The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Infamous: Secrets of The Mansion

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

 The Bachelor Mansion has served as the backdrop to our favorite love stories for decades, but now it's time for some TLC! Ben and Ashley break down the latest news about the new reality show that brings Bachelor contestants back to the Mansion to fix it up and renovate it to its former glory.  We talk to some Bachelor Nation fan favorites and find out the shocking things contestants AREN'T allowed to do in the shower, and we discover why cooking is such a hot button issue in the Mansion!Follow The Almost Famous Podcast on InstagramSee 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. 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. Hello, it's Danielle 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.

Hi, my name is Enya Yumanzoor. 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 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Ben Higgins and Ashley I bring you infamous. Sometimes roses are red flags. Hey, everyone. It is Ashley and Ben.

We are here with some kind of breaking Bachelor news. HGTV has announced that they're going to be renovating the Bachelor Mansion for a new TV show. Ben, what are your initial thoughts? It's about time. Oh, really? Yeah. Stop. Oh, I'm nostalgic toward it.

If you went to the mansion, well, you did. We were there with the Almost Famous podcast. When there's not the pillows and the nice furniture and it's all painted. The house is, you know, old it's beat up a little bit it needs some refreshing now i don't think i think the i think the question is how much renovation because it does have a lot of character it is that's what i mean yeah the architecture in there is awesome uh i'm not wanting them to like modernize it i think it would take away from everything yeah like the spanish style kind of architecture is beautiful inside and

out it just needs some like love i would say okay yeah yeah guys yeah Because I don't want to change the aesthetic. I like the Mediterranean vibe. It's very ornate. I like that for this. I can't, could you imagine them filming the show in like some black, gray, and white millennial, you know, aesthetic? No, that'd be so cold.

It would be cold. It wouldn't be unique. It wouldn't be as magical, fantastical as it is today. But I'm imagining the owners of this property don't want, that modern aesthetic that they enjoy what they've built or what they own because he's a builder he is a contractor like he designed that house with his like heart soul and hands yeah so i think this is more of like a freshen up of it and hc tv is seeing a great opportunity to jump on board with it i mean everybody will want to watch yeah this is actually a great show i'm excited for the show if not

excited for the actual aesthetic changing so this is the details um these are these are the details we have. It's called Renovating the Bachelor Mansion. And Channing Dungey, the chairman and CEO of Warner Brothers, which is also the production company of The Bachelor, announced the series along

with the hosts of other shows. He had like a whole bunch of other shows that they were announcing. And it was at Discovery's Up Front presentation on Wednesday. It's called Renovating the Bachelor Mansion. That is simply what it's called. And it's going to feature former bachelor and bachelor's contestants who possess the expert renovation skills to compete in a

design challenge series. Now that to me sounds that Jojo and Jordan will be fronting this. Does it not? A hundred percent. So you have Chris Lambert who has a show on HDTV. Tyler Cameron obviously has renovated homes consistently. He had a show on it was at Amazon? Yeah. Wasn't dog houses though no I thought he had dog house show he may have appeared on a dog house show oh okay

um so Jojo Jordan Tyler Chris Lambert yeah I can't think of any others that come to top of oh what about

those are still big enough to carry it is isn't she like a designer oh yeah yeah so like the question is are they going to be able to get those people uh well I feel like Jojo and Jordan have wanted to

renovation show for quite some time. And I know that, you know, broadcast media is a little bit of the yesteryear. But Tyler probably, like, HGTV is such a huge name and they do so well with Discovery Plus and it'll obviously stream on there that I feel like he's going to be excited about getting his show on such a major network. And the winner gets a cash prize. Yeah. There's a lot going on here.

And that's all we know. It's time, Ashley, what we're going to do because of the mansion. and because of the memories that have been made at the mansion. We wanted to bring some people who have lived at the mansion, including you and I, to talk about what their favorite parts of the mansion are currently, what they hope doesn't change, any secrets they have of the mansion. So we have a list of what we would call all-star guests, including Susan Knowles and Rachel Rechia.

We have Charity in Dotten and Mike Johnson and Susie Evans coming on. All right. So let's get our first caller on the line. We have Mike Johnson on the line now. Mike, we're talking about favorite Bachelor mansion memories and like crazy things that you remember from the house itself. Like do you have like, okay, like a toilet clog or anything broke while you were in there? Nothing was broke except for the barbers that we had come by. But I think my craziest memories were just. Yeah. They were broke. You didn't hear them. That was good. I like that.

That was nice, Mike. You know, going on national TV, which you hair all the lopside. You don't look at that. Literally true story. My mom said the first thing she said, she saw the episode, the first episode was,

did you not have a barber? First thing out of her mouth. First thing out of her mouth. Mike, I've shared this story like a few times, but I was at the Bachelor Mansion probably like five hours before the girls were going to show up. night one and I had been out there for probably like two weeks um doing like B roll and all that stuff and I said hey you know what it would really help is if I could get a haircut before tonight

like it would make me look better and I had to do so much convincing and I was like I won't feel confident without one so they take me to get a haircut the guy uh shaves my side so tight that you could see like the white of my head and they had to put black powder in my hair to cover up from the white showing through on night one. They were all panicking, which makes your confidence go absolutely to a zero whenever it's like,

your hair looks terrible and you're like, wait, I'm about to go on national television. 200 cameras staring at you. Oh my gosh, bad. It was bad. So, Mike, I have a question for you. at the Bachelor Mansion when I was on the Bachelor

at I'm curious if they did the same thing to you they put up a sign in the bathroom that said please stop relieving yourself in the showers clogging the drains did they do that for you guys? Yes, that's crazy forever. Pardon me?

You know, we got it. Yeah, actually peeing in the shower? Yeah, that's fine. I pee in the shower regularly, to be honest. I'm glad you just admitted that, but that's not what we're talking about. What is going on? Ashley, let's explain this to you.

All right. I'll start. Mike actually, no, you know, I'm going to let Mike explain this to you because he is in sexual education. Oh, okay. Yeah, you caught up. Thank you, Ashley. There you got there. There you got there.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm not going to explain that one bit. You got it. There was a sign. This is a great episode so far. No, there's literally a sign. And so, Mike, are you confirming that you all also had the same sign? I am confirming that I did not witness.

I was not very witness to any of that. I didn't wake up in the middle of night and see it, so I'm very happy about that. Yeah. We had a sign that said, please stop. You're clogging the drains. And obviously, that's a funny little thing to think about. And then everybody's shower.

There's only, I don't know. You guys could tell me what is there, two or three showers for everybody the shower in? Probably three, I feel. Yeah, so like after night one, when everybody moves in, you have 20-some people showering in two or three showers. It's a mess. It's not easy. No, there's one downstairs too. There's one downstairs.

Okay, there's four showers that people can shower. I would always use that shower because I felt it was the most private because that way you could lock the door. You could go poop and then you could shower and no one would smell it. and you do all your private things in a locked door. Yeah, no one's smelled. That's a big deal for Ashley. She's very secretive about her functions. I can't imagine.

You guys must have just blown up the toilets with, like, no candles. Actually, the most first time you fart in front of Jared. Well, probably within, like, four months of us being together. Not so bad. That's not so bad. They're a couple. Yeah. Mike, any stories from the.

mansion that come to mind we're talking about this because HGTV just announced that they're doing a renovation show focus on the bachelor mansion it's a big deal um bachelor contestants are going to be a part of this uh show if you're surprised by it obviously you're not on the show um and so I'm not a surprise by that no what I guess maybe this is a better question what's one thing you hope they don't change about the mansion you know I loved my first first and last time of having myself and 20 guys in a jacuzzi. It was fun. It was fun.

I really liked it. You know, there's a bunch of guys hanging out, you know. So you went to pool jacuzzi's day. I mean, if you get a grotto, it would be awesome. Yeah. What's a grotto? It's like a really cool.

I'm definitely going to mess it up. It's just what I know of a grotto is like a really cool pool with like a little stone on top of it, shall I say. Oh, like waterfalls and caves and stuff. See, now that you think about, now that I'm thinking about the outside, yeah, I can see them renovating the pool area. It needs it. I mean, I'm saying this just needs a little touch up, a little love. Mike, thanks for jumping on to talk to us about the Bachelor Mansion. We appreciate you.

Thanks for giving us your insights. And I'm glad our two seasons can relate, at least on one thing. And that is that we're dangerous, dangerous in a locker room. Mike Johnson, thanks for coming. And you've got to have me. You all have a better time. Bye, see you. 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. 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,

podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Hello, it's Daniel Fischel. Writer Strong and Will Friedel 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 Y. 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-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 I-Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you your podcasts. 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 TWA terminal.

Apparently, the explosion actually impelled metal, glad. 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 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. 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, mild tennis player. He's won 14 grand slams in a glittering career. Novak Djokovic!

You've been through so many injuries, losses. I always heard 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 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 IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcast. Have you ever wished for a change but weren't sure how to make it? Maybe you felt stuck in a job, a place, or even a relationship. I'm Emily Tish Sussman, and on she pivots, I dive into the inspiring pivots of women who have taken big leaps in their lives and careers. I'm Gretchen Whitmer, Jody Sweetie.

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Rachel Hi Welcome back to United States Oh my God Thank you From Africa Not from Paradise

Guys don't get too excited We could have left it As a cliffhanger I'm not But you guys Please I can't handle it Another thing

I know We know we know You're dating Blake You can't go to paradise Every time Ashley messaged me When I was there I told him

Like I tell her Every single time We're not dating Okay well can you just explain like the arm around your leg situation then? We were sitting in a tire and I was gonna fly out

because he's bigger so he was in the whole tire. So I was on like the edge of it and then I had my leg just trying to like stay on it. There's nothing romantic about a sunset with animals and a tire with a strong man protecting you from falling out of something. No, he probably wouldn't even care

if I did fall out honestly. well if you're not together after that trip then i guess you won't be together but all right all right so as your time as the bachelor et um do you have any stories from the mansion like from the mansion itself anything funny happen um outside by the pool in the kitchen the kitchen is just like a a big hangout spot where everybody has to cook their own meals so there's there's got to be a story there right well first of about the kitchen, me and Jill Chin were terrified to go in the kitchen because I don't know if you remember on our season of the bachelor, we had shrimp gate. So there was just a weird cooking thing

happening in there who was getting what food. So we wouldn't eat the food that was cooked and we weren't cooking. We were just living off of go macro bars the entire time. It's very intimidating to cook in that kitchen. No, there was no way I was doing it. I would wash the dishes to make it seem like I was contributing to the house and I wouldn't eat the food. I was terrified of those girls at the time. It's it's interesting you know you get to make a grocery list and they do do a great job of going out and getting the food that everybody wants. I remember there and I wonder if this is the same way with the bachelorette or with the bachelor seasons when I was on the bachelorette there was almost like a power struggle to who to who would be cooking like I think some guy wanted to

show off like hey I'm I'm a cook I'm a good cook and I want to feed the people and I want Caitlin to find out that I'm the guy that feeds everybody and it was like this weird struggle among some guys to like show off in the kitchen and it was a very weird dynamic and it did make the kitchen in a sense inaccessible to everybody else because if I was like hey I don't really want your rigatoni that you're like flaming up on the stove I'm just down for like a turkey sandwich it would be offensive to them and then i was worried about like causing drama over my turkey sandwich you know genuinely and then it's like how much food do you take because they're not making enough for realistically 30 people to really eat so you take just a little

and then you're like it's just a whole thing it's definitely like you said very intimidating on our season it was sierra and kate and they were always in the kitchen cooking besides the shrimp gate of schnay but yeah i did not go in there ashley what about you i remember discovering avocados for the first time like i never really regularly ate i never ate avocados actually before the bachelor mansion and i always just thought like i would have it like in sushi or like guacamole and i was like man i don't know they had them so available it was everybody's like number one request and they were perfectly ripe. That's what I remember because it's hard to get avocados right.

They're like ripe for maybe a day. They're always great in the mansion. So I discovered, yeah, because of California. And I discovered just like how great avocado on toast with turkey and saracha was. And so that's what I basically had every single day and a lot of dinners as well. Yeah. I feel like everyone has that one thing. They just ate every day just to serve.

that and alcohol nothing else i could just like make it myself in the corner and not have to make a big deal out of it and then i could just wash the one plate and not have to worry about making a whole mess yeah because then it's like who's watching dishes who's not washing the dishes it's a whole thing exactly i have a few questions a couple things i don't remember uh so i i imagine myself being a guy who would have enjoyed a cocktail during the day while filming The Bachelorette because there ain't nothing to do and you're usually sitting by a pool. I don't remember where alcohol was accessible. And this was before, like, alcohol became like, you know, two drink minimums. I don't remember where we maximums. Minimums, yeah. I don't remember where we had access. Do you all remember this?

I remember exactly where it was. And I remember exactly where it was. And I remember exactly the time that we could get it. Okay. Okay. I was at that bar. That was you were after our maximum time. Every single day. Where was the bar? That was a different era though, Ben. They just have it sitting out for us?

Where was our bar? Where was our bar? I don't remember. I just remember there's always bottles of white wine open during the day because it was ladies, you know? We didn't have the open bottle but I had to live in a house with Janae. So I was

I was trying to escape anywhere. Mimosa, 12, red wine at night. I was having a great time. Yeah, you can relax. My next question is during the season I was on The Bachelorette, it became a really also big deal for guys to work out. And there were sandbags that, like, would set up some tents for production. And some of the guys would get their hands on these sandbags and just run the property, like holding a sandbag. And then, do like all these workouts because we had so many personal trainers on that season so many guys so into working out did you all work out at the mansion no no i mean there were girls that did yes it was jillian anderson and brit and they would do laps around the pool like not the actual

pool like if you guys don't know if you go downward into like the backyard there's like a backyard and it's paved so they would do laps around the whole house including that area and I would be like, good for you guys. It was a big deal. It wasn't really my thing. If I hadn't had abs yet, I wasn't going to get abs living in the Bachelor Mansion. But it was a good way to kind of blow some steam. It's not a big property.

It's probably a half acre, maybe an acre. And you just run around the acreage for, you know, as long as the show would let you with a sandbag. It's a wild scene. It would have been great video. Rachel, as we close up here with you, because we just want to be. wanted you for a second. What's your favorite memory at the Bachelor Mansion? Oh my gosh. I have so many. I think my favorite memory. And me and Susie, I think I've told this story before. We roomed together me, Teddy, Susie, and Serene. And one night, well, every night when the

handlers would walk in the room, we'd always pretend to be like the toy story toys. Like we'd like fall asleep. And one night, Toreen was standing up when the handler came in. She just fell over and she broke the bed and it was the funniest thing ever and i'll never forget it but yeah serene we had some good times in that room uh it's like a big sleepover every night yeah uh rachel thanks for joining us thanks for giving us an update on your love life yes welcome back to the u.s thank you thanks for having me okay we're actually having so much fun talking about the bachelor mansion we want to make this episode a two-parter so stay tuned for more callers and more memories.

Follow the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcasts on IHeartRadio, 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 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. 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 team.

PWA 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. Hello, it's Danielle 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, it's fear, 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. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillip.

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 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

This is an IHeart podcast. Thank you.