The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Famously Available And Finding Love After Reality TV with Mercedes Northup

Episode Date: August 31, 2025

After being unlucky in love on both The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise, Mercedes is ready to put her love life in Ben Higgins hands! From figuring out what she is looking for in a relationship to what her type is, Mercedes is ready to get to the heart of what she really wants outside of reality TV. Follow us on Instagram @FamouslyAvailableSee 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 and the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, it's Daniel Fischel. Writer Strong. And Will Ferdell from PodMeets World. We are back in Las Vegas and giving the people what they want, a full week of Y2K content. Tell me why. Well, for the Backstreet Boys residency at Sphere, of course.

We joke and say this is our second marriage, but it takes a lot of communication. Plus, it's carrot top, baby. And finally, Ashley Simpson-Ross joins us to talk about her upcoming sold-out Vegas residency. Listen to PodMeets World on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA.

terminal, just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, terrorism. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and I'm the host of the on-purpose podcast, and today I'm joined by one of the greatest athletes of all time, Novak Djokovic. He's won 14 grand slams in a glittering career. Novak, Djokovic.

When you reach your 30, you start counting your days to your retirement. I'm 38 this year. How long can I push my own limits? Listen to On Purpose with Jay Chetty on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. IHart Podcasts bring you the ultimate Summer of Love Tree. This is famously available. Mercedes, welcome.

I'm excited to be speaking to you tonight. Now, our listeners out there are probably at this point going to be on the edge of their seat to hear all the updates with you romantically. And so let's share them with them. What's going on in your romantic life as of today? Honestly, my romantic life is very lame right now. I'm not going to lie.

But I feel like after getting this opportunity and all these things, I feel like I'm open to like talking to more people. But personally, I feel like it's been very lame. Well, lame feels like a word to me that needs some dissection. When you mean lame, do you mean inactive? Do you mean really terrible experiences? Like, expand on the word lame a little bit.

Okay. Yeah, I definitely feel like it's inactive. But I feel like when I meet guys, I'm just very like, you're not it, you're not it. And it's because I've just been very in my head being like, these guys are not it right now. Like, I'm just not in the headspace. I'm doing my own thing.

Like, I have all these things going on. But I feel like I just turned 27 and I feel like I'm ready to like find someone and someone who's actually like ready to start life with me. So I feel like I'm open to looking for someone. I mean 27. You're still so young. I know. It is very young. You should take a breath here. I mean, I get it. I'm not here to tell you, hey, 27 is too young to really get serious or 27 is too old to get serious. That's not my intention here. But my intention is to tell you take a deep breath and just enjoy this season too because you are still so young. So you do have time, but you're telling me you don't necessarily want time. Like if you found somebody right now that you could see yourself getting serious with,

you're ready to get serious with them. For sure. I feel like it definitely takes like the right person, right? Like I'm not going to be, I don't know how to say this. Like I feel like my person, like I'm going to know they're my person, right? And that's where I feel like right now I'm in like an awkward phase.

Like you're in, like you have early 20s, you have 30s, right? Like I feel like I'm right in the middle. Obviously I'm at 27 to where it's like I'm not like dating just to date. like I'm dating to find someone but it's like you're gonna have to try to date me if that makes sense

like I'm not gonna be easy to get like I'm gonna need you to like actually try and like I don't know does that make sense what I'm saying we're gonna make it make sense

because I'm gonna ask some follow up questions here that I hope help all of us myself you and the listeners make it make sense yes i get it but i'm assuming the one of the reasons in life that we i believe that we start to feel this excitement towards getting serious is some external pressures friends you know finding their their spouses or their partners um you know friends and family kind of speaking into you saying

hey when are you going to meet somebody do you feel these pressures right now or those pressure is non-existent in your life? I feel like yes and no. I feel like my family, not really, but I'm from a really small town in Iowa, so everyone that I graduated with is married and having kids. So it's like when I look at my life, I'm like, oh my gosh, like I am behind. Like I'm not doing the people or the same thing that the people that I graduated with or like grew up with. But at the same time, like I also have a different life than them. And I feel like my family is very like, hey, like you're doing your own thing. Like there's no pressure. But I definitely, I feel like I put the pressure on myself

to be like, I need to be with someone. I need to like start that. But we've seen you date on reality television. So obviously there was a moment a few years ago that you felt like, hey, I'm going to go on this show because I do want to meet somebody. I do want to find somebody. I think this is an avenue at which I can meet somebody, be that beaches, be that a mansion, wherever, you know, the location is, you were ready. Did you take a step back after your experiences and kind of reevaluate if you're ready or not? Or have you always been ready? Yeah, I feel like honestly after the Bachelor in Bachelor in Paradise, I took a step back because I was like I need a second to like think about everything. And obviously dating on Bachelor and Bachelor

in Paradise is very different than dating in real life. Right. So like I feel like on Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise, it was like, oh, like this guy's doing this and he's perfect. And it like brings your standards up. And then like you get to real life and it's like, hey, like not every dude has a producer being like, hey, you need to bring her this or you need to say this. And so I feel like definitely getting back to real life made me like just take a step back and be like, okay, what do I actually want? What do I need?

What's important to me? That kind of thing. 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 okay story time 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.

December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush. Parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, at 6.33 p.m., everything changed. There's been a bombing at the T-Dose. AWA terminal. Apparently, the explosion actually impelled metal glass. The injured were being loaded into ambulances, just a chaotic, chaotic scene.

In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, and it was here to stay. Terrorism. Law and order, criminal justice system is back. In season two, we're turning our focus to a threat that hides in plain sight. That's harder to predict and even hard. harder to stop. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, it's Daniel Official.

Rider Strong. And Wilfredel from PodMeets World. And we're bringing you Viva Las Content. That's right. We are back in Las Vegas, the city of sin, and giving the people what they want. A full week of Y2K content. Wait, we're back in Vegas? Tell me why. Well, for the Backstreet Boys residency at Sphere, of course. We sat down with Kevin Richardson and A.J. McLean just minutes before they took the stage, and our very own Wilfredel basically became the newest member of the band.

Boy band, please. Plus, the man who has the longest running comedy show on the strip joins us and gets his props. It's carrot top, baby. And finally, we all L-O-V. She-E-Hur, Ashley Simpson-Ross, joins us to talk about her upcoming sold-out Vegas residency. It's a full week of nostalgic interviews you don't want to miss. Listen to PodMeets World on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and I'm the host of the on-purpose podcast, and today I'm joined by one of the greatest athletes of all-time Novak Djokovic.

The world's number one male tennis player. He's won 14 grand slams in a glittering. career. Novak Djokovic. You've been through so many injuries, loss. I always showed himself. What has Novak Djokovic done? What goes through your mind when you lose? I just want to be left alone. What has it taken to become Novak Djokovic? It's a consistent practice. It's prayer work, mindfulness, meditation, conscious breathing. It requires more responsibility from you on a daily basis to prepare yourself for the biggest battle. When you reach your 30, you start you start counting your days to your retirement. I'm 38 this year.

How far can I go? How long can I push my own limits? Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. You've had time now to process through this. You've gone on good dates. You've gone on bad dates.

And at this point in your life, you are excited. about what a future can bring. And so when you think about your ideal partner, what are the characteristics that you haven't found yet, but that you're looking for in this person? So when I pray at night about like the guy that I want, it's just someone who's very like relaxed and chill

and goes with the flow, very similar to me. um it's someone who loves no matter what like comes in our life no matter what circumstances hard things like they're always there um yeah i feel like at the end of the day i just want someone who's real with me and who loves me like no matter what and i honestly i feel like that's like really hard to find these days it just sucks and they're out there i'll say that yeah they are out there There are people, great humans, who are fully engaged in finding a partner and they'll listen and care for and go through thick and thin with. They're there, but they're not always easy to find and they shouldn't be. They're easy to find.

We wouldn't be sitting here today and there wouldn't be reality television shows, you know, that have made a 24-year career off of, you know, cultivating relationships. But you started this by talking about these dates that you've been going on and that these dates you're oftentimes finding yourself. And I forget the exact wording you use, but I'll try to get it close or get the sentiment, at least right. You started by saying that you're going on these dates and they're just not it, that there's something about them that's just like missing the mark. But the characteristics that you just described are things that, you know, I think most people, only find out after many dates and maybe many months together. And so let's go backwards and talk about some of your dating history. What are some of the like non-negotiable red flags that are popping up on these early dates that you're saying, nope, I'm done, can't do it anymore.

Yeah, I feel like some red flags for me are. So when I meet someone, I really definitely pay attention on how they treat their families, especially if they have like sisters or if they're close to their mom. Like I definitely pay attention to those relationships because I feel like it doesn't say how they're going to treat you. But I also feel like like if they're close like my experience, if a guy is like really close to their sister, like they're going to treat you pretty good. And if they're like not and have a bad like relationship with their sisters, they're going to be like assholes to be honest. And that's what I have found out. So I feel like really like paying attention to how they go about life and how they treat even like aside from family. Like if you go to a restaurant and they're mean to the waiters or

they don't do 20%. It's like, okay, do we, are we the same? No. Okay. But some of the reading of these situations are if they're close to their family, I get the waiter thing. I think that's a great read. I think it's a great first day read. I think it's a great. I think that is such a good great read on the first date for sure yeah how do you treat the people that are caring for you that are providing you this hospitality and this service awesome but what other things are kind of standing out to you in the course of dating that are turnoffs because I'm sure positive in fact that you've met somebody who's great to the staff that is kind to you that's saying all the right things but you're still feeling like yet not it yeah yeah

okay well if we're gonna get yeah okay I feel like when I am talking to someone okay if I'm like on edge all the time like if I'm like when are they going to text back and I'm going to my friends I'm like oh my gosh they said this like what do I say like what what should I do what should I say I feel like that's like such a big in in my head I know that it's like if you're thinking that like you should maybe like take a step back and be like, isn't that serious? Because like at the end of the day, you should, if you really like someone and you feel like they're viving with you, you should be like, I'm going to say what I want. It doesn't matter. Like they're going to text back when they want to text back. But I feel like a lot of the times like if I am thinking about, you know, when are they going to text back? What are they going to text back? And what am I going to respond? I feel like that's like a red flag for me. And I think that comes from a place of security too. If, if those, the right person and you know they're the right person and you know their character there won't be those concerns because communication will be clear or you'll have the best and you know your expectations of them of them will always lean on the side of hey something had to have happened that they're

distracted and they just can't but goodness they'd want to be messaging me see and that's why I feel like I've given up on dating because I was before like I honestly have not talked to to someone seriously for like a year and that's because like I feel like I was so in my head about everything like and it was breaking me down like I was like oh my gosh like I am like this is not who I am this not how I am in a relationship and so I was like I took a step back because I'm like why am I being like this like I don't understand why but I think at the end of the day like I knew that he didn't like me the way that I did and so it was making me insecure and it was just like not a good situation ship. And because of that, I feel like I haven't gotten in, like, I haven't tried to

get in a better one because I've just been like trying to better myself and like being able to get to the point where I can be good. Yeah. Does that make sense? It does. Yeah. So I'm going to lean in as we close up here and some rapid fire questions kind of relating to what you just said. You said you've given up on dating. Is that still true today? Kind of. Yeah. I have not trying to date at all. When is the last time you're in what you would consider a semi-serious relationship? This is so embarrassing. It was so long ago.

Honestly, two years ago? So probably like five months before that? Five months before. So over two and a half years. Right? Is that right? Was Paradise two years ago? I wasn't there.

I don't know. Yeah? I have no idea. Easton would know. Easton's a big fan of this show. show he would know exactly when you're on paradise he's shaking his head it's been two years unfortunately it's been two years for me i don't think that's embarrassing at all mercedes i think that's beautiful and that's i remember this and i don't know if this will be helpful or hurtful

or whatever but it's my story and so i'll share i remember laying in my bed one night after my breakup from the show and going i think i need to be okay with being single forever like i think i just need to get to a place where I'm okay being single forever. I was 28 years old at the time and I remember this whole process and this whole prayer of like just give me the peace, give me the joy, give me the fulfillment if I'm single forever. And guess what happened? I met my wife like a month later. So I'd given up. I had gone over, you know, so long without a serious relationship. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, my wife popped in. And so I had given up. And so I think it is it's funny and it's cliche but i think it's these moments where we do kind of throw up

the white flag and we say hey we're done uh we're not doing this anymore that all of a sudden our hearts change and so my final question for you is okay you've given up on dating it's been a long time since you've been in a serious relationship but the final question is are you willing to try again like if that person comes by are you willing to at least give it a chance to maybe disrupt all of the past and all of the bad dates that you've had before. Yes, I'm definitely willing. I feel like it'll take the right guy.

It's definitely not going to be easy. But I feel like if a guy comes around that catches my attention and proves to me that he's worth it, then I would definitely give it a try for sure. That's all we need to hear. Mercedes, thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for your vulnerability.

honesty, the listeners are going to absolutely love it. And I'm very excited to see where this journey goes. Same. I'm super excited. I think it'll be fun. 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, 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. Hello, it's Daniel Fischel, writer Strong, and Wilfredel from PodMeets World. We are back in Las Vegas and giving the people what they want. A full week of Y2K content. Tell me why. Well, for the Backstreet Boys residency at Sphere, of course. We joke and say this is our second marriage, but it takes a lot of communication. Plus, it's carrot top, baby. And finally, Ashley Simpson-Ross joins us to talk about her upcoming sold-out Vegas residency.

Listen to PodMeets World on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. December 29th, 1970. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal, just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, terrorism. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and I'm the host of the On Purpose podcast,

and today I'm joined by one of the greatest athletes of all time, Novak Djokovic. He's won 14 grand slams in a glittering career. Novak Djokovic! When you reach your 30, you start counting your days to your retirement. I'm 38 this year. How long can I push my own limits? Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcast.

This is an IHeart podcast.