The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - A Match Made in the Explore Page with Luke Pell

Episode Date: August 1, 2024

Another member of Bachelor Nation is about to walk down the aisle! Luke Pell is on with Ben and Rachel Recchia to share the love story behind his new fiancé! Find out how a DM slide led to Luke dropping down to one knee, how long before he might become a dad, and what other Bachelor friends might be at the ceremony!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. Why are TSA rules so confusing? You got a hood of you. I'll take it all! I'm Mani. I'm Noah. This is Devin. And we're best friends and journalists with a new podcast called No Such Thing, where we get to the bottom of questions like that.

Why are you screaming? I can't expect what to do. Now, if the rule was the same, go off on me. I deserve it. You know, lock him up. Listen to No Such Thing on the. iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. No such thing.

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. I'm Dr. Joy Hardin-Brand-Brandford, host of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. I know how overwhelming it can feel if flying makes you anxious. In session 418 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett and I discuss flight anxiety. What is not normal is to allow it to prevent you from doing the things that you want to do. the things that she were meant to do. Listen to therapy for black girls on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

This is the Ben and Ashley I, Almost Famous Podcast with IHartRadio. It's a special episode of the Almost Famous Podcast. Guest host, Rachel, is with us. We have Luke Pell as our guest. Luke, welcome. Hey, thanks for having me on, Ben. Good to see you again. It's been a few years.

A lot's happened in your life in the last few years. Now, you and Rachel have never met, and today we're changing that. But we both wanted to tell you congratulations from the very start, Luke, on some recent things happening in your life. And one of the big reasons why you're here with us today. Awesome. Thank you so much. That means a lot. So let's start at the beginning for those like Rachel. Now, we're not going to talk a lot about your experience on The Bachelorette or any other spinoff shows. but just for fans to be reminded, you were a part of Bachelor Nation.

You still are a part of Bachelor Nation. You were on Jojo's season of The Bachelorette, which happened to be the year after I was on the show. Yeah, a while ago now. It is. Rachel, Caitlin Bristow posted a picture of when she was The Bachelorette, which was the season I was on. And it was nine years ago. Isn't that a while? Isn't it crazy how fast it goes?

Mine is already three years ago. I'm like, it was actually yesterday. But you guys, were you on winter games together? We were. Whoa. Very true. Yeah. Winter games that never happened again and nobody watched.

It was wild. We were just talking, like, did winter games actually happen or did we imagine it? I think for some of us, most of us, we hope it was just a dream, an imagination, something that just popped up and existed and went away. But we were on that show together, yes. I kind of wish they would bring it back, honestly. And some people that have watched it, they were like, oh, what was that show?

They didn't even heard of it. And I'll be like, I'll tell them, we'll talk about it. They'll go look it up on YouTube. And they're like, that's actually amazing. You have people that can't speak English, language barriers, like all over the world, like global, it's completely way more entertaining. And you've got the sports side of it.

And non-athletes competing in Olympic sports, is also entertaining in and of itself. I enjoyed it. I had a really good time, and it's one of those shows, Rachel, where you feel like you're just hanging out with friends most of the time. Like you don't feel like you're actually on a show. You're just kind of kicking it in this cabin. That was my experience.

Now, Luke, you have gone beyond The Bachelor into a very successful personal life until we get into the big reason you're here today and the big announcement and the thing we want to celebrate. In the last, let's say, six years of your life then, what have you been up to? Career-wise, kind of personally, what does your life look like? Yeah, you know, so I guess probably talked before COVID the last time I was on with you and Ashley, and, you know, I was still in Nashville, and I had been doing Nashville music there for a few years, I guess professionally as a career, and COVID happened, and that was a really

a good reset for me. I've gone into commercial real estate right during COVID. And so I've been doing that the last four years now. And it's been great. It's been a great transition. I knew that at a point there, you start this process and you kind of have a life moment. You say, what's my perspective here on the next like a five year plan or like when do you want to start a family? What does that look like? How do you build an environment? And that's conducive for having a family and doing that. And so for me, that was, yeah, getting out of the entertainment business and working my way back to Texas, which just recently moved back to Texas and kind of setting routes here close to home and getting ready to start family. So, yeah, it's been quite a process. It's been a few

years in the meeting and took some turns and unexpected things that happened. But I'm very happy and blessed to be where I'm at right now. And you are also an entrepreneur. I don't know if you're still involved. You had started or had been involved in a moving company. Is that still exist today? Yeah, so I'm still an equity stakeholder and it's a black tie moving.

My location is up in Louisville, Kentucky and the headquarters is in Nashville. So a friend of mine started that and franchised it and I started the first franchise for them. So he's up to a lot, Rachel. Yeah, congratulations. The show did not slow him down. Obviously, this last couple weeks, the announcement

came out that you are engaged. Now, we have followed, if you're a part of Bachelor Nation, you've probably followed Luke's story, you know, and kept up with his life. A lot of the behind the scenes romantically has not been shown. But this one was, and I started to watch it and I started to see it. I was like, I wonder if this is the real deal. And it is. All right, if you don't mind Luke, catch us all up on maybe what we didn't see, your love story, how you met, And then ultimately where you're at today. Yeah. So we met actually through Instagram and, you know, there's a DM slide.

Yeah, that's what I did. DM slide. That's what I actually knew. Yeah. Yeah. So that works for Ben. So I said, well, I guess it works for a lot of people now. And the more I've, we've talked about that, people are like, how have you met?

It was like, there's a DM slide. And I'm hearing it's actually pretty frequent. Maybe like the most frequent answer that I hear now is that that's how people were. I did, yeah. No, I did, absolutely. And I don't even know, honestly, we were talking about, we're like, how did it come across? We didn't have a lot of mutual friends. I think it's the Instagram algorithm. It was like an explore page thing. I was like, oh, my God, she's gorgeous. And you click on it. And then you kind of like learn about somebody. Like, hey, you know, like what are their values? What, you know, how important is family, all these different things you can

see by somebody's Instagram. Sometimes, sometimes people, they curate their Instagram well differently. but hers is very much who she is as a person and very transparent. And so she's just an incredible person. And so we, you know, we talked through DMs for a little bit. And then we initially, we didn't actually meet until late February of this year in person. And so it's been quite an expedited timeline. If you're not on reality TV shows, it's been an expedited timeline. but so faith brought you together in instagram and then how long were you talking online or over the phone

until you guys met how many months yeah so like it was just a brief interaction um like two months prior and so there was a you know where you where do you live i didn't know anything about her and she was like you know um i'm actually you know uh looking at moving back to texas um next year and etc etc and then it It just was kind of tabled and, and then it came back around what, I guess, like I said, late February, and she happened to be in Dallas at the same time as I was. And we met up for coffee and then just kind of took it from there. And then I traveled out to, I guess, really our first, like, real date was in Dallas. And then we ended up doing Easter together. And just one thing led to another and I met her family very early on this spring.

and they were great and everything just kind of fallen into place. And so, you know, we're both people of faith and very forward with, you know, what our past has been and who we are as people and very forthcoming with all of that. And I think that that's what really, you know, bridge that gap for us and made us feel comfortable with each other moving forward so quickly. Beautiful. Your fiancé's name is Haley James, correct? Yes.

She's originally from where? Rockwall, Texas. Rockwall, Texas, and you're from Dallas? Burnett, Texas, originally, which is closer to Austin. Burnett, Texas. I know Burnett, Texas. My cousin is talking to a girl from Burnett, Texas, actually. Oh, my God. Yeah, not a very big town. I probably know who it is. Yeah, after this, I want to check to see if you do. I just got the download on her. So you, you obviously, did she know of who you were when you two met? Like, did she had she

seen the show? She had seen the show. Yeah, I don't, you know, obviously yours and my shows had been so far in the past. I don't know that it mattered registered with her. Currently, like, I was like, I was from the show because it's been several years. But yeah, I mean, caught up quickly. Yeah, it was a dachular thing. So. Okay. And so when you first reached out to her, that was not the reason why she was like, oh, I'm interested in this guy. I know him from the show. She was like, later on that became apparent to her. Yeah, exactly. That's the best way to do it.

Rachel, that's some good advice for you is to, you know, not everybody. You can't get mad at somebody for watching the show, but you can definitely question them when they're like, I'll go on day with you. I remember you from the show. Absolutely. I will say, though, she probably did know because all of my friends are like FBI agents and they send me a full background before as soon as I start talking to someone. That's true.

The CSI agents come out pretty quick. Yes. Yes. 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. water 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. 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 Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

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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. Luke you kind of touched on it but now for the remaining time we have I really want to get to know you and and Haley as a couple what made her I mean obviously her beauty stood out to you at first but then as you got closer to an engagement what about her stood out to you to make you feel so comfortable that even after five months of knowing each other in person you said and this is it. Yeah. You know, I touched on it earlier, but yeah, I think, you know, for both of us, you know,

and she's got her own story. She's been through quite a lot in the last few years. And one of those things was her dad passed away in 2021. And so, you know, that's just one of the things. And so she had been through a roller coaster of just emotion and just life changes and things like that. And so, you know, I had gone through some, some big relational changes myself early in 2023 or a year ago. And so we were both in a place of just really digging down deep. And I think finding ourselves and what we really wanted in life. And, you know, our faith brought

us together. And then just that ability for us to both, I think, be vulnerable and just really not put on a mask of who we were or what our intentions were or anything. like that we were just very everything was on the table very early and said look there's no nonsense i'm not here to just date around and see how this goes like i'm looking for somebody to spend my life with and um you know i would love for this to work out but let's be very upfront about um everything coming into it so that we're not wasting each other's time uh or or the family's time or anything like that or dragging anybody else into this um and so that's that was it you know and so i think that was the advice piece if anybody was ever to ask me it's it's it's it's as

transparent as you can be and focused and intentional up front you know i think the world we live in now is so full of distractions and you know instagram and other people on you know that are just talking into our life and it becomes um all this noise and if you can find a way to shut out that noise and really focus on your own heart and what god's put on your heart who who you should be with from that standpoint and what you want in terms of having a family and a future, I think that would save a lot of drama and a lot of breakups and confusion for people. How quickly after the first date did you know that she was the one? Was it really soon on? I would say it was within probably the first 30 days, yeah, after our first date.

You know, we had a coffee date, went great, and we had like a, you know, a more formal dinner date. and you know but still just like meet at the restaurant um type of dinner date and really you know we were very careful up front too and very like we put in some parameters of saying like let's not make this casual it's not you know go go to the club and and and have this this party thing and just kind of hanging out let's like let's sit down have a nice dinner together um be very formal about our intentions and i think that also helps where we were going. So there was no just, you know, emotional, I guess, what do they call it, where you could have to get into somebody up front or get confused in terms of just being

experience with somebody. It's like, what direction are you heading? And that part we both heading in the same direction. And so we were just very, and it almost seems on paper. That almost seems boring. You're like, oh, it's more interview style. It's like a job interview or whatever if you think about it. But when we did it, it was built on a foundation of respect, I think, is really what the common theme for both of us is we just respected each other. We respected each other's past and what we were looking for and our intentions. And that just really set us up for success. So now that it's official, you guys are engaged, what's the timeline? Obviously, this has been, like you said, an expedited dating process, but I'm with you where I feel like once I

met my now wife it wasn't yeah it wasn't within a few hours that I didn't think yeah this is this is the one so now what does the wedding look like what are you guys starting to plan prep talk about yeah so um we're actually going to do like a private family only only ceremony um much much sooner um and then we'll get married um and just because of the logistics of a fight and everything that with both people in transition and then living in all those things we'll get married have a prep ceremony of family and then we'll do it's still like our gathering uh in the spring next next spring and uh it sounds like um we've you know picked the venue and and she's excited about it yeah yeah so i think that'll be the fun part where we get to celebrate

with friends but we also it takes a little bit of stress out of the whole um the planning process it doesn't put as much, you know, anxiety and suspense on that planning process when you're like, well, we're legally, we can legally get married, have a private ceremony and do more of a large celebration later in the spring when everything's right. Are you ready to be a married man? I'm so ready to be a married man. Ready to be a dad, a married man. I'm just, I'm just excited about that season alike.

And, you know, it's been a long time coming. As both of you guys know, it's like, uh, You've probably seen it. I don't know if you've experienced that feeling yourself, but, you know, reality TV, it can kind of become this hamster wheel if you want it to be. You can kind of continue, continue on in that space. And your perspective to, you know, leave that world and say, I want a family. I want to build a family is, you know, sometimes difficult to see and navigate.

But it's amazing. But the Bachelor franchise at the same time, like there's been some great success stories. like obviously like Sean Catherine from way back and like it worked for them immediately on the show and they're still happily married and had so many you know such a big beautiful family and uh but for a lot of people it just becomes you know it's like spin off shows and other things happening and like when you when you start by you know so I'm with you and as soon as you make that decision it isn't easy uh Rachel I don't know if you can relate with this at all yeah I was going to say tell me more I'm still on the hamster wheel

It's a hard decision to kind of divorce yourself from, to separate yourself from. But once you do, it's so good. There's a lot of peace to it. And then the show becomes this amazing chapter of your life and not this defining moment. It's just like a really important memory. And it's not this thing that you have to keep up with. Love it. Is there going to be anyone from Batchezian in attendance at the wedding?

Yeah. No, absolutely. Yeah. I'm excited to have. Like, I was actually just, Chase McNary just got married in Colorado over the 4th of July weekend. And so I was a groomswin for that wedding and we had a great time there. And then, yeah, I'm still really close with Chris Solz. He spent a lot of time.

I lived in Scottsdale for a couple years. He would come down in the winter and stay with me and golf and whatnot. And so, yeah, I mean, there's going to be several people from Bachelor Nation there. And obviously, a few people from Nashville that were on the show as well. So I don't know how Chris Souls is friends with everybody, but he is. It's wild. He is at every wedding I've ever been a part of. And it's awesome. I love him so much. But he is friends with every single human. He's such a good friend. I mean, he'll just show up. Like, I get a phone call on like a Friday afternoon. I'm at the office. It's like, hey, what's up, buddy? I was trying

to think up the office. He's in Iowa. I'm in Scotland. He's like, uh, he's like, what do you up to you i was just missing the office he goes what do you want to do for dinner i was like he's like i'm in the air i'll be i'll be i'm landing in two hours just no warning just shows up and like he's just that friend he's like just a fun guy to hang out with and then he'll stay for a month you know yeah so yeah uh we have a lot of fun together he's a good dude well luke we couldn't be happy for you here uh congratulations to you and haley james on this engagement we'll be following your story uh and kind of on the wedding plans and the wedding date and all the announcements about the wedding,

but until then, from the almost famous family and Rachel, myself, and Ashley, who is texting on a thread but could not be with us. Congratulations, and we're so excited for your future. Well, thank you so much. And also I want to tell Ashley and Jerry congrats

on the new addition to their family, and that's beautiful, beautiful kids. I love to meet them someday. Yeah, we are anxiously waiting here for her return so she can give us the whole rundown. and all the details, but we haven't got it yet. And so we're waiting here to give her a big congratulations, but it's a big deal.

Again, another success story from the show. Like you said, Jared and Ashley, just making babies and... I love it. Keeping the fire alive. Until next time, I've been Ben. And I'm Rachel. And that was Luke. Thanks for joining us, Luke.

Thank you guys. Follow the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcast on IHartRadio, or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. 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 and the I heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Emanzor. 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 Eye Heart Radio. app, search emergency intercom, and listen now. Why are TSA rules so confusing? You got a hood of you. I'm take it all. I'm Manny. I'm Noah.

This is Devin. And we're best friends and journalists with a new podcast called No Such Thing, where we get to the bottom of questions like that. Why are you screaming? I can't expect what to do. Now, if the rule was the same, go off on me. I deserve it. You know, lock him up. Listen to No Such Thing on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. No such thing. I'm Dr. Joy Hardin-Bradford, host of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast.

I know how overwhelming it can feel if flying makes you anxious. In session 418 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett and I discuss flight anxiety. What is not a norm is to allow it to prevent you from doing the things that you want to do, the things that you were meant to do. Listen to therapy for Black girls on the I-Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast.