Bachelor Happy Hour - Looking Back: A Perfect Ben

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

Today on “Bachelor Happy Hour,” the one and only Ben Higgins is here. We start off at the very beginning: How did Ben get to “The Bachelorette”? Then, we get into his Night 1 as the Bachelor and find out whose limo entrance still stands out to him. Plus, we get the deets behind the aftermath of his season and his eventual split from Lauren. Tune in now to hear all this and more, and be sure to follow so you never miss an episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone.

Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh, my God, perfect.

And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. The Super Secret Bestie Club podcast season four is here. And we're locked in. That means more juicy chisement.

Terrible love advice. Evil spells to cast on your ex. No, no, no, no. We're not doing that this season. Oh. Well, this season we're leveling up. Each episode will feature a special Bestie and you're not going to want to miss it. My name is Curley.

And I'm Maya. Get in here. Listen to the Super Secret Bestie Club on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Bachelor Happy Hour, and I'm Joe. And I'm Serena. And we are here with Mr. Ben Higgins. Ben, welcome to the podcast.

Goodness. What an honor. Yeah, I don't know why I called you Mr. Ben Higgins. Oh, it's respect. You just see me in its immediate respect. And so you want to make sure that respect is. Communicated and I appreciate it. Truly, truly.

Well, I did talk about. So we recapture night one. And one thing I said was when I, like, when I was going on the bachelor, the one bachelor, like the bachelor season that I heard of was yours. And it was, I don't know if it was, I was the right age group, but everyone was talking about it. And it also could be you're a Midwest guy. And you were young. you were you the youngest bachelor second jesse palmer was actually uh like two months younger than me when he was the bachelor so i was the second youngest bachelor

are you still the second youngest bachelor do you know yeah i mean i i don't know how old joey was i mean i was 26 years old like that's young yeah like that's really young to be the lead of a show so i would imagine that will hold up because i don't think the show is going backwards to have like a 24-year-old bachelor, I think they kind of tried that and stopped it. Well, looking back on it now, do you think, do you think you were too young? Because, I mean, there's a lot of things I've done in my life from, like, when I was a trader and I was like, I was honestly, I was too, I was too young. I don't think I was too young because I really was excited to get married.

And I do think the reason I would say it was, I was too young to, to be wise and how to handle kind of the aftermath of the show that was kind of crazy and confusing but as somebody from Indiana all my friends were married when I went on to The Bachelor like I felt like I was never going to meet somebody because that was kind of my like world was seeing all my friends get married all of my kids have all my friends having kids and so I was really ready to meet somebody to settle down to kind of get into that season of life and I think that's probably the best mark for a lead is, are you actually ready for marriage or not? And for me, I really was.

So I don't think I was too young for that. I think I was too young to make good decisions always. Yeah, that's actually interesting because, yeah, we noted that you were 26. We're like, oh, wow, he's definitely one of the younger leads, like, both bachelor and Bachelorette, probably. But you did really seem ready. And I think it's honestly rare to meet, like, girls or guys, but a lot of guys that are, like, ready to settle down at 26 but I guess it it's all relative right like if you know there's people

in like where is it like Salt Lake City where everyone's getting married at like 21 years old and like that's just like the norm there or like even even in Chicago it was if when I was growing up if you were if you were 27 and single you were like old yeah like all your friends like a lot of your friends married like their high school sweetheart like that's like the norm whereas like none of my friends are married yet kind of thing being from like Toronto or like the greater Toronto area. So I think like that does have such an influence on like readiness for a marriage is like what is normal to you. How old are your parents when they got married? Oh, so young. My mom was 20. My dad was 24. Oh, so like I'm old. Like I'm 20. Guys, I will tell you this.

When I have a vivid moment in my mind when I was out here in Denver, I had moved here for my first job. I was not dating. I really didn't have any new friendships out here because I was working all the time. I remember laying in the bed of the house that I had just purchased for like nothing. Like I just bought a house because I, it was cheaper in rent. And I bought this house. I was laying in this bed and I was like, I'm, I'm okay being single forever. Like I'm going to, like I need to get okay with the idea that I will be single forever because I just haven't found anybody. And I was 20, like I was probably 25 at the time. Like I, it was why I have. this mom looking up at the ceiling and being like, I'm okay.

Like, I'm an only child. So literally my mom, my poor mother gets a phone call for me on my way to work the next day, being like, hey, I know you've tried to like set me up with the dates. And I know it's a thing that you talk about. And I know every time I go, come home from church, everybody's like, are you dating anybody? I was like, I want you to know that I'm okay being single. And I might be single for the rest of my life. And she was like, no, like grandkids.

Like, you're the only shot. I have at this thing. And so yeah, I had came to the conclusion that I was going to be and then the Bachelor came up and or the Bachelorette came up and I was like, yeah, why not? Let's give a shot. And I still think I was cool being single. But then, you know, that changed, I guess, over time. How? What was the state of social media Instagram? I'm so interesting.

Such a good question that people don't think about. So when I was on The Bachelorette. it was like beta phase of instagram you can look up like the time frame right like it was a thing but it was never the thing that any of us knew or talked about it was i remember having this conversation with the guys sitting in the living room with a mansion and they're like what are we going to do with this thing like only one of us is going to get chosen what are the rest of us do with this whole thing and i remember some of the guys like talking about uh appearances so you do those like big club appearances right you get paid for that um and then like somebody

brought up the doctors. So like the host of the doctors was on was a bachelor at one point years ago. So like maybe somebody's going to go off and do TV. And then the rest of us are like paradise. Like you go on paradise and like maybe extend this thing a bit and get paid for paradise. We're all like, I think you get paid if you go on paradise. So you make somebody doing that and you go back to work. Yeah. And then I got announced as the bachelor. And it kind of in between that three month frame like Instagram really took off kind of like TikTok did like here recently. like everybody started using it everybody started to get involved in it and then that's when like it got popular but my first season or my season of the bachelor was really the first one where instagram or social media was a part of the show um it was kind of tested during katelyn's season but it was never like a focus point until um i was the bachelor and even then i think and you'd have to ask the team i think the bachelor instagram account came out during my season like i think they i don't even think the bachelor had like any type

of like social media account until i was on the show and that's not because i was on the show it's just because it didn't exist it wasn't a thing yeah i was like whoever was the bachelor at that time that would have fallen it would have happened yeah them deciding we're going to pivot start incorporating social media and that probably this whole conversation now makes me feel so old like we're literally talking about free social media Yeah, but social media is still so young. Yeah, it really is. Like, TikTok wasn't even a thing yet.

No, no. No, I mean, Twitter was kind of, Twitter was big. Twitter was big. Yeah, Twitter was kind of showing up. Instagram was showing up. Facebook obviously had its place as kind of the thing. We were doing a lot of Facebook videos back then. But you got to think, I'm 35 now.

Like, it's not like I still couldn't go on the show. Like, you know, I was doing this when I was so. young that even today um and i would you know i could still i'm still not age group it just if you were single you could go back my last season of paradise i was 35 yeah yeah i got engaged at 35 do you yeah wow um

we do want to break down a little bit of your of that night one but um since we're on like the social media topic the aftermath of your season how much different was it them? Because I do feel like there was like, didn't you do like late night shows? Didn't you like, didn't you have the opportunity like going like Jimmy Kimmel? They still do that. Yeah, but I don't think it's as much anymore.

Yeah, you might be right. Yeah. So like, that had always been a thing. So like Bob Guinea used to go on Oprah like weekly as a segment, right? So Bob Guinea was doing like that was the publicity. He was doing a segment before he was even the Bachelor. Like he was a contestant. going and doing these segments.

He actually was so loved and so known. So I went on Kimmel quite a bit. I went on Kimmel a few times and just kind of like more spoofy, like funny moments. The social media side of it was something nobody knew what to do with. So it was a lot of short clips,

videos, pictures. It was, I guess, beneficial to the ratings of my season because people were seeing more of the show than ever. Yeah. But I'd say the thing that was different with my season than maybe others when it comes to like the aftermath and the publicity is how ABC kind of used Lauren and I. Because you got to remember too, you might forget this. Right after my season got done, we started filming Ben and Lauren happily ever after.

And so there's a whole spinoff show on Freeform, which was ABC family. form was that that was ABC ABC family yeah it was an ABC show right afterwards and so that was the big deal for us which was kind of the first time a couple had been followed post show and they were with us for a long time I mean two months oh wow what was that one did that was that one season yeah because we broke up buddy yeah what was can you talk about what now can you talk about what you got paid for that yeah I can talk about It was good. We both got paid as individuals, obviously, because we weren't married. So they had to pay as separate talent. And so that's what I mean, really, when it came down to it, you're like, hey, is this a good decision to get filmed right after we just got done with this

other show? And we're still trying to figure each other out as a couple. And we live in a 700 square foot house that's the same house I built. And they're going to fill. And what were you accepted that you're going to be single in? Yeah, the one I accepted I was going to be single in. It was a one bedroom, one bathroom house with, you know, a crew of 30 people with us every day all day for two straight months. Is this a good decision? And we're like, yeah, it's a great

decision. We're going to pay. And I'm making no money. Like, you don't get paid a lot. Yeah. Yeah, you don't get paid a lot. And then like, you're coming up the show usually with either like the decision of like, am I going to go straight back into a job? Which is going to be hard to do because you now just took off four months.

Yeah. And you have this new relationship. Like whether you have a job waiting for you are not like going back to work at that time is so hard so it's like you've just come off TV what what was the Instagram situation like at that time like were people coming up the show and influencing or was it not quite there yet I don't think there was paid ads or it was like brand new right it was new it was new it was new but also very lucrative because brands had this massive budget and they didn't know what to do with social media marketing yet and there was all these studies coming out that were making so few like you guys probably had like such

a monopoly on it oh yeah so like the women from the like the time i mean i've i've heard rumors that i would validate is like some of the women from like my the season of the bachelor as a part of we're making two plus million a year influencing at the time um and so they go but i believe it they would have been the first cast coming off with like you know social media is now just blowing up they're getting these followings there's like no one else from The Bachelor, probably with followings other than like this chunk of women. And they're like, great. Like, engagement's high.

We have way more money than we know what to do with. Like, let's throw it at, let's throw it at them. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly and now I'm seriously suspicious. Well, wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast. So we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot.

He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor, and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them.

I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK-Sons. Storytime podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I never envision being with a woman. I'll just be honest.

I'm Jamel Hill, host of the Sports and Politics Podcasts Politics. On this week's episode, I'm joined by basketball legend Candice Parker, who stops by to discuss her candid new book, The Can Do Mindset, in which she shares why she waited two years into marriage to come out. Like when I close my eyes at night,

every night, I was like, I need to find my Prince Charming. Like, it was never a princess. Like, that never entered into my mind. But, you know, as I learned, sometimes life gives you things wrapped in a package that you didn't expect it. And that was just, you know, and honestly, it took me a long time to be okay with myself. Make sure to listen to this week's episode of Spolitics on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psycho babble. Yes, yes.

Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. I heard a rumor about you, Ben. I got many rumors. I've heard many rumors. I don't know how true this was, but I remember guys from my season talking about it

that you had you were basic, you had to turn down like a $1.3 million radio deal after your season of The Bachelor. Was something like that? Is that true? I did turn it down. I didn't have to. Nobody had told me.

So I did turn that down because other things were happening at the time that I was like, I don't know if I want to go into a full-time job where I'm on the radio five days a week. Right. Well, were you filming Ben and Lauren at that time? Yeah, I was also filming Ben and Lauren at the time. Yeah. So I was like trying to manage and balance out, like, what was life going to actually look like for me? And, you know, this person that I thought at the time we were going to get married.

So, like, how do I stay true to all of it? And is, you know, that money was obviously ridiculous. Yeah. But, like, is any amount of money worth pretty much knowing it's going to be the cost of this relationship? Right. And I said no. And I think I'm glad I did. I mean, you know, that relationship didn't work out, which was fine.

But it did. I don't know what life would look like if I was a radio host five days a week in the morning. it would be different. So, yeah, I did say no to that. And there was other things I said no to. Not necessarily that were that lucrative and that beneficial, but you are under contract for a year. And when you're the bachelor or the lead,

you're under contract for like a year and a half of your life. And that's another side of the influencing kind of like takeoff world where people, you know, right away, you get off the show. And yes, you might have some lucrative deals. and some things come through. You have to say no to them oftentimes because you're still, you know,

you still have an obligation to the show that you were a part of that kind of gave you this new platform. And so it takes a year. And so for us to say yes, the Ben and Lauren have been in Lauren, happily ever after question mark, question mark. It was a pretty much a sure thing, yes,

because it was one of the only things we could make money on post show. Here's the crazy thing. I was still working a full-time job while we were filming. And so they would come and film at my office. Oh, when you were filming Ben and Lauren. Yeah, so I went back to my software sales job for another two years post-batchel just so I could have health insurance

and because they gave me a sabbatical to leave the film. So I went back and work there and then at nights we'd film the show and then during the day they would do stuff with Lauren. and then on the weekends we'd film through the weekend. And it was a grind. That's a lot of work. You don't know what to do with it. You're, again, 26 years old.

I'm like, nobody knows what this bachelor thing is going to do 10 years from now. I can't leave my job yet. It's the only way I'm getting health insurance. I don't have enough money to pay for health insurance on my own. So let's film this show. Let me work my job. Let's see where this spits us out. And then, you know, the rest, you know, kind of settles.

But it was a weird and wild time. Maybe one, if, you know, as we talk about that season, I do regret that I didn't enjoy it more because I was so focused on not knowing what, you know, the risks were to being on the show and to what money would come in and what money wouldn't come in that I just worked all the time. And I didn't enjoy a lot of things that other people were enjoying because I was so nervous. That makes sense. I feel like I would be exactly the same way. I mean, it's also like you don't want to. it's like this huge opportunity but you just don't know what

what that opportunity is and how long it's going to last? And how long it's going to last and you feel like you need to take advantage of kind of everything but at the same time you don't want to do this because that might screw up that and then it's a fucking headache.

How long after the show into filming Ben and Lauren were you guys like this might not be a happily ever after situation? Good question. um well so they asked us to do a televised wedding this was on the show so chris harrison flew out to denver we kind of did this uh um this moment where he sat down and said do you guys want to have your wedding televised on national television obviously there's a good paycheck associated with that

so you're like kind of if we're going to get married um and we had already been struggling for about a month. So we were in couples counseling. We were really trying to make it work. But we were not doing it. I mean, we were button heads. And so we showed up to when the surprise when he asked us already kind of not talking and we were kind of more work associates. Like we were living in the same house. We weren't really speaking to each other off camera because the cameras would leave at nine o'clock. We'd be exhausted. I might be having to go to work the next day. She would be doing her thing with her job and so she was still flying as a flight attendant a little bit and we'd just be like dead tired we want to talk to each other we hadn't talked to each other really truly in

weeks and so when they asked we both went i remember the car ride home we're like are we going to do this because if we're going to get married we better do it on national television like no question right yeah and we were both like i don't think we're going to get married um and that's when that was kind of one of the final episodes and so they were kind of done on filming maybe a week later we kind of tried to make it work a little bit longer and then finally it was over yeah so I would say if they filmed for two months about a month and a half into it we were kind of calling it rough man it was a weird crazy time in your life it was a weird time it was a weird time because here's how it happened so as soon as the cameras drop the next day

I flew to Chicago for a business meeting, I was sitting in a hotel in Chicago. And I remember talking to her on the phone. And we were kind of talking, we were like, this is done. Like, we know this is done. Like, we're not going to make this work. It's not healthy on either of us. We should just try to move on.

And I said, here's the deal. I'm gone for a week for work. When I come back, you know, it would be really great as if, like, you were gone. Because I don't think I can see. in person like it's going to hurt too much like we both cared that much still and she's like i agree so her mom flew out to denver kind of packed up her stuff um i went to new york city four days later on a on a more work trip we hadn't talking in those four days and i look across the street

and there she is on the street corner in new york city randomly with amanda stanton from my season they were doing event in york and you know what i did what ran away bolted took off the opposite direction. Get out of there. Get out of there. Took off the opposite direction. You're like hood up? Yeah, gone.

She was literally across the street in New York. And then I got back to Denver and her stuff was packed up. And she got so mad at me about this at the time. I think she could laugh about it today. But a lot of this stuff was hurt. She had done this deal with like People magazine or something and got like all the furniture in our house. And it was really beautiful. And I showed up in all the furniture.

is gone. And so I showed up to this little house that's empty with no furniture. And I still had this lawn chair in the back. So I took my lawn chair and I sat in my living room. The TV was left. Turned on the TV, grabbed the bottle of bourbon, sat on the floor next to me. I was like, this is actually a funny picture. Let me take a picture of this. So I took a picture of it. Talked about it on Almost Famous. And because Almost Famous launched the week we broke up. So I had to talk about their breakup on Almost Famous. That was your opening episode. Opening up, and that was not playing.

That was literally just some brilliance from above saying this is a good idea. And so I took a picture and it's the saddest picture in the world. And she got mad, which she should have at the time. That was a dumb thing. She's like, you've made it look like, I took everything. I'm like, well, it makes sense. You owned everything. It was yours.

It was yours. She had every right to take everything. She's like, you're making me look bad. You're making me look too with nothing. honestly it does make you look terrible it makes you look so bad with no context it does with context it fully makes sense

in context it makes sense I was like I mostly did it because it's like it's a great picture of my life and so it's just like one chair and a bottle of bourbon and a pint of ice cream Jesus the funny thing is like you were 26 in your house

before you're going on the bachelor telling yourself you're going to be single forever a year later after the bachelor you're sitting in your house house in a chair, drinking a bottle of bourbon, saying, I'm going to be single. I'm right back to where I started, guys. I'm not getting any better. Yeah.

But you're still so young, which is, which is crazy. Yeah. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Oh, wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast. So we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young

professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now hold up, isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not. To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jemell Hill,

host to the Sports and Politics Podcasts Politics. And on the latest episode of Politics, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries joins me for a candid conversation about the state of the Democratic Party. What do Republicans say to you privately that they won't say publicly? Many of them are in fear of their political lives, and that's been part of the challenge. but we continue to say to them, you were elected to defend your constituents, to stand up for your constituents. And there's life after Congress.

And you should be willing to actually want to be able to look back on your time in the House of Representatives knowing that you can keep your head held high because you did the right thing. Donald Trump is gone in three and a half years. But their legacy or their failure to stand up to the extremism and the unprecedented assault on America, as we know it, we'll be with them forever.

Make sure to listen to Spolitics on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD...

Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with... Mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. When we cut to night one, we watched all like the limo entrances.

Who do you remember being like your top, it's called you like your top three or top four that night? Olivia, I think Lauren stood out to me, mostly because she was like one of the only blondes, I think, in the whole show. Yeah, she was. Did you like Bernettes? Did you tell them that? No, I don't think I told them that. I think it was just the way things worked out. I just like the Brenniz.

Yeah. And so Lauren, Olivia, and I was super curious about Jen, Saviano. on night one. She was like very just like very curious about me. And I remember her being like one of the only women that asked me really like normal questions

on night one. I would also throw Kayla Quinn into that. Jojo was a sneaky one for me. Jojo didn't happen for a few weeks. Mostly because I couldn't see her face on night one because she wore like a horse head or something. But yeah, those were the ones that really stood out.

okay that makes sense yeah it was interesting watching back because you know we searched up just to remind ourselves who your final four was and we were like I feel like these girls actually didn't get that much screen time on night one which is like not always the case like it really was Olivia had a lot of air time

who I believe that ended up taking a left turn was she like the villain of your season in a way those girls there wasn't really a villain she got her she kind of like fell on the sword that season she was

um she was vocal and she had the first rose and so she was very confident I would say uh Olivia was not a villain to anybody but the one thing that she did have was overconfidence and she kind of like spoke to that

and that might have been the downfall and kind of what rubbed women the wrong way right these women never like fight like they're not fighting at all um And I was proud of that. That was one of the things that I wanted. So, you know, on night one, you get to write your own speech.

I guess you really always get to write your own toast. And my toast was kind of coming off of my experience was, I hope everybody leaves here at least happy they did it. Not ever all, you know, one of you maybe is going to get chosen. And I hope you're happy you did it if you got chosen. Can't promise that either. Obviously, she wasn't. But, um, um, I, um,

I was like, I just hope you leave here happy you did it. And one of the ways that you can make sure you do that is by trying to have the best experience here in the house with these other women, as you do when we're together. So I was proud that they weren't fighting. I think the show is like, we have nothing. Well, it looks like your toast got cut off. I don't even know if we saw that part of your toast or not,

but someone like pulled you in the middle of your toast or at least that's what made it look like. Do you remember this? They probably did. I don't remember it. Okay. There was a girl who, like, dressed up as the first impression rose who, like, cut you off and was like, I'm going to take you now. And you're like, okay.

Yeah. There's many of those moments. I don't remember that specifically, which is wild to think I don't remember that. I haven't watched my season and, well, since it aired. Yeah. But there's those moments where you're like, goodness. Like, those are always kind of the red flags to me, is, you know, knowing enough of this. It was Mandy.

Mandy, the dental hygienist who cleaned my teeth on 9-1, which is the most vulnerable, like, crazy thing ever. You're like, leg on her lap with your mouth open. I was like, this is so vulnerable. It's so vulnerable. I mean, there's those are always the red flags on, like, who is going to be around longest is once you kind of see them play into the characters that you've seen in the past. Like, who pulls you first, who disrupts your conversations the most?

Who wants to talk to you four times and whatnot? night. And so I bet when she did that, because I think Mandy went home pretty quickly, I was like, hmm, probably not for me. Yeah. What about Lace? Lace was kind of the star of your night one, aside from you, obviously. It was very much Olivia and Lace were kind of the two big personalities. Yeah, so Lace was a big story on night one. Lace, you know, people don't believe me. I was super curious about Lace. Lace is stunning. She's beautiful. When we watch it, it seems like, like, we're watching it as viewers thinking, like, oh, she's spiraling. Like, no way Ben likes her.

But you can kind of tell that you're, yeah, you're somewhat interested. She is beautiful, too. Like, she looks amazing, night one. And she's kind of got like a quirky personality where you're kind of like, what is it about this girl? And you appreciate, I think on the show, you appreciate complexity. And she was complex. She had a lot of emotions. and the one thing I refused to do was send anybody home because it was an overwhelming

environment for them. It's like, of course it's going to be overwhelming. If you're like super normal here on night one, I have more questions than answers. And so those that are like kind of hesitant and the ones that are having a hard time dealing with the cameras and conversations and all that, it's like this is not a marker for me to send you home right now. If anything, this is a marker for me to try to get to know you better because of what I would hate to do is send you home just because you're nervous.

and nerves are fine I don't you know I get it and then over time it became very clear that it was overwhelming to her for other reasons and so she wasn't in a healthy place to do the show and that's when it was like

you know you need to get out of here like yeah this is not going to get me better you need to go home yeah like but even after yeah she lives in Denver and so even afterwards like my care and like love for her

like I felt for her and what you watch on TV is very accurate, I think, at least in my experience, to what happened there in real time. I've never, you know, I think Olivia got the raw on the deal for sure. But I think we are so quick to, like, judge these contestants based on, like, them being different or them being, like, not in their comfort zone. And it's like, you can't give Lace the villain mantra just because she wasn't in a healthy

place. If anything, we need to be like, yeah, she is all of us. and so yeah she she was very curious to me until it became very clear that she was unhealthy and then it was like you need to go home and get like the support you you're asking for right yeah yeah well we saw lace on two seasons to paradise after your season so and honestly at the end of the day she is a very entertaining personality in herself like it might not have been the right time for her but I can understand how she ended up on the show Yeah, we got to know more of her.

And now I get it when she's like all over the place. She's like, no, that's lace. Like she is. She's, you know, going psycho, you know, crazy, like thinking about everything. And she's very concerned about things. And she's very attuned to things. And she plays stories in her head that are not necessarily true. And you're like, that's just who she is.

You love her for it. But it's not a great place for The Bachelor. That's not a great headspace when you're also trying to figure out this weird puzzle of dating on national television with, 30 other woman. Yeah. Do you remember where your headspace was once the first episode aired and you had just done it all and you were sitting back?

Did you even watch? Did you watch? I'm assuming you did. I did watch. My headspace was in a few places. One, being very nervous about Lauren and how she was going to respond to things. Yeah. And that ended up being fine until it gets a little bit more intimate.

And like you're a couple weeks in. She was good with the first couple weeks. And I remember kind of always every week taking a deep breath being like, okay, we made another week. She's not super madden yet. Yeah. But you know it's coming at some point. There's going to be a triggering episode.

I told two women I love them and that was never going to go over well. Yeah. I also remember being very nervous. It's kind of funny. And I kind of forgot about this until you guys started talking. So I was nervous about my look. And here's the reason. Your physical appearance?

Physical appearance. I was worried about that too I was like how am I going to look on national television and I the reason I was so nervous about it is because the show was not nice to me and they made me feel terrible going in the night one because the night the day before

you know you're out there for a week with press I was in Honduras for a wedding the week before that flew back to LA started the like kind of press and the filming of stuff I had a stomach bug and so I remember you telling me this yeah Yeah, I had a parasite the whole time I was on the show.

I lost 30 pounds from start to finish. Like, couldn't get off the toilet. So talk about, like, having fun on a date, being like, hey, I'm sorry. I got to go. You know, I'm not good. You don't feel very confident in yourself. All the women ended up knowing that I was sick. And then I needed a haircut because I was gone for two weeks.

So I was like, I really like a haircut. And they're like, okay, here's this barber at the hotel that you're staying at. I said, cool. go down and he cuts my sides of my head like really you had a fade you I noticed your fade I said when you had the man chat I was like that's an interesting look for Ben but I mean you pull it look good yeah I saw your haircut I mean your whole look is obviously different now it's been like 10 years but I always just assume like whatever it is like they're managing every single thing like the fact that they sent you to a barber with like no one to go with you to like for all they know you could be like buzz it like who cares They're very particular about the look of their lead. I can't believe they just had you some random hairdresser. Some random hairdresser. And he shaved it.

So if you look at the man chap and you're like, okay, that's a hard fade. And you look at night one, it looks like I grew so much hair on the sides of my head in one evening. What they did was they took and they painted my head black on the sides. So they took this like powdered spray and sprayed it all around the side of my head for night one. So you're already, like, you're probably not feeling your best. Oh, I'm feeling off. You're like I'm a parasite, you painted my hair on. You're saying I don't look good.

Now I can get off the toilet. I'm sweating. I'm nervous. I'm the bachelor. And so I was very just like more nervous about like my physical appearance. Like in my, is it as bad as what they told me it was? I can't believe they were telling you it was bad. Like I just lied to me.

Like lie to me. I have to go out there no matter how I look right now. Like at least let me believe I look okay. Yeah, tell me I'm a stud, please. Yeah, like, you've never looked better. Oh, my God, the spray paint on the side of your head perfection. No, that does not do that for me. One more person, I feel like we got to cover quickly is Becca Tilley.

She was a late enter and she came off of Crystal as a season. She, we haven't seen in a while, I feel like someone come back. Sure. This is something I feel like that used to happen quite a bit would be like someone from a past season would show up and be like, hey, like it happened on my season, not my season, but like the season of the bachelor I was on. It happened like way, like Heather Martin showed up like week nine, I think. But what was that like? You had two women show up from a past season. The first thing you go is, are there more coming? And they're like, we don't know. There's only two of us for now. Yeah. It was super sweet. I actually took

it as a massive compliment. And so I remember feeling really like good about the two of them showing up because it did give me some confidence that I do I did really meet I I went into a feeling very not non-confident unconfident in my ability to you know be but I but don't you I feel like you were the like the guy that like was like unanimous like ban for bachelor so I never believed I was going to be the bachelor and I also didn't know I wanted to be the bachelor. Because again, I had to get, I took a sabbatical from work. My work had to approve me going again for three more months and doing this show. And I was going to say no to it if they didn't approve it because I didn't want to risk whatever it was affecting my ability to put food on my table.

You asked about Becca. So that gave me confidence. Becca and I had talked before. I didn't know she was coming on the season, but I had her, I still have it in my thumb. So she and we connected somehow. We were texting and in my phone, her name's Virginia. I don't know why it was Virginia, but she's still Virginia in my phone. We were texting back and forth.

And the idea was, hey, if I'm not The Bachelor, let's date, let's go on a date, let's hang out. And then when I was announced to The Bachelor, we were still talking. And I said, she said, should I come on the show? And I said, if you want to, if you think it's a possibility, you should come on the show. I said, I'm not, there's no favoritism here. But obviously, I'm interested in you. And I would love if we would give it a shot, if you would come on. And then I didn't know.

And so she never told me she was or wasn't. I never knew anything more about it. I said, the ball's in your court. If you want to come on the show, come on the show. And we'll try to make it work. And then she did. And so we did. We gave it a shot.

and then she went home and we're Sondiana and I remember after the cameras went down we're sitting on the park bench when I sent her home and I remember she just looked at me the last thing she said to me was you told me you weren't going to do it this way and I was like

I did it at a rose ceremony and I told her when we were talking if she comes on the show I was like I'll make sure that you get you know a proper like exit or you know we're together in the end like you've done this before I know it's a big deal to do it again I'll give you that proper exit

and then it never worked out that it could. She was like, you told me you wouldn't do it this way. And then she just stormed off. And I was like, no. She's the nicest girl in the world. Like I, but we're,

but like you made a promise that like, you didn't have all the information when you made that promise to her. Yeah. They were going to. Yeah. They're like, you're like,

so I have to give her proper exit. They're like, actually that's not how this works at all. Like there's a roast time we tomorrow and she'll be going home at that. Fred wants to give her a proper exit. all the execs are laughing. Who does this kid think he is?

Well, Ben, thank you very much for coming on our podcast and chatting with us. And we enjoyed rewatching your night one and hanging out with you at Nick's wedding. And hopefully we see you again soon. Yeah, we'll be seeing each other soon. It was great. Thanks for having me on. It's funny. I was actually nervous to come on here.

Not for any other reason other than I don't remember so much. of it. It's wild how much you forget. And so I was going to, I was going to tell you before we started recording, I was like, don't put me on the spot for anybody's names because I won't remember them. It's in the past, but I really appreciate it. And it was a lot of fun. The show's been so good to me. And you guys are doing a great job. So keep it up. Cool. Thanks, Ben. And to all our listeners, thank you guys for tuning in and make sure you subscribe to Bat for Happy Hour. We have lots more fun, exciting episodes coming out, exclusive interviews, and more. So don't forget to subscribe.

Bye. Bye. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot.

He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want or gone. Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast and the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you.

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