room floor. And it's fine.

That happens. It's a short show. But there's no question that he and I are aligned and had easy, effortless, deep conversations. Even when we started talking about, what books are you reading? Imagine how much ground you'd have to kind. cover in order to get to a what books do you read conversation yeah you address some of my concerns too like from the outside in he seems like a very stoic man a few words like doesn't really open up much um about his feelings towards any of the women you know he talks about himself

being like uneasy or there's a lot of friction in his life or these different things but the reassurance of like hey i'm interested in you did you get a lot of that from him he always is super generous to me and just in the subtle things he he's not the type of man jonathan to your to your comment to say oh i like you better than xyz that's just that's just not who he's ever going to be and if you asked him to do it that would you don't know me you don't know mel very well if you pushed him into that yeah you're asking him to be something that he's not he's not he's not And nor did I want him or need him to be. As long as I was there and meant I was interested if he still kept me along and meant he was interested and we're just going to take every moment, every sip, make it a gulp on our one-on-one, but we were going to just take every chance to explore that.

It feels as if you understand him. Like you understand who he is and how he communicates and you were able to read between the lines. You need that verbal reassurance all the time. He was very intentional with our time together. And at every, every little moment, I've caught him at the pool party. Pool party was interesting for me, right? I'm looking at. Let's talk about pool party if we're doing this.

Yeah, please do. Let's get to the drama with Nicole eventually anyways. Yeah, so I don't mind diving right into that because so tell us about the pool party. I mean, we weren't there. You were experiencing it for hours. We saw minutes of it. But clearly, like there were so uncomfortable moments. even watching it on TV, I said I had my five-year-old grandson was laying in bed with me that

night. And he was like turned away from the TV, but I was like, yeah, he can't watch this. Like, this is a lot. Yeah. Everybody has their journey and everybody has their path. And Nicole and Mel had chemistry for sure. There's no doubt about it. It's not a choice that many of us would have made. And I think we've made that very clear. Nicole and I are friends. I told her how I felt about it. She knows and I'm fine with where she is. She's fine with where I am. So that's not the problem. What I think wasn't really explored on this show is it wasn't just that we wanted to change Nicole's behavior.

Many of us were wondering, is this a type of man that we would choose? Good question. My man allow this access to him. under these circumstances. And so, you know, Jim, I thought about you as I was reflecting and trying to process this. Like, what would that be like to be in a situation where you've got 23 men throwing themselves at you? And would you always be your best? Would you always be, you know, I like to say, I want to be the, I want to behave in the way that my future husband will be proud of me.

So if he is in that group, would he be proud? And would Mel have been proud of the way he behaved, knowing that his future person was there? And so that's really where I was coming at it. And I had to come to a point of race with Mel. It's a new circumstance for sure. It's a completely out-of-body experience. It's the right way to do it. This is first time, too, you know?

And so I just found a moment of grace for him. and for Nicole too listen they they have chemistry together there's no doubt about it so you just you know you just have to see it for what it is and that's at the end of the day how I choose to see it

and I chose to see it at that day you were very kind and I felt like watching it on TV was uncomfortable so I thought being there was 20 times more uncomfortable for a habit of then yeah and I felt like it was even uncomfortable for Mel it didn't look like he was really

embracing it. No one can resist a rule of culture. So here's one for the dating files. Rule of culture number 72. Chemistry isn't just vibes, it's values. Because what's the point of matching with someone if you can't talk about the shows you binge, the books you dog ear,

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32 lost nuclear weapons. Wait, stop? What? Ernie Shackleton sounds like a solid 70s basketball player. Who still wore knee pads? Yes. It's going to be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of guests. The great Paul Shear made me feel good.

I'm like, oh, wow. Angela and Jenna, I am so psyched. You're here. What was that like for you to soft launch into the show? Sorry, Jenna. I'll be asking the questions today. I forgot whose podcasts we were doing. Nick Kroll. I hope this story is good enough to get you to toss that sandwich. So let's see how it goes. Listen to season four of Snap-Foo with Ed Helms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

All I know is what I've been told, and that's a half-truth is a whole lie. For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved, until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. I'm telling you, we know Quincy killed her. We know. A story that law enforcement. used to convict six people, and that got the citizen investigator on national TV. Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran.

My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, producer, and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find. I did not know her and I did not kill her, or rape or burn, or any of that other stuff that y'all said. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I poured gas on her. From Lava for Good, this is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame.

America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County in the Boneville. Valley Feed on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of heavyweight, I help a centenarian mend a broken heart. How can a 101-year-old woman fall? And I help a man atone for an armed robbery he committed at 14 years old.

And so I pointed the gun at him and said this isn't a joke. And he got down and I remember feeling kind of a surge of like, okay, this is power. Plus, my old friend Gregor and his brother tried to solve my problems through hypnotism. We could give you a whole brand new thing where you're like super charming all the time. Being more able to look people in the eyes. not always hide behind a microphone. Listen to Heavyweight on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What's up, everybody? This is Snacks from the TrapNer's Podcast, and we're bringing you the horror every week all October long. Kicking off this month, I'll be bringing you all my greatest fear-inducing horror games from Resident Evil to Silent Hill, me and Tony Bringing Back Fire Team on Left for Dead 2. and we're just going to be going over some of the greats.

Also in October, we'll be talking about our favorite horror and Halloween movie and figure out why black people always got to die further. The umbral reliquary invites any and all fooling, brave enough, to peruse its many curiosities. But take heed, all sales are final. Weekly horror side quests written and narrated by yours truly. With a full episode read and a commentary special. And we will cap it all. with horror movie battle royale

Jason versus Freddie Michael Myers versus the 80th thing with the little tongue muster October we're doing it Halloween style Listen to the Trabner's podcast from the Black Effect

Podcast Network On the IHard Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast I feel like I'm getting a little glimpse into Mel that I haven't had yet So I appreciate that

Like helping us with this Cindy Because I think like everybody Everybody wants to see that He's so stoic And he doesn't really reveal A lot about himself which kind of brings me a little bit to your date. And you guys now you've ridden, so first of all, you rived in your cowboy boots.

I love that about you. You're embracing your Texas. You're letting him know who you are and like what's important to you. And like where you're from, okay? And he seems to really like it. Like he thinks it's pretty sexy and cute. So, and you just happen to look adorable like being a Texas you. You got to be on a horse that he was super uncomfortable with, which kind of gave you a little bit of upper hand.

It was so funny. He was like, you know, I'm a professional football player. Nothing scares me. And yet he couldn't control that horse to save his life, which was so funny. And you were so comfortable on it. So, but really the thing, and I love that part of the date, but I really loved when you guys finally got to your destination and you got to sit down and you got to talk about yourself. And you got to, like, kind of tell him, like, who you really are.

And obviously he knew some stuff about you. You know, you reflected on that you were this biomedical engineer. So my God, you're a super smart, beautiful woman. and then you were a valedictorian and then you were a cheerleader. You had it all going for you. Such a badass. You also had, yes, such a badass. We love that about you.

But then you also had these other parts of life that didn't go perfectly. And one of the things that you sounded like was such a huge disappointment was all you wanted was a stable family for your daughters and for you. And you ended up with a marriage going bad. And you talked about that on national TV to this man. And I really so much wanted for him to give that back to you. And we're all like anxious to hear it. We all want to love Mel. We all want to like he's like this successful guy. None of us are going, you know, this poor guy, he deserves another chance at love. He hasn't let us into that part of his life. And that was a perfect time. How did you feel

when you opened up and then he didn't give it back to you? It was very disappointing. I'll be honest. Like for me to be that vulnerable. I expected a little bit more back from him. And if he doesn't want to share with me perhaps about his history, maybe give me more reassurance as to where I am in his world. Right. And I didn't get, I really, I honestly didn't get either. And I know that people might look at these one-on-one day, it's frankly the whole show and believe that it's, we're trying to woo Mel.

Well, that's only part of it. I'm living my life. This is Cindy's life. Yeah, you need to feel wooed as well. that's right and and he did woo me he got on a horse he'd never been on a horse um i don't know if you know it he's allergic to horses did not know that one oh my gosh producers did not know that huh wow he still thought that would be a fun date his feet were so big he can't put his foot in the stirrup so he just had his toe in the stirrup so i could tell how much he was he was giving me

in those things but he he wasn't verbalizing any vulnerability to me or giving me any emotional so i'm i'm balancing between you know can one replace the other and i think you need i think you need both yeah and that goes back to the having to read between the lines that i talked about earlier it's like yes you can and it seems as if you had the ability to but there are moments there are these little moments where you're like I need more sometimes like it's such a rush process we talked about like I've known you for a few hours like spent this much time with you where you have this time now you got this one-on-one like yeah you got it over the other one and that's not the basis of what you're worried about you worried about getting to develop your relationship more with this individual that you have a lot

of feelings for it's okay to feel those feelings and like part of me wishes you kind of put it to him a little bit or you're just like hey tell me like just like open up you know i mean and he seems like the kind that kind of needs that push a little bit sometimes yeah he needs to be he needs to be coached mel need to be coached a little bit yeah not that you need to be different than who he is you want him to express who he is in those yeah for sure and and a kiss cannot replace that verbal and getting to know each other it just they can't yeah a kiss cannot replace the vulnerability that you need in a relationship um a part of it is I'm thinking that he's waiting until we have time together just the two of us.

And that's what I'm reading at the moment. Yeah. And by the way, I keep giving him grace, don't I? You see a common theme. I keep letting him off the hook. I know, I know. But, you know, it's a difficult position for him to be in, too. It is.

It's uncomfortable. But I'm having to make my decisions as well. Yeah. So I feel like people need to understand that every single day is a leap of faith because like we are all saying you spend so little time with the person and so going to the next day and saying

am I willing to spend time away from my home and my family and my job and my loved ones and my own bed and the comforts of my life to be here one more day with this person and I keep making this leap of faith. This is another leap of faith every single day but when you come down to like final six people now we've had one similar you know an elimination so it's down to the final five people um like how many leaps of faith can you

keep doing till you think okay now i'm just being stupid and like so like i need something back you know i need more back to make me take the leap one more day and like were you getting it from that date i mean it was really cute that he gave you the little thing that he named the star after you. But like sometimes I feel like Bachelor introduces props because the person is having a hard time like saying the hard, like saying the emotional things or doing the emotional things. So they introduce a prop. And that prop was that thing that he named the star of Cindy, which was cute. And it did say in love, Mel at the bottom. And he did read it to you. Like, was that enough of a replacement for you? Or was that, did that give you enough to make the next leap of faith?

I'll be honest, my first test with him was chemistry. Yeah. My second test with him is compatibility and comfort. Could I be in his presence and not be nervous? Oh. And then there's a compatibility of can he integrate into my life and is he willing to let me integrate into his? After seven years of being divorced and on my own, like, yeah, really? now the rubber is hitting the road

or the hoofs are hitting the trail. Yeah, right. This is real, and it's real to him and real scary to him, but it's the first time I've really been confronted with that voice as well. That's just full vulnerability with you, too. I said that the whole time during my season,

kind of every rose ceremony, I said, this is a two-way street. Like, I can offer you a rose. You don't have to take it. If you don't feel like I'm the right person for you, you need to say no. Like open up the dialogue. It's not a one-way street, but let's talk rose ceremony because here we are.

We get a rose ceremony and this is a big one because this is like you said, super important. Yeah, it's super important because this is when you're going to be home to make your, for you to meet, for him to meet your family and your girls. And I know it sounds like your girls are your life and I had the same thing with my kids. Yeah. And so you're going to this rose ceremony. He called your name first. Again, have you been noticing?

I have been noticing, as a matter of fact, and you seemed very happy. So I feel like you took that next leap. You did that leap of faith again. And he gave you enough to want for you to introduce him to your family. Sometimes I believe that my family, for sure, and my friends are the best mirror for me, the best. and knowing that he would have a chance to see where I live, to see why I live here, this was a big, bold change in my life. And it's important that the man that I bind myself with understands that I'm fully capable of making big bold moves.

And seeing and meeting my family, because everybody says their kids are special and they are, but my family is, it's unique. and it's all my son-in-law is tell me it's a lot so i have that family that's hilarious and and and so you like you really i needed them i needed them to meet mel and to help me help to be my mirror and to look at him and reflect him into our lives and then i also needed mel to see my family and where i live and my lifestyle so it was an important next step. I still wasn't there. Mel was still not. I mean, he's got all these women in tow. It's a tough decision. It's a big step to, my kids haven't met a new man in years. I know. That's a big step.

Out of 1.2 million people. That's all. I had a lot of chance. I don't even know how you have the time for it. I know. What do you think about that he, like, I'm just trying to figure out his type. and I've said this over and over again. I mean, Debbie and Peg and you all seem so different. I couldn't figure out who he was going to choose. I didn't think he was going to choose Nicole, but I thought he might choose Cheryl. Like she was a possibility.

I didn't really know because I can't figure him out. He just gives so little that I have no idea what his type is. Mel said from the beginning he doesn't really know either and that this process of going through the Golden Bachelor is his way of finding out and trying on different types of personalities and different types of lifestyles and it's fair you know there is a big divergence with the three of us and and yet there's a lot in common you know there's three very loving women who all are committed and and i think mel is monogamous by nature and so you know are you are

I see a different facet of myself, both in Debbie and in Peg. So I could see why he's narrowed it down. And that had to be a really tough choice to let go of Nicole and Cheryl, who are also phenomenal women who have so much to give and offer. And I know he had a connection with. Yeah, yeah. Is there anything that, like, we haven't covered in this episode. Like, I know there are so many things probably swirling around your mind.

Is there something that we didn't hit that you, would like, you know, let the viewing public, you know, have an insight into something cool that happened or something you want them to know? There's a moment at which I tell Mel, and I've only felt this one other time in my life, that he feels like a combination of home and vacation, all wrapped up in the same skin. I love that. And to be with him on that one-on-one was more important. than I expected.

I wasn't confident, confident. Like I went in a place to bet in Vegas on it, but I was confident that he wanted to come meet my family in Austin and he wanted to take it further and that the one-on-one was an affirmation of that, that he wanted to spend more time with me before we got there. But I was pretty confident he wanted to take things further. But that one-on-line just really grew things for me. and I saw both sides of them.

I finally found a home because, you know, you're in the mansion. You have all these fantasy dates which, you know, come on, how can we replicate what ABC can do? It's phenomenal. Right, right. So that you have to find...

These unrealistic amazing dates. Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. But you have to find a home in it too. And to maybe even, you know, in some ways have that feeling of home feel like if they can

And I definitely, I definitely found that on our one-on-one date. I love that. That's like such a, I think kind of we ought to wrap with that statement right there. You found home and vacation in the same person. And like, how could you be any better about that? So can you tease, can you give us any little snippet that about the hometowns, about you taking Mel to meet your family and friends? Well, that is, let's see, which direction should I take this?

having Mel and Austin is it's very exciting let's just say the chemistry continues and he does have some great interactions with my most treasured people and he finds a couple party favors along the way is there any drama any drama a little bit oh okay see this okay that's That's the direction I wanted to hear about too. Just remember it's super important that my family falls in love with him too. Falls in loves or likes? Pauls in love.

Are you kidding? My family just can't like him. How would that work? That doesn't work. No. Yeah, I agree completely. Again, you're going off very little cues up until this point. And now these people who aren't in this, I keep calling it a vacuum every time I talk about the show

because you have no outside connections, there's no phone, no TV, none of this. So you finally get to be around the people who know you, know you what you need, know what you deserve, and know what you want, and they get to meet this person that potentially after hours of knowing them is going to propose to you at the end of this thing. You need them to, not need, like, there's no other option. They have to love him. There is no other option. And I'm excited to see if that happens for you because it's a very realistic feeling.

Mel has to ask permission. Oh, yeah. You will have to ask permission to marry me by these people that he doesn't know. And it is surreal because they haven't spent the hours with him that I have. This is cold. They don't know. They haven't had a chance to talk to him or to me. So they're going with blind faith.

And it should be an episode for sure that everyone wants to see. Oh, I do. I'm excited. So I'm excited for next week's episode. I cannot wait to see you introduce them to your daughters because I know how special they are for you. So I think that's all for today's episode. We love talking to you. Can I just say thank you so much?

You guys are so fun and dynamic and charming and you never know because I see you on TV and you seem so distant. But you're everything that everyone can, I mean, you're just so gracious and loving and warm. And what a treat to be on the show with you. Thank you so much. I know, Jones the best, right? No, police. She's talking about you, Jonathan. I'm kidding.

She is the best. I'm just kidding. I am not. She is the best. And so are you. Oh, my God. What a treat. What a treat.

And I hope that we do many, many more of these with you in the months and years to come. I don't think this is the end of our journey. So I'm thrilled that we got to be here on this very special podcast talking to you right after this kind of major date. So thank you for taking the time to be with us. and for being on Bachelor Happy Hour. And for being a good sport as a whole. He answered all of our questions.

And when we needed a little tea, gave us the little moments too. We loved every second of it. Same. Thank you so much. You're welcome to Austin any time. And if you're here, I fully expect you to look me up.

I'm totally going to get your number and text you. My superpower is reservations. Reservations? How about a plus one? If you bring me a plus one, that's also a great. Jonathan, for you, I could find a plus 20. I could find a plus 20 for you.

Are you kidding? 1.2, like 1.6. Okay, perfect. Yeah, 1.6 million. Well, thank you everybody for listening. Be sure to subscribe. Joe and Serino will be back with more exclusive interviews with the women from Mel's season to come. Yep.

Thanks for listening. Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Bye, guys. America's sweetheart Johnny Knoxville here I want to tell you about my new true crime podcast Crimeless Hillbilly Heist from smartless media,

Campside Media, and Big Money Players It's a wild tell about a gang of high-functioning nitwits Who somehow pulled off America's third largest cash heist Kind of like Robin Hood except for the part where he steals from rich And gives to the poor I'm not that generous It's a damn, near inspiring true story for anyone out there who's ever shot for the moon, then just

totally muffed up the landing. They stole $17 million and had not bought a ticket to help him escape. So we're saying like, oh God, what do we do? What do we do? That was dumb. People do follow my example. Listen to Crimeless, Hillbilly Heist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Helms host of Snafoo, my podcast about history's greatest screw-ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new snafu every single episode. 32 lost nuclear weapons. Wait, stop?

What? Yeah. It's going to be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of fabulous guests. Paul Shearer, Angela and Jenna, Nick Kroll, Jordan, Klepper. Listen to season four of Snafoo with Ed Helms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved for years until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. America, y'all better wake the hell up.

Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County on the United States. iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And to binge the entire season, ad free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. In early 1988, federal agents race to track down the gang they suspect of importing millions of dollars worth of heroin into New York from Asia. Had 30 agents ready to go with shotguns and rifles and you name it. Five, six white people Push me in the car, I'm going to look at that car. Basically, your stay-at-home moms

were picking up these large amounts of heroin. All you got to do is receive the package. Don't have to open it, just accept it. She was very upset, crying. Once I saw the gun, I tried to take his hand, and I saw the flash of light. Listen to the Chinatown Sting on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or anywhere you get your podcasts. The rich Russians falling out of Windows podcast is back. Sad Olegak Season 2. Since we left you in 2023 after season one, many politically motivated Russian millionaires have continued to die in suspicious circumstances. Season two gets very weird. Listen to Sad Olegak on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.