The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Little Higgins

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

It’s time to recap the latest Bachelor Nation news before we bid farewell to 2023!With all the break-ups coming from Paradise, we might have news of a couple success story… but it isn’t confirmed! Ben and Ashley break down all the rumors. Ben opens up about his struggles with insomnia after hearing Hannah G’s story of her fight with sleeplessness. And, find out what changed Ben’s perspective about having kids!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. 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, 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 IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcast with IHartRadio.

This is the almost famous podcast post holiday season. Well, I guess we still have New Year's left. This is the final few days of 2023. So today, Ashley, I really want to dive in to start this thing off. we're going to break down some headlines and talk about what's going on in Bachelor Nation, including now the official commercial that is, you know, highlighting Teresa and Gary's upcoming wedding. That's going to be very exciting for everybody and very excited to tune in. But before we get there, Ashley, it is the final week of 2023. And one of my favorite things

that I get to do every year with everybody in my life is kind of ask what in 2023 you're most surprised by and most grateful for I would love for you to answer those two questions for me

okay first let me say that I don't I actually do not I get anxiety going into a new year because I have been extremely blessed to have some

great years sure And every time we go into a new year, I'm like, well, it can't be better. It can only be worse. Well, and I mean, so far, I don't think that theory of yours has been proven true, right? You're right. Yeah, you're right. So I don't know why I look at it in a scary light.

Let's see, what surprised me the most about 2023, I guess just like, I mean, what's been the most fun is watching Dawson develop, but it's weird because it happens you know each day and you know how this is a bad comparison but whatever you know how when people gain weight over time you don't you don't notice necessarily if you live with them but then people who don't notice it yeah that's like how it is having a kid because like now i don't even remember what he was like a year ago at this time because i just feel like he must have been exactly the where she is now. But what's been really cool is just watching him form a personality. That's the best.

And he's got a big personality. I was able to be with him like last week. And he is he you can start to see who Dawson is going to be and who he's becoming. And it's yeah. It's really fascinating and really fun. Because he has both you and Jared's personalities mixed in all the same time. I think that's probably the like, the most surprising thing is just to see your kid have interests and traits of your own.

I think a year ago from a year ago now, my mom was kept saying things like, you know, we have to get beyond his looks. It's not just he's so cute. You know, eventually we have to like, he's got to get his personality and his intelligence and all that. And like what's really formed over the past year is that. Because now besides him being the cutest baby and the and the land he also just has he's just incredible so i guess does that answer your question what about you ben what surprised you most about 2023 uh i think you know there's there's really two aspects i would say my development and picturing our family growing has been like surprising to me i think it's it makes sense you know i've been very very

honest with Jess, especially in the family, I've never woken up and being like, hey, I think I could be a dad today. Like, it freaks me out. It scares me. But I think just my, the fear of it isn't as much maybe now as more the anticipation or the curiosity or the, hey, we can make this happen.

I also think for me in 2023 was a big year. for contentment. And I don't mean like I practiced contentment. I didn't and maybe I should have. But, you know, life has changed for me in 2023. They're, you know, really post-COVID. I went into COVID hosting three different shows and doing television and doing live stages and doing this. And then none of that has came back, except for this. This has stayed true, tried and true for me. And so it's been a big refocus since COVID on what does my career look like moving forward. And it was a kind of a hard divorce from what, you know, the exciting and the, you know, the, the attention and, you know, those things. Yeah. The craziness of that to now, you know, I sit in my office most

days. And I, um, I work on coffee and in restaurants and this. And so, um, but I, I think in 2022, I was probably a little bit envious or a little bit upset at the life I had before. In 2023, I've really started to enjoy this and really started to get excited about those things and what they bring. And so, yeah, I think for me, it's a new perspective on what life is going to look like, hopefully for the next, you know, many years, as many years as God has given me. That's so good. But can I reavit? Is it something? You know how you're talking about becoming comfortable with the idea of being a dad?

I'll say this. I used to get annoyed when I was pregnant with Dawson and people would be like, are you so excited? And I'm like, that's honestly not like the emotion that I have just like jetting out of me right now. It's definitely like fear of the unknown. I'm definitely more anxious than anything. It's like, of course I'm looking forward to it.

But like before you have a kid, you don't even know how the love feels. So I think that your feelings are totally normal. It's okay. Like you can want it because you're like, I know that I want a family. But like that first year, I think the thought of it is scarier. Well,

it's scarier the thought of it than it is living it. I don't even know. And I think it's just the most normal feeling. I think that excite is something that like society throws around. Sure. It's just, it's not the right word. I mean,

you've done this long. enough, you know, due to my enneagram personality type or whatever you want to say, like, authenticity, even good or bad, like even in my marriage is all I asked for with my family, with my friends is like, if Jessica's pissed off at me, I want her to tell me. Like, I don't want her to be like, I'm fine. Um, if she's feeling down or out or if my family's feeling down or out, I just wanted to tell me. Like there's, I don't want that shame. And I just don't want to live in a place where I feel like everybody is sugarcoating everything. And so it took me a long time. It was a personal struggle for a bit where I was like, I don't know if I've

ever felt like excited. Like I don't even know what I'd be excited for. I don't know what I'd be excited for. I don't know what I want. Like I know the idea of a kid sounds great and it sounds intriguing. It's always been something that like has felt like a path for me and something that I've prepared to do. And I've always thought about, hey, the decisions I make at a younger age, maybe will affect my kids one day. And so I want to try to be a good husband. I want to be a good friend, a good son, all those things. But I don't know what I'm at, like, I don't even know when you say, hey, I want a family. Like, what is that want? Like, I just want more people in my house. Like, I want less sleep. No, I don't want any, like, I don't want those things. But what I do want

is the love and the community and the ability to share, you know, the things that my parents have passed down and grandparents and family and friends to me to pass down to some, you know, to somebody smaller. But, uh, yeah, I, you know, the fear of it. I don't think. that like oh my gosh if jessica told me tomorrow hey i'm pregnant like i wouldn't be like life's falling apart oh my goodness freak out i'd be like okay let's let's do this thing yeah it's like okay so it's happening so like what do we do now we want this on a macro level i don't really know what it means we're gonna figure this out as we go um okay so what are you most grateful for then and let's you know i know it's easy to to say dawson here and those things but let's take dawson out of it what what

things in life are you personally most grateful for outside of maybe Dawson well i mean obviously jared and i think it's just a continuation of just the fact that like knock on wood but it's like my family is happy healthy and safe we're all so close and um like we just and like it's just it's been like that for quite some time and i'm just like incredibly great for for every single day, that it stays like that. And then, you know, just the whole, this whole career that has been gifted to me by an appearance on the Bachelor franchise almost a decade ago and how I'm still able to, like, sustain myself and my family with it.

Yeah. And we get to talk about a show that both met, you know, so much to us weekly and actually feel like it matters because a lot of people listen, a lot of people listen. Those are the great things. I think it is. You know, my, for me and during this time of life, this year, my devotional, I read a devotional. It's by the Center of Action and Contemplation. It's a Christian-based contemplative school in New Mexico, founded by Richard Rohr, who's a Franciscan. So it's really fun for me because it's not that, you know, I don't attend a Franciscan church. I don't practice, you know, the Franciscan church. So it, you know, it is a, it would be more, I guess if you're looking at like the balance here, it'd be more of like a Catholic type church than it would maybe be an evangelical non-dominational kind of, you know, more church that we've seen in the last 20 years. And so it's just more like contemplative really leans back in the history.

And so this year, one of the things that they did as Richard Rohr got older and they started to make a switch was they started to teach in devotionals about like small moment gratefulness. And so I have been very attuned or I guess like very aware of the things that like I look at in the course of my day and find pleasure in or find satisfaction or find gratefulness, beauty in. And so it could be small moments wrestling with my dog to even yesterday there was a pine cone laying like a small little pine cone laying on the ground and I picked it up and I was looking at all the intricacies of this pine cone and just saying this is a really cool piece of the earth that I get to live in it. I get to enjoy this little piece. Like it's that thing. So for me, it's been finding gratefulness and smaller things,

which I think also parallels with why maybe I'm feeling more content because it's not just gratefulness that, oh my gosh, I just got a crazy offer to post for this brand that I love and I'm going to make so much money, which maybe four years ago would have been something that I would have said. it's the gratefulness for the small little moments in my life, the things that maybe other people don't, wouldn't celebrate. I couldn't call somebody to be like, I just saw the coolest pine cone today.

Please do. Yeah. That's so cool. No, I'm glad. That's awesome. Yeah. So that's kind of my path. I feel like I'm just on a place where something inside of me is preparing myself

for really exciting, a really fun journey ahead that will involve maybe less glitz and glamour and attention as the previous almost 10 years. And that's exciting for me. I think it's preparing me to enter into a cool stage of life. Aw, Ben. That's so awesome. I'm really glad to hear that.

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, 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. My name is Ed. Everyone say, hello, Ed. From a very rural background myself, my dad is a farmer and my mom is a cousin. So, like, it's not like...

What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. On 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage.

Now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A foot washed up a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable. These are the coldest of cold cases, but everything is about to change. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA. Right now in the backlog will be identified.

in our lifetime. A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA. Using new scientific tools, they're finding clues in evidence so tiny you might just miss it. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. On America's Crime Lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors.

And you'll meet the team behind the scenes at Othrum, the Houston Lab that takes on the most hopeless cases, to finally solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. Get in here! Today we have a very special guest with us.

Our new super secret bestie is The Deva of the People. The Deva of the People. I'm just like text your ex. My theory is that if you need to figure out that the stove is hot, go and touch it. Go and figure it out for yourself. Okay. That's us. That's us.

My name is Curley. And I'm Maya. In each episode, we'll talk about love, friendship, heartbreak, men, and of course, our favorite secrets. Listen to the Super Secret Bestie Club as a part of the Michael Thura podcast network available on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. So at the end of this podcast, we are going to update everybody on kind of what we did in the holidays. It's going to be very quick. It's going to be very short. But we're going to talk about what we did in the holidays, things that stood out to us.

I have a special thing I want to talk about that my brother-in-law did. that's going to blow everybody's mind. I mean, it blew our mind. I felt so fancy. Talking about being content. Yeah, this celebration at the holidays, he made sure all of us were not feeling content

as much as very fancy. And so we're going to talk about that. We're going to get an update from Ashley. But before we do all of that, we do have headlines to jump into. Bachelor Nation was active during the last couple weeks. And so let's start with this one. Tanner and Olivia from Bachelor in Paradise,

dating speculation. We just had Tanner on. He didn't say anything about this. He said that he loved her. He's definitely made it seem like Olivia is one of his favorite people on the beach, but didn't make it seem like there was anything romantic about it. And this could be our friend, Zachary Reality,

just kind of creating a little rumor here. He took a picture and posted it as a TikTok of the two of them. It was just two pictures of the two of them melded together basically it just seems snugly but at the same and it is it's one of those

like weird borderline things like it could definitely be friendship and it could definitely be like them together but like we'd be happy about it right sure and there's one

where Tanner's picking up Olivia and like carrying her like a baby it's just it's not happening it's my thought I here's my only comment personally

on this. They're both very attractive people. They both obviously are very single. I don't fully, like, I didn't have a traditional dating life really because I went on the show so young and kind of came off of it and was more like secretive and protective about the dates and the people I was going, you know, interested in or pursuing. But I would just imagine that if I'm an attractive person and the other person is attractive and I'm single and we're friends like yeah I would just think that like something would be sparked they're like I don't know that many people in my life at 34 years old that have like guys at least that have like really tight just girlfriends I just well okay so I really maybe bachelor's different or maybe I'm wrong tell me if I'm wrong or if you

I used to make Jared do pictures like this with me when we were very complicated obviously. But you guys also were in love. You're proving my point. You ended up, you ended up having a child. And then Susie and Justin are doing the same thing. And I definitely think there's feelings on one side there. Yes. We did a grilling podcast with them guys. If you haven't listened to it yet, definitely go back. I try to get every answer I can. It's like a whole 20 minutes about their relationship. But they're so amazingly honest about it. They even say that if one of them, or to get a significant other, they couldn't have the relationship

that they have today. So, you know, maybe you're right, maybe I did disprove your point. Yeah, I think you did. Well, and Zachary Reality does take his job very seriously. So I'd be shocked. He's not just going to maybe throw anything up there

without some sort of rumor that he's hearing in the background. And he's up for Zachary Reality. A special shoutout to our friend is up for an award, a social media award this year in Los Angeles, for top social media. I think it's a journalist or host of the year.

It's a big deal. And so congratulations to him. That's exciting. Hope he wins. We like him. Next headline is this. Somebody that we believed was going to go farther on The Bachelor than they did. Marlina Wesch.

She was the Olympian a few years back. On Clayton season. Yeah, on Clayton season. And she just announced an engagement. and her quote is a million times yes she went public with her boyfriend

his name is get this Italian name I think he's from Italy well they met on Bumble in Florida so maybe he's got Italian roots listen to the name

Tomaso Matali so nice what a nice nice name so she is engaged they hard launched in May and now they posted an engagement video, cute little shot next to a Christmas tree,

a picture of with other loved ones in Italy. I think that's where the engagement went down. And of course, we have Bachelor Nation wishing them all the congratulations. It's a big deal. Congratulations to both of them. Bachelor in Paradise is Kylie Russell, been in the headlines a lot recently, sends message to supporters after Avan Jones split. She said on December 20th on her Instagram story,

feeling extra thankful this past week having spent it with my family I want to thank each of you for your kind words the overwhelming love and thoughtfulness means the world to me and of course we know what Kylie is going through Avon has admitted to basically

infidelity since in between the filming of paradise and their announcement of them being together which only lasted 24 hours in December it's uh you know in the headline

this week, there's also been some opinions stated about if she should have publicly came out and said the things she did about Avan or not. Really? Where have you been seeing this? I don't know. I'm just prepping for this, Googling Kylie Russell.

There are some thoughts on that. I personally feel like this was a very messy situation and she probably felt like she had to so that questions weren't going to continue to be asked if they were together. not or why they broke up so yeah um i think it's fine if a guy cheats on you and you guys had a

public relationship on tv i think you're allowed to say it yeah you can say hey this was not good this did not work out like i thought it would uh you know we had uh jess on oh two weeks ago she was talking about i think she had mentioned that kiley was one of those considering moving to San Diego, right? Well, wasn't she living, she was living in San Diego with Aiden. Okay. So she'll stay and then these girls will kind of go and build up a more of a bachelor following in San Diego.

Is that what's happening? I guess so. Okay. Well, speaking to San Diego, Hannah Godwin reveals why she's been MIA and details her emotional struggle with insomnia. Hannah and Dylan live outside San Diego. And she has been saying recently, like, oh, my gosh, this is awful. She has been a little bit quiet on her social.

She just said that, like, she's just exhausted and just emotionally spent because she has been going through this insomnia about, which is awful, 16-minute vlog entry that she posted on her YouTube. She said, I've been really, really, really struggling with insomnia. I used to not want to call it that because I would just say that I had sleep issues sometimes, but lately it's been full-blown insomnia. I went to bed at like this 5.30 or 6.30 this morning and now it's 11 a.m. So I slept for maybe three or four hours, which is more than I've been getting.

She says, in the past three weeks, I think I've had two nights of rest. I like can't freaking fall asleep. And it's so frustrating. And it holds me back. And I'm crying. And I'm just tired. And I think that it just holds me back from everything. She said that she's tried everything.

Magnesian, melatonin, hot bath at night, cold bath at night, no screen time, insomnia exercises, looking directly in the sun in the morning for a circadian clock regulating. Not taking naps during the day, no caffeine, no alcohol, edibles, breath work, yoga, exercising every day, and other things, you name it. I've tried it, she said, but I just lay down in bed and, for example, the other day I went to bed at 7 a.m. and I woke up at 9 a.m. and I've just been running on 2 hours asleep. It's really frustrating. It's not good for you. Went to my primary care doctor.

I described some sleeping medication which she doesn't like to take, she said, because it's, you know, habit forming. She's also gone to a naturalopathic doctor. There's a lot here, obviously, but I can't, I can't imagine. That's just awful, awful. Ben, do you know anything about insomnia?

Because I'm just wondering, like, if she's going to bed at 5.37 a.m., I've been thinking that I'd be thinking that if she can, especially during these like slow months of December, sleeping in really late, but does it also like hinder your amount of sleep? Yeah, you know, what was it? It was three months ago. I went a whole month without sleeping.

What? Well, I was sleeping like two hours a night. And, uh, mine was based around like just weird anxiety, internal anxiety. It was right after my truck had gotten stolen, uh, we had already committed to getting new windows in our house, painting our house. We had just gotten back from an Italy trip. That was an amazing trip, but a big, you know, a big undertaking for Jess and I.

So, like, it was a lot of, like, financial stress, which seems to be where I get my stress on just, like, how are we going to make this thing work? And so this, like, stress kind of, like, came out in other ways. I don't know a lot scientifically about it. What I did was I, it's weird, for me, like, there's only there's one thing in the world and you know this that relaxes me the most is bourbon no i stopped drinking um okay because i thought that was like causing it it was um it's like getting

like deep massage and getting different massage techniques like actually like sleep focused massages and i would at least get tired or relaxed and i would try to do it there's a place here in denver i could do it like kind of right before i'd go home and get like chilled out for the day um yeah it's weird I don't know. That's not to be an expensive habit. Yeah, well, think about what she just mentioned, all the things she's trying. How did you, like, so you get a massage,

like how many times a week? No, I don't do it anymore. I started to get back into, got back into a rhythm. And honestly, for me, it was therapy too. It's just speaking about, like, sharing openly, like speaking through my concerns and just like getting them out there into the world.

And also getting better at sharing them with Jessica so that she's on the same page. Like, there was a moment where I was like, I don't want to tell her that we need to do this and this and this because I don't want to freak her out. And then when I did, it was like, okay, we're a team. We can do this thing together. Um, but I don't know like the science behind it necessarily. It has to, it means really, it's very hard and you start to go, you know, you start to feel crazy because you can't keep your thoughts together. Everything's making you're irritable,

anxious. Your body doesn't look good. You know, you just, because you're not working out because you're so tired. It's weird. Well, I hope that. Hannah figures something out soon. And she says she's so thankful for everybody who is sending her messages in just support and solidarity and those giving advice as well. Yeah. I would be cautious about the Ambien though because that is, well, yeah, it is habit forming. And then you start taking that thing and getting on a flight, people do weird stuff.

All those crazy stories. That's right. All those viral videos. These are weird stuff on flights. 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. 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. A foot washed up a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable.

These are the coldest of cold cases, but everything is about to change. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA. Right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA. Using new scientific tools, they're finding clues in evidence so tiny you might just miss it. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha.

On America's Crime Lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors. And you'll meet the team behind the scenes at Othrum, the Houston Lab that takes on the most hopeless cases, to finally solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth.

Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps, are short-term, highly regimented correctional programs that mimic military basic training. These programs aim to provide a shock of prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor, and rehabilitation programs. Mark had one chance to complete this program and had no idea of the hell awaiting him the next six months.

The first night was so overwhelming, and you don't know who's next to you. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Ed. Everyone say hello, Ed. from a very rural background myself my dad is a farmer

and my mom is a cousin so like it's not what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke but that really was my reality nine years ago I just normally do straight stand-up but this is a bit different

on stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear well 22nd of July 2015 a 23 year old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club?

A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. all right totally transitioning here and no good way to do it but katie thurston discusses worst day of her life breakups new bachelor nation connections and more so all this is very vague katie's great at teasing though i'll tell you that katie is great at putting like a little

something out there to get your attention and then not really fully giving you the story so she said that this past month she experienced the worst day of her life yet somehow she managed to experience her 2023 high the following month life throws things at you but stay strong through it all because some of your best moments are yet to come she said from for my high I'm enjoying it privately for now and for my low I'll tell you when I'm ready in the meantime I'm in therapy started taking lexapro and I'm focused on finding my piece She also said that she will be talking to therapy, Jeff, on his podcast about her F-Boy Island breakup. She said that there's not much to share there, though.

Reality TV dating offers its own unique obstacles and some things just don't work out. That's fair. Katie Thurston continues to keep the headlines because she's been on our screen. Again, that's a past episode we just did catching up with her. That one is a little more vague of an interview because she wouldn't tell us why. she was on the beach in paradise but now obviously we know well uh you know we have seen the commercial final headline of the day for the teresa and gary wedding uh they're anxiously looking forward to this but life and style actually is reporting that some of her friends uh are warning her to

not go through with it uh i'm curious about this headline okay well it's life and style all right i saw this on my Instagram feed, and I was like, oh, life and style. Well, they are, you know, I trust us weekly. I trust people magazine. Life and style, you know, I don't know their sources as much, but, and they love to like take something and run with it. Sure. Just looking at like, even like the articles that they've written about you and I sometimes. It's like they'll take a quote and they'll make it sound really salacious. It's like in context, it's actually nothing. But let's, let's go through this anyway for the support for the sake of the fact that we basically

have a Bachelor gossip podcast. So in a new report, people that are close to Teresa are warning the Golden Bachelor finalist to think twice about Mary and Gary Turner. The Life and Style article, the report is based on a source that says that Teresa was shocked

by some of the last minute revelations that were, you know, turned up about Gary that last week of it airing, you know, the Hollywood Reporter article. And friends are now urging her to get a prenuptial agreement if she goes ahead with the marriage. Says that he was very much rattled by the revelations from the former girlfriend who talked to the Hollywood reporter. And according to life and style, Teresa was shocked because Gary was caught lying and telling and people are telling. telling Teresa now to think twice.

Gary's having to explain himself and Teresa is questioning everything he's ever said, the source told life and style. Teresa's friends are stressing the importance of having a pre-up. And, you know, I don't know much about, this is me personally now, I don't know much about the financial situation between the two of them. But it is a little different that when you're starting your lives out together in your 20s and 30s and getting married at that age, you know, both of these people have made money for many more years than people in their 20s and 30s getting married.

So I don't think, I know I know nothing about their bank accounts and their savings, but I don't know that a pre-nup is the worst idea, especially that they're getting married after five months of knowing each other. Do you feel like pre-nups, you know, obviously the marriage rates have gone down over the years? Do you feel like pre-nups are going to get more popular? or less kind of taboo as we move forward. Well, let's clarify, the marriage rate, like the divorce rate, is actually not that bad. And I do believe it's quite good amongst millennials, which, yes, I know we're still quite young. But if you are over 25 and you get married, your college educated, your chance of your marriage surviving is far beyond the 50% that people will love to throw around.

Yeah. Far beyond it. And a lot of people in our generation have our children of divorce. And so I'm assuming kind of like, you know, just like every generation, you say, hey, I don't want that, you know, so I'm not either going to get married or I'm going to really make sure this is the right person for me. So you think that the amount of preempts are going up? I have no idea.

I was just guessing that it maybe wouldn't be, it wouldn't be, you know, you don't hear about a ton right now. But it just wouldn't be a weird conversation now for people to be like, yeah, let's get a pre-nup. Just, just, you know. I think it's not a weird thing if you have your own money, if you're both coming from a place of being in your 70s and having amassed your own money, especially since we know that Teresa is really into her job. Her job is in finance. I don't know how much she's making, but who knows? Who knows?

The whole topic is obviously one that is touchy. I just don't think, Ashley, here's why I don't think it's as big a deal as people are making it. Because I know, I mean, Teresa is a confident, intelligent woman who's made her personal choices here, right? So she is, she's making her personal choices. And we are seeing the commercial for their wedding. If this was as big of issue as people are making it, I believe Teresa, and her family would be pulling the breaks on this a little bit, and we'd see it publicly.

You think so? Yes. But like the wedding was announced basically the same week that the Hollywood Reporter article came out. So what an awkward time to put breaks on it. I feel like awkwardness would be, that's okay considering you're making a commitment to somebody. I think they're doing fine.

And I will believe that until we hear different. from the two of them. Or we don't see them go through with the wedding. I think they're doing just fine. And I think the public is making, you know, statements. And this is tough, Ashley. It's really hard because we've talked about it many times with couples coming off the show.

This is one of those behind the scenes things that we won't probably see a lot of, but is making their relationship harder because it is a question they probably get asked every time they do an interview. It is probably something that, you know, they have to read about, see their names pop up, their families are not reading about it.

It does add some kind of like heaviness to what could be a really exciting time. And so I hope if it isn't a big deal for them and they have communicated it and they are at a place of understanding and they're both very excited for the idea of marriage and getting married, then we stop perpetuating something that isn't really a thing because it just hurts people.

And we start celebrating the love that is finally, you know, coming from the Golden Bachelor we waited on for so many years. Well, you know what? They were on Kelly and Mark this week. And they did do this like mock wedding ceremony. But they also revealed something. They are not necessarily sold on moving to Charleston together like they announced on after the final rose.

They are possibly considering New Jersey her home state because he actually is really enjoying New Jersey as New Jersey is the most underwomen. state. Goodness, I've never heard anybody say that, but I'm glad. You talk to lots of people.

They'll tell you that Jersey gets a bad rap. All from New Jersey. Ashley, to close out the show, I didn't want to get your update on kind of how your holidays were. It looks like you're back home

in Newport right now. Anything crazy special that happened? Nothing crazy special, but everything was special. But everything was special. special. Yeah, we had a, we had a really nice couple days. Three like separate sequential family get-togethers, which is really nice. His Jared's cousins on Christmas Eve and then his sisters on Christmas morning. And it was really fun to see the kids play. So my niece is three months older than Dawson. And they were like opening presents together and dancing to Justin Bieber's baby, which is Dawson's new favorite song. And it's just like really, really adorable. And then we went to his parents for Christmas dinner. It was just,

and my sister was here. That was really nice. And it was so sad and sweet because today, when we dropped her off at the airport, Dawson just like, he first saw where we were and he goes on planes all the time. And now he's like, plane, plane, plane, plane.

So he's either thinking that he thinks that he's going on a plane and that normally means that he's going to go see grandma, grandpa, and auntie. And then he realized that Auntie, was leaving and he was not getting on a plane and he just started bawling it was so sad but he's so cute with my sister because it's like everything is like mama dadda auntie auntie really really cute and then i'm sure that made her feel loved yeah oh she's just she's the best aunt oh my gosh she's

the best aunt so um so for christmas for our for jared side of the family we basically we are conducting we have organized a family trip to Disney World Jared and his dad's favorite kind of vacation in the world in mid-January so it's been in the work for a couple months

but this was kind of like our big like okay everybody like let's start doing it so we're excited we're taking a two-year-old and an almost two-year-old to Disney World along with Jared's like cousins and his aunt and uncles, it's like a big, it's Jared's dream because it's like family vacation. So he's like, he's taking a big, hey, bone family vacation. And we're going

to Disney World. And I'm sure it's going to be crazy and chaotic, but it'll be really fun. And even though they're too, he is so into Aladdin and she's very into Muana. And like they're, they're going to have little stars in their eyes. Yeah. You know, uh, mid January in Orlando, Florida, is the time for the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. Are you going to be there, too? I'll be there. Wait, we're going to be there the 14th, like the 19th or something like that. We're there.

No way. I'll be there that whole week. Oh, my God. So if you want to see some amateurs play golf alongside some incredible professional athletes, stop on over. It'll be a blast. It's always a lot of fun. It's a big old party in celebration.

But it sounds like you guys will have your hands full. But, yeah, well, that's exciting. Well, I have to give a shout out, Ashley, to my brother-in-law. Now, we did the holidays in Nashville, Tennessee. I just got back. My parents, my mother-in-law and father-in-law were gracious enough to invite my parents to come celebrate Christmas with us. It was Jade, my nieces, as I've mentioned, first Christmas. So this was a big Christmas for everybody.

It was awesome. We had a really great time. It was really special, and it is very special to have, you know, my, my family and Jess's family together, having so much fun together. But I got to give a special shout out to my brother-in-law. So he is a chef. He's an incredible chef. He's brilliant.

The one that was at Audrey's is a chef. Yeah, Jim. Is he a professional chef? Is this his occupation? He has. He's cooked at some of the best restaurants in the U.S. Yeah, I remember hearing all that. That's okay, yeah.

But it's not what he does for a career any longer. But he still obviously is very skilled. And he loves to cook. for the family. And so his gift to us, Ashley, it was to buy caviar and black truffle. And he made a caviar, uh, egg yolk pizza and a black truffle mushroom pizza. Now, these things were so fancy. Like you, these at a restaurant would be hundreds of dollars. And he made them and they were incredible because he is incredible. And then he had this tin of caviar and he's like, I bought this 10 of caviar, not to save but to enjoy and so it was amazing we had the bottles of wine and we were sitting around

we were literally putting caviar on our pizza crust and eating our like caviar with pizza crust and just like within potato chips like we he made sure we went all out it was like the fanciest coolest dinner ever and he did it as our as the gift to say hey let's just enjoy being together indulge and indulge and not worry about the fact that we're, you know, that this caviar is very expensive. And it was awesome. And we were just so, all so thankful. And he crushed it. It was, it was special.

That's super sweet. What does caviar taste like? It's like, does it enhance your potato chip? Oh, yeah. Does it enhance it? Really? Yeah, it's like a buttery, like very light sea flavor butter. It's, it's special.

so it's not super it's not super fishy no no no it's not super fishy like you could you would love it it's like it's like a very good accent to anything you put caviar and anything it's going to be good but i have never really ever eaten like that and it just happened to be at christmas based on the cooking of my brother-in-law and so i felt cool my mom felt cool my dad felt cool they'd never had caviar before so we were just all feeling cool being cool together that's so sweet it was Awesome. For a good holiday, I'm back now, and we're getting ready to start the new year. 2024 will be an exciting year for the Almost Famous Podcast.

We have new things coming your way. A couple new segments to look forward to where Ashley and I have really interested in wanting to engage more with you as listeners. And so make sure you tune in for the announcement on that. We're very excited for that. And I hope you all are as well. Well, until then, until next time. I've been Ben.

I've been Ashley. Bye. Follow the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcast on IHeartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to 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...

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