The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Mercedes Has A Mystery Man And They're Going On A Date

Episode Date: October 12, 2025

Mercedes is catching flights...and maybe feelings! She’s giving Ben the download on why she’s spending the weekend in Boston (and the mystery man she’s visiting!)How did they meet…what would she rate his flirting skills…and has he watched her on reality TV?? Ben is asking all the questions we really want to know! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved for years, until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls, came forward with a story. America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And to binge the entire season ad-free,

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with the one, the only, Cardi B. My marriage, I felt the love dying. I was crying every day. I felt in the deepest depression that I had ever had. This shit was not given to me. I worked my ass off for me.

Listen to On Purpose with Jay Chetty on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Introducing IVF disrupted, the Kind Body Story, a podcast about a company that promised to revolutionize fertility care. It grew like a tech startup, While Kind Body did help women start families, it also left behind a stream of disillusioned and angry patience. You think you're finally like in the right hands. You're just not. Listen to IvyF Disrupted, the Kind Body Story, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the 1980s, modeling wasn't just a dream. It was a battlefield. It's a freaking war zone. These people are animals. The Model Wars podcast peels back the glossy. cover and reveals a high-stakes game where survival meant more than beauty. Hosted by me, Vanessa Grigoriatus, this is the untold story of an industry built a ruthless ambition. Listen to Model Wars on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. IHeart Podcasts bring you the ultimate Summer of Love Tree.

This is famously available. It's your host Ben Higgins. I'm very excited for today's conversation. It's really fun when we launched famously available. The messages that I received from so many people about how incredible this human is, how beautiful she is, and how sweet she is, and how nobody can believe that she's single. Well, we've got some big news for you. We haven't been able to send Mercedes on a date yet with Famously Available.

So, Mercedes did it herself. But that doesn't mean that we don't get an inside look. into where her dating life is today. She's a date this weekend. So I want to get in touch with Mercedes. She's on the streets of Boston currently, but we gave her a call because she's getting ready, prepped, and excited about the date ahead.

We're going to talk to her, get some intel on how things are going, what she's excited about, and we're going to continue to follow her on this journey to finding love. All right, Mercedes, to kick us off. we do know here that you're going on a date how did you meet this guy

kind of walk us through how you met what's gone on so far why we're talking about him the day yeah so I met him on Instagram actually he DMed me and said

he was coming to Nashville and would love to take me out and I was like I gotta say yes like I can't turn another one down so I said yes and I honestly didn't expect much out of it because he doesn't live in Nashville and yeah I just I was like I'm just going to go on this date have fun whatever and then I actually really ended up liking him and we hit it off great and then he was like I want to see you

do you want to come out to Boston and I was like sure so now I'm in Boston for the weekend. are okay there's so much i want to ask you first off instagram is a great way to meet somebody that's how my wife and i met so you never know you never know but before i like get too excited just about all the questions that i want to ask you i let's take it slow so tell us about him as a person what does you look like how old is he what industry is he in how did he find you all those things yeah i honestly don't know how he found me but we do have like a couple of mutual friends that we figured out um later on but he's definitely my type he has dark hair he's tall he plays hockey he's not like a professional hockey player but he like plays in a league um super athletic

and he honestly i hope he never listens to this but like going into the date he like is on Instagram obviously and he posts like days in life or whatever and so I was like I don't know like I really didn't have high hopes and then like he told me he works for this startup and it's with like like when women find out they have breast cancer basically like they help support them like financially I need to ask more about it but like something along those lines and I'm like oh my gosh you're like actually like a really cool like good human um so yeah I mean I just I really didn't expect anything out of this date and then now here I am. The nerves, you know, that first, you know, travel date, that first time that you give up

a weekend of your life at home to go see somebody, you only do it when you are interested and you've admitted that you're interested. But how are the butterflies? Honestly, like, pretty good. I thought I would be more. I was definitely nervous yesterday, like, he picked me up from the airport and I was like oh my god like I'm literally in Boston right now like what the heck am I doing um so I was definitely like what I'm with like it's just very easy and it's never been like awkward like there's no awkward pauses ever like we just like definitely like we're both yappers for sure yeah so we just like yap yep yep yep and just like my ADHD brain is just like all over the place so we're just talking about everything under the sun and it's yeah it's great conversation's great so butter flies in the beginning but then like Now that I'm here, I'm like, it's just fun. What is, what's the plans while you're there? Obviously, I mean, you're there for a few days probably, right? Yeah.

So we're going, we're walking around Seaport, I think is the area. We're walking around there today. He works into like one. So after he gets off work, we're going to do that. And then we have dinner tonight. And then tomorrow we're going to Salem, which do you want to know something so funny, Ben? Yeah. So I don't know why I thought this.

when he asked me to come there, he was like, have you ever been to Salem? Or come here? He was like, have you ever been to Salem? And I'm like, no. And he was like, well, we could do that. And for some reason I thought he meant like the whole weekend in Salem. So I was like, I was like telling my mom, I'm like, mom, like, I don't even know what we're going to do in Salem for three days. Like, I was like kind of like tweaking out a little bit because it's like, you know, witchy and like all this stuff.

I'm like, I have no idea what we're going to do. But we're just going for a couple hours tomorrow. And then we're going to dinner tomorrow night. and he, his cousin and his girlfriend are going to meet up with us. Oh my goodness. I know. But it's like, I feel like they're like just really good friends, you know? It's not like meeting and the family.

Yeah. Or anything crazy. It's, okay, there's two ways to look at it. Do you want my input on this? Yes. Yes, I do. Okay. I think as a guy, you, when you're very excited about somebody, even if it's early,

like just early on, fun, no pressure, like, no, like, it's not super intense yet I think it's a really good sign in an appropriate way to be excited to like introduce her to friends you know and I think let's look at these people as friends not family

but that's a big deal I think you should just take it as like a doesn't mean there's pressure on it. It just means like hey he's he's excited for me to introduce like meet people yeah I think it's a good sign no for sure I know he when he told me that I was like I hope that's not weird I'm like

No, I was like, I think that's great. Like, I would love, because I think, like, meeting people that you have, like, in your circle, like, you learn a lot about the person that you're also, like, getting to know, too, you know. No, 100%. Yeah. I'm excited. I think it'll be fun. And then I leave Sunday.

So those two days. It's going to be, it's going to be great. I think Salem will be super interesting outside of Boston is nothing but beautiful. Massachusetts itself is a gorgeous, very romantic state. maybe he planned this just perfectly. I know. I know. And I told him like with Salem,

I was like, just so you know, like I'm a scurdy cat. Like I don't do well with this kind of stuff. And I, he's like, yeah, me too.

We're screwed. I'm like how perfect. You hold me. I hold you. Right. Literally. Obviously, because of your background

and my background, we have to ask. Has he ever been on reality television and did he know you from the show at all? No. He hasn't been on TV. And then he said he's like never really watched it. So no. I mean, so how did he know about you? You don't know that, right? Yeah. No. I think it was just because, you know, on Instagram, like the Explorer, I'm sure I just like came up on there or something. You matched his algorithm?

Yeah. Goodness. I have no idea how it came up. Oh my goodness. That's fun. I mean, yeah, it's not that far off from my story. But it's, uh, Yeah, that's goodness, today's world is wild. Literally insane. I know, but at least it was a hinge. Yeah, it's a good point. And he brought you out to Boston.

You know, I think there are really good, so far I'm hearing this, and like there's really good signs here. Like it feels like very fun and healthy. You guys live in two different places. He made the effort to ask you to come out. He has a weekend plan for you. I think all of these are good signs because here's what else could happen. He could ask you to come to Boston.

and you would have said yes because you were interested in the first date he could have had you out there and like had no plans and been like hey you know it sounds really nice Mercedes like movie nights in my apartment and let's just like lounge in the couch which again at some point in your life are all you look forward to really however right now you know first date stuff you want to get out and about you don't want to have the pressure of being one-on-one all weekend you know so this is good so far. I'm really excited for this. You did, I heard you've referred to this guy. I really hope he doesn't listen to this either. On your, on the first like interaction, you told us it was a practice date. Like this was just something you're doing for practice. Yes. I did say that.

I literally said yes because I'm like, oh, it's a practice date. Like this is perfect. He doesn't live in Nashville. Like it's, yeah, it's fine. And now I actually. like the dude so goodness funny how that works yeah yeah that's kind of great do you think at some point he would come on here and just chat with like me one-on-one i don't know maybe i don't know i mean i told him that i'm doing this but like he definitely doesn't know i'm talking about him right no i told him i had a meeting i was like yeah i have a meeting at 1130 you do have a meeting at 1130 you just have a meeting about him i yeah exactly let's hope he doesn't listen to But if he does, we're going to keep this good and positive.

All I know is what I've been told, and that's a half-truth is a whole lie. For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved. until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. I'm telling you, we know Quincy Kilder, we know. A story that law enforcement used to convict six people, and that got the citizen investigator on national TV. Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran. My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, producer,

And I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find. I did not know her and I did not kill her. Or rape or burn or any of that other stuff that y'all said. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I poured gas on her. From Lava for Good, this is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame. America, y'all better work the hell up.

Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County in the Bone Valley feed on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of heavyweight, I help a centenarian mend a broken heart. How can a 101-year-old woman fall in love again? And I help a man atone for an armed robbery he committed at 14 years old. And so I pointed the gun at him and said, this isn't a joke.

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Listen to Heavyweight on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with the one, the only, Cardi B. My marriage, I felt the love dying. I was crying every day. I felt in the deepest depression

that I had ever had. How do you think you're misunderstood? I'm not this evil, mean person that people think that I am. I'm too compassionate. I have sympathy for that my man. You put so much heart and soul into your work? What's the hardest part for you to take that criticism?

This shit was not given to me I worked my ass off for me Even when I was a stripper I'm gonna be the best pole dancer in here When was the moment you felt I did it I still to this day don't feel comfortable I fight every day to keep this level of success Because people want to take it from you so bad

Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty On the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts I started trying to get pregnant about four years ago now. We're getting a little bit older and it just kind of felt like the window could be closing.

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Listen to IVF disrupted, the Kind Body story, starting September 19 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A couple like rapid fire questions from the listeners out there on a scale of one to ten. How is the flirting? Um, a solid 8.5. No, okay, nine. Nine. Have you guys kissed yet? Yes.

Okay. That's all right. Yes. You're like, are you blushing because it was so special? or are you blushing because you're embarrassed? No, I'm not embarrassed. I don't know. I just think I really like him.

And it's like weird for me. I don't know. I haven't liked anyone in like two years. Sure. Sure. Lean into it. How fun with it, if anything. You never know where these go.

And there's a lot of like things from the here to, you know, whatever stage is next. But just enjoy it. It is fun to like have those. butterflies the excitement the you know the first kiss those types of things that's just a really fun season of life yeah no i definitely forgot like how fun it is like i'm like dang why have i not dated in two years like this is fun yeah well you uh you've had to find your person in boston you live in nashville long distance dating i remember when we talked early on like you are you do enjoy your quality time. You enjoy being around the person that you like. How are you thinking about

this as you maybe start dating somebody a plane flight away? Yeah, I don't know. It's definitely tough. But I think like if I, I mean, obviously I couldn't do it for like a really long time. Like I think like a year max probably and then I'd like want to be in the same city obviously, especially because I don't know. If I was like 23, it'd be different. But I'm 27. So it's like, like, what's the point if, like, we're not even going to be near each other? But I don't know. I'm open to it. I mean, I think, like, thank God for FaceTime and, like, calls, you know,

because that makes you feel like you, like, you know, actually have interactions. So, and, like, last, like, I saw him a month ago in Nashville, probably. It was, like, a month ago or maybe three weeks. And we talked every day and it was fine. And it, like, built excitement for, like, the next time you see them, too. So. It's, it's fun, you know, obviously I was talking about my, story and my dating experience with Jessica, we spent a long time, long distance. And the phone calls

and the FaceTime's were amazing. We got to know each other really well because we could just talk. Like there was nothing else to do. And I'm not a big phone talker. We really like in our marriage, we barely talk on the phone. Um, it's just not something I, I just don't enjoy it that much. I kind of get like distracted or whatever. But when we were dating, we were talking a lot on the phone And we had two rules after this became after our second kind of travel trip to see each other. At that point, we knew at like something serious was it was either going to be the best thing that ever happened to me or the hardest was kind of like my mindset. And so we had two rules for long distance dating. One, we could not leave each other and express sadness, which is really hard.

We make the assumption that we're both very sad to say goodbye each other. but I had a friend who dated long distance with somebody and what destroyed their relationship was every time one would leave the day even before, two days before they would start talking about it, oh, I'm so sad, I'm just going to miss you so much.

And then there would be so all these tears. And it felt like every weekend, instead of just being this joyful time together, it became burdened with sadness. Yeah, like, oh, we have to leave each other again. Like, this is happening again. Yeah. So we just said, no.

We know each other is sad, but we're going to leave and say, hey, I'm excited to see you again. This is going to be great. The other rule was we never left each other without at least having another date planned where we'd see each other again. Even if that date was a month and a half out, we always had something to look forward to. It helped keep things fresh.

It helped keep us intentional on going to see each other. So we always had another date planned. I'm not saying you implement this now. But at some point, I mean, this was early for us. This was like two weekends in. we were like, no, I like you. I want to pursue this thing. Let's like figure out how to do it well.

Yeah. How long were you guys long distance? A lot longer we should have been. A year and a half. Now some of that was the pandemic. Some of that was like, you know, just like, yeah, really the pandemic and some travel stuff. But a year and a half, we didn't live in the same city. Jessica moved out here.

I think it was like three weeks before we got married. Oh my goodness. before you got married? Yeah, yeah. Dang. That's crazy. It was a long haul. Now, I would never take that season back because it was full of excitement.

It was full of butterflies. I remember the plane flight and just being so excited but also so nervous at times. And it just became a very special season to look back on. Yeah. Okay, back to you. That's my advice for long distance. We're not quite there yet. I don't feel like.

But at some point, you might know. And when you know, goodness, you know, it hits you in the face and it's the most beautiful thing. The final question I really have for you is, and please expound on this as much as you feel comfortable, what are your hopes for this weekend? You're obviously there. You're obviously getting ready to kind of start a couple days together. What's your perfect outcome?

Perfect outcome would be just like getting to know him a lot more obviously and getting to explore Boston and then hopefully like yeah planning another trip seeing each other again and like keeping what we have going like I don't like I don't know like I just don't want it to like fizzle out after this because I feel like we've been talking every day but I'm like is it because I'm like is it because we had this like planned like i hope that like something else is planned after this you know yeah i mean i think those are great great day conversations um like really good conversations to have at some point uh and i think when i'm hearing from him knowing a guy's perspective at this point in time he is very interested in seeing you again he wouldn't have done this i don't think unless yeah and he still had now. That's another thing. I feel like he's, like, actually, like, courting me. Like, and

it's never, even, like, with my exes, like, it's never been like this before. Like, even, like, on our first date, he was like, okay, yep, I have this reservation, like, I'll see you there. Like, I don't know. He just, like, has plans, and he, like, and he's always complimenting me.

He's just, like, I don't know. I've just never had a guy, like, treat me like this, which kind of sounds sad. But it's just, like, I don't know. But he's also like the first, like, old, not older. He's like 31, but like maybe it's because he kind of has a shit together. So he's more inclined to treat women, right? I don't know.

Yeah, you kind of hit your 30s and you're like, hey, I'm tired and I'm done with what I did in the 20s. And now I really want to find somebody and maybe it's just good timing. I mean, I'm 36 now, but I got married about the age he is. And I was so ready. Like so excited for us. Still am, but like I was that dating in my 20s thing was far, far gone from my life. So maybe he's just not a little boy.

Maybe he's a man. Yeah, true. We love a man. We love a man. We love a man. This is awesome. This is super fun to hear. Now, I think this is the steps forward for us here

because obviously this wasn't a date we set up. So I'm going to say some things and you tell me if you like the ideas or not. Okay. Okay. If this all goes well this weekend, have a blast, we still obviously want a recap and a rundown, good or bad. Mm-hmm. We're hoping good.

If it goes well, I think that we hear famously available would and want to, if you're up for it, kind of cover your next date, especially like a dinner date. Like, we would love to cover that for you and just say, hey, this was fun. Like, thanks for joining us. And we are, we're going to pay for a night out for the two of you. hopefully something fun. Because we need to get involved somehow. Yeah, for sure. Even if it's not breathing down your neck.

Or I could sit behind you at dinner and just ask questions. And if it goes really well, I think it would be really fun to have him on here at some point without you. Yeah. And I can ask him all the good questions about what he likes about you. Now, if it doesn't go well, I don't really want to talk to him. Right. But if it does go well, we would love to have him on here. just to kind of even explain to him what this was and why we chose you and how great you are

and that we're excited that the two of you are going to go off and keep dating yeah no i think he would totally be open to it he's like literally can talk to anyone like he's so cool so he would definitely be up for it awesome yeah mercedes you have a big weekend ahead of you just have fun with it be excited for you are a tremendous human uh so anybody's lucky to spend a few days with you and you should know that. Also, you should know that he had an out. He could have canceled your flight day before you flew out there and said, Haddus, don't think this is going to work.

And he didn't. And so get the ideas in your head that maybe you were just talking because you had this plan. No, he could have asked you not to come. And he didn't. He wants you there. So just live in the spirit of he wants you there. Okay.

Perfect. Thanks for the advice. Appreciate it. You don't need it. You're going to do great. Have fun. Rock. in Roman Boston. Have fun in Salem too.

I'm interested to hear what you think of it. And Mercedes, tell this man, hello. This man. I will. Thanks for coming on. We appreciate you. All right. Bye. This has been famously available.

Until next time, I've been Ben. ancient. Still using yesterday's tech upgrade to the thinkpad X1 carbon, ultra-light, ultra-powerful and built for serious productivity with Intel core ultra-processors blazing speed and AI-powered performance. It keeps up with your business,

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The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved for years, until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And to binge the entire season ad free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with the one, the only, Cardi B.

My marriage, I felt the love dying. I was crying every day. I felt in the deepest depression that I had ever had. This shit was not given to me. I worked my ass off for me. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Chetty on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Introducing IVF disrupted, the Kind Body story,

a podcast about a company that promised to revolutionize fertility care. It grew like a tech startup, While Kind Body did help women start families, it also left behind a stream of disillusioned and angry patience. You think you're finally like in the right hands. You're just not. Listen to IVF Disrupted, the Kind Body Story on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.