The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - S21, #3: Blake vs. Whaboom, Ben’s Break-Up and “Awkward Ashley"

Episode Date: June 6, 2017

Ben and Ashley do a dramatic re-enactment of the Blake vs. Whaboom blowout. Ben goes deeper into his Instagram Post about his break-up with Lauren. First kiss stories get revealed. Plus, Chris “Cupcake” Strandburg continues to send Ashley mixed messages. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast with IHart Radio. Welcome to the Almost Famous Podcast, Season 1, Episode 3. I'm Ben. And I'm Ashley I. We are excited to join you today. Ashley has been running late. I have been sitting in the studio now for about an hour. Ashley, what in the heck have you been doing?

Oh my gosh. Okay. What was I doing? I got my hair like summary, but it's too light. And then my stylist sister, she, like, legit, loves to go to Sally and mix hair color. She's going to have to darken in a couple shades. Ashley, you seem to be fretting about this. It almost seems like you have a hot date tonight.

That I don't want you to speak of yet because we're going to talk about it later. Okay. But as you were getting your hair done, I want to talk about what I did last week or the last couple days. I went to the Dodger game with the host of the Bachelor and Bachelorette, Chris Harrison. in between our studio times here and Chris is admittedly a huge fan of this podcast. He loves it and he loves the dynamic of you and I together

but I want to mention something here because Chris is obviously a professional host and so I wanted his professional opinion on how we were doing just in general. And so I not only want to think Chris but the thousands of other people, and I mean thousands, we have sat comfortably in the top 10 in iTunes rankings over the last two weeks, which we have to think the people that are listening for.

So thank you all. But also thank Chris and everybody that sent messages into me. Made us famous in the first place. Made us almost famous in the first place. Because they fixed something I was saying. Everybody knew it except me. And the word is, I don't, ick, especially. I guess you say it as especially.

Wait, Ben, I honestly didn't pick it up while we were sitting here, but I was told afterward that you say this. I'm like wondering, did you actually think there was an X in there? Or like your entire 28 years of life? Well, I'm going to give a free pass to anybody from here on out listening. They can send in any corrections they feel like I need to make with my, the way I say things because I know there are some certain words that I slip up on. And so if I'm going to get better as a podcaster, I don't know what we call ourselves,

I got to fix these things. So thank you for your input, Chris Harrison. Thank you for input, all the people that have written into the show. I love reading the tweets. They're so much fun. And I try to respond to everyone personally. So if you tweet us, tweet us about what we're talking about here on the podcast, I hope to get to talk to you.

Just be semi-kind. Oh, I don't know. You get hate. I don't get any hate. Ashley, I am so excited to talk you this week. We have a massive episode of The Bachelorette that happened this week. And I know that, you know, I can get fired up about this stuff. I know personally, as I watched the show, my first reaction is, was it this bad when I was on it?

And I want to hear your opinion. I want to hear your just kind of rundown of this week's Bachelorette. And then I have a couple of things that I've written out that I want to point out and speak to because my mind is becoming blown by the things happening. Yeah, you're not a fan right now, huh? I couldn't call, I mean, I'm, no, I think that is exactly what I am. I think I am becoming the biggest fan that I didn't necessarily want to become. That's so funny. So I actually feel myself getting more invested in this season than I have in a long time.

and when I say a long time, I think probably going back to your season, Jojo's season didn't really feel that one, and then Knicks either, and now here we are, and I'm really removed from it. You know, both you and I don't know, Rachel, and I wonder if that's why I like it more, because, like, I'm watching it like a fan, and I'm not watching it like a friend. And it's just been such a huge train wreck in such good TV to me,

and I'm not even looking, I have, like, no personal investment in it. So if you want to go down like the list of really crazy things that happen this week, we have to definitely start with the fight between Blake and Woboom, Lucas. I mean, it's, it was literally, I have, I have my notes written in front of me. I wrote down, it's like two children yelling at each other, but we're watching two grown men. They were not only like mocking each other. At one point, I saw Blake in the background, like acting out like who he thought Lucas or Wabom was. Like, he was, like, doing some little dance calling him a clown.

I see a script right here. Do you want to recreate the fight right now? Yeah, Ashley, I'm going to play Blake because he got on my nerves even more than Lucas. Oh, yeah. Blake is way worse than Lucas. I said in my Cosmo article, it's like, I would much rather make out with Lucas than Blake. We could probably make that happen. Ew, no.

Okay, so let's start. Let's skip down a little bit. Let's start at the, when you ask me, why? Why am I here? Okay. Why am I here? Okay. Why am I here?

Real quick. For everybody listening, this is the conversation between Luke, Lucas, and Blake on this week's episode of The Bachelorette. They got in a massive fight if you haven't seen it yet. Okay. Okay. Why am I here? You're here to be on blank TV.

And why is that? Because you want to be a comedian. You're a washed up joke. I can't help but feel that you weren't here. And I would have to be a real shot at getting to know Rachel. But because you were busy being, wabooming, and making a joke out of this experience, I'm going to go home. You win, Lucas.

Booboom. The thing is, it's like, not about winning. It's about the world, brother. It's about the world. And you have no idea what the world needs. This is, by the way, time out. This is my favorite. part.

You're the Wabom clown, and I'm the nice gentleman. Go back to your protein shakes, go back to your steroids. I'm just going to let you speak for yourself. I know what funny is!

Waka Wama Boom! Pie in your face, waka, waka, fart joke. If someone said, how would you summarize Lucas in one word? And I feel like this is a compliment to Lucas. I would say, well, boom. Okay, let's stop here.

So this is what we got. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. So, as I felt a little bit weird reading through this, okay? And I have the words in front of me. For this to be an actual grown man fight is absolutely ridiculous. I mean, at one point, let me just reread this

slowly to everybody out there so they can hear this. Waka, waka, waboom. pie in your face, waka, waka, fart joke. If someone said how you would summarize Lucas in one word, I would say, well, boom. That is Blake's comment.

Now, I'm not going to question Blake's intelligence. I don't know the man. I've never met the man. But I would have to believe that if he read back through this conversation, his takeaway might be, I'm a little bit better than this. I'm just a little bit.

Might be. But you know what's so. crazy is that he keeps getting on Lucas about wanting to be on TV and wanting to be famous when not only is he also on The Bachelorette, but apparently for the right reasons, because it's a whole other conversation we can have is like, what are the right reasons? But then this is his second TV show too, because he was on the other TV show with Woboom. What show was that? Yes, you guys didn't know this. They know each other because they were on another like Wii TV or Lifetime Reality Show

about, it's called Exiled. That's what he was trying to blame it on when really it was, that's true too. They do live in the same neighborhood but they know each other originally from this other reality show, which of course Blake

isn't bringing up because then it would just get thrown back in his face that he's on his second TV show too. Definitely. Well, okay, that's a great point then. So I would say based on my fan opinion, neither of them are there for the right reasons, right? Okay, so let's talk about a guy who was there, in my opinion, for the right reasons.

And I honestly was looking for that heart connection with somebody, somebody that was really going to cheer for in this season. And I found a guy named Frederick, okay? Frederick, just to give a little backstory. Are we going to be really formal now with Frederick? Let's just call him Fred. Okay. So Fred knew Rachel growing up through elementary school.

And Rachel's always continued to, in this season, go back to how Fred was a wild child, okay, troublemaker. And Fred has been trying to prove to her, hey, I'm actually a man now. You know, I'm here because I've always been attracted to you. Growing up, I was not the man that was able to date you. I think he said, too good for me. But now I believe that I could be a man that would compliment your life. And so I fell in love with Fred last night. Fred was the sweetest sweetest thing ever

And seeing her not reciprocate those feelings Was one of the most heartbreaking things I've seen on the show in a long time It really was And speaking of first kiss This is maybe why I fell in love with Fred last night Okay Yeah

Fred kind of was smooth in my opinion And I think she Rachel was thrown off Because Fred asked her If he could kiss her, right? Right And I relate to that because I have my first kiss story that is somewhat similar. I love first kiss stories.

So let me tell you about this. Sit back, relax. Let me tell you a story. Little Ben was in sixth grade dating a young lady named, ironically, Lauren Piper. No way. Okay. Yeah, okay. So Lauren Piper and I went to a movie.

It was our first time allowed to go to the movies. I knew going into that I wanted to kiss Lauren. Okay, so I looked at her And I put my arm around her And I was trying to find the right angle Or the right way I didn't know if I should You know, move her face towards me

If I should tap her on the shoulder So she turns and looks at me and then kiss her I was having a hard time Adjusting to the right angle Especially sitting in movie seats Which, you know, back then weren't comfortable We didn't have the lounge chairs So what I decided to do

Was like what every Romantic does like Fred does I looked at Lauren and I said Lauren I would love to kiss you right now but I can't figure out how Oh my God

Wait this is in the middle of the movie theater In the middle of the movie theater But guess what happened Ashley What? We kissed So who was winning then? You were Exactly so it works

And Fred got his kiss even though minutes later Rachel breaks his poor heart and that's why I was pulling for Fred I said this guy right here knows what he wants he doesn't exactly know how to get it so he's just going to verbalize how he's feeling

which I find intriguing okay I agree but I also want to talk more about your first kiss and like asking for kisses because Rachel didn't like that at all but I think it's cute I mean I think it's cute depending on the guy

Of course, like, if that was Blake asking for a kiss, I'd probably say no, and that would be, you know, a great way to say no. But actually, in paradise, Wells asked me, and they didn't edit that in. And I thought it was the cutest thing in the entire world. We were asking each other, like, random questions, like, what's your favorite band? What's your favorite food and all that? And I go, do you have any more questions for me? And he said, can I kiss you? I know who Wells is.

And I want to hear more about Wells and the kiss that you had. But first, can I tell you a little something of an amazing experience I had with a company called Zeal? So, Ashley, Zeal is this amazing massage company where they... Oh, Ben, I know all about Zeal. I've had many Zeal massagers in the past couple months. Are you serious? No, yeah. I just had my first.

Ashley, how incredible is it? It's so good. I actually became a member and I have a bed, you know, like a massage table that was delivered to my house where so now they don't even have to drag it up the stairs they can just come and massage me okay you're fully invested which i plan on doing um if anybody out there wants to get started using zeal um you can get $25 off your first massage by using the promo code almost famous um when you check out of the zeal app so i i'm telling you ashley and i aren't just saying this to say it we are fully invested to have somebody show up to your house and give you a massage it's so much more

comfortable that's zeal.com zeeel.com or just download the zeal app don't forget the promo code almost famous i'm all invested in zeal you all should be too but first i'm invested in this story about well so well steals your heart right actually well yeah but he still doesn't have your heart correct okay well so this is something that i actually wanted to talk about um i recently like said something like oh i totally make out with wells but next time i see him and then both my friends were like what are you talking about i didn't know you were still into him i was like well i'm necessarily like into him like i'm not thinking about him on the rag i'm but i'm just thinking like yeah when i'm next to i'm very attracted to him i'm like kind of still into it when i'm like

in his presence is this a thing like is this weird is this weird that you're that you're still attracted to him no like in general like you can be like technically over someone would still want to hook up with them. How many kisses in your life, Ben, do you regret? Because I have a list of 24 guys. I know I have a kiss count. I literally have a kiss count because most people count the number

of people they slept with. I count the number of people have kissed. Anyway, was there any regretful kisses in your past? Because I think you only have one or two. No. I mean, a kiss is a kiss, right? Like, you know, I've kissed my pillow. I've kissed balloons. Did you

practice before you kiss that girl in the TV theater? Of, I, yes, of course. You're not just going to go into something, you know, unpractice. I had to make sure that I knew the right angles, the right lip-to-lip ratio, the right, is their tongue, is there not? Like, I needed to feel it out of it. Was their tongue on your first kiss?

I can't, honestly, I can't remember. I'm sure, I'm sure there's nothing about that first kiss that would have been something you would have taken away and be like, eh, he did all right. It was probably hard for all of us involved. My first kiss was a nightmare. I, well, I mean, we're on the topic. If you can give us a first kiss story, I would love to hear it because we're going to move into one of the most frustrating parts of The Bachelorette this week. And so to lighten things up a little bit before we entering that, let's hear about it.

Okay. I was underage in a New York City burlesque club. You could end it there. Yeah, my friend owned it. I was like hanging out with a lot of like cool New York hipster guys. for some weird reason when I was, yeah, 19. My first kiss is at 19. It's sad.

Anyway, this guy was friends with the owner, and he was long-haired, skinny rocker guy. I was dancing with him, and then he literally, no lip, just tongue in my mouth. All just hung. And then I went home and cried, and not going to lie. I was hugging my Zach.

Fran link larkandall when I got back to the hotel actually there's so much to that story to unpack one of them is when I would picture a rocker kissing somebody like it's not weird to me that it was only tongue because I picture like the ACDC full tongue out yeah you know yeah yeah and I was like this is what it's like I just can't believe I just wasted my first kiss on this maybe that's why I've been holding out on the virginity thing because I'm like I don't want it to be anything like my first kiss yeah I mean if your first kisses is that aggressive um I would just be cautioned and how you move forward in life and the decisions you make.

So the final part about The Bachelorette this week that stood out to me and you and I had talked about it. And so I wanted to bring it up because you and I both are just, I felt like angry and I don't think either of us really get angry that often or that easy.

And our anger kind of comes around the idea of Lee. And there's some news about Lee that's came out this week that isn't exactly attractive for him or good for him. It's actually terrible for him. and one that I don't personally respect. But personal opinions aside,

on this week's Bachelorette, he, to not be judgmental, because we've all gotten judged to show. You can be judgmental towards life. He was terrible, right? Yeah, I was watching with my friend, and she didn't seem to see the evil that I saw. Like, I saw, like, I, there's Bachelor villains in the franchise,

but they're all real sweetheart. in real life. They're all actually fun, nice people. Joe Bailey, Olivia. Well, if you want to call Karinit, if you want to call Chad, you know, people think Chad's scary. Chad's actually kind of a teddy bear if you get to know him. This man Lee has like the devil in his soul. That's a lot. But yeah, okay, continue. I got really heated over watching him. Yeah, I know you did. I heard it. His antagonist, like the way he antagonized these guys and the way it was so on purpose and just looking into his eyes made me very, like, see a lot of badness. Evil. Evil. I mean, there was a statement he made in the previews last night that said, when I see somebody angry and I smile at them and they get even angrier, I think his words were somewhere around the round. And I don't want to quote him exactly because I don't know him for sure. but it says something like, I get joy in that. Right.

And to me, and to me that just made, made my skin crawl. And I know it made yours crawl because we both, you know, we're talking about this week's podcast and what we were going to talk about. And we both said, this guy right here is one we need to watch out for from here and out. Right. Okay. So the other villains in the franchise, there's usually a sense of humor along that comes with it. They're like, oh, they're putting scary music behind it and they're saying something dumb.

This was just, this, there was nothing funny about, about his behavior nothing you're actually friends with one of the most famous villains from the franchise right uh who would that be karen oh yeah karen i was going to say they're olivia too i mean i like i really like the both of them and neither one of them are actually villains yeah but i think on their respective seasons right they were they were that was kind of the the character that they played to be honest i think taylor was really the villain and this season taylor from next season, the one that Curran had the two-on-one with, she kind of, they kind of

flipped switch, you know, the flip the switch on us. Yeah, so, I mean, we have Corinne who was on a Nick's season who, you're good friends with, who was arguably the villain along with Taylor, and then Olivia, who was on my season of The Bachelor who I think played the villain

or just maybe the woman who was... Misunderstood. Misunderstood. So as we talk about Corinne, she's actually going to be in paradise this year. And we have a caller who, I think we could ask her, but I think she found love in paradise. Hey, Lace, are you out there? I'm here. Hey, Lace. Hello, Lace. So Lace was on my season of The Bachelor. Lace is someone that I've gotten to know outside of the show.

She is a fellow Denverite. And Lace came back from Paradise this year with a man on her arm. Right. Correct? Yes. Lace. I want to know that that was really love right there. Or was it Lust? I think it was Lutz. There's definitely Lus. What's a difference? Okay. So I think Lust is like sexually and you just kind of like, you have this fantasy of what you want and you want to like, you want it to work. You think this guy's attractive. You think you're in love. It's almost so forced. And then, um, first of Lus. I found love right now. Like, now I'm really in love.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. So you're in love right now, but not with Grant, who was on Jojo's season of The Bachelorette, who you came back from Paradise with, with somebody else? And that was lust. Yes, that was lust. Okay, so with Grant it was lust, but now you're in love. Tell us about this guy. Yeah, I ironically found him on Bumble.

It was a weird story, but we just talked for like two months, and then we finally met, and it's the rest of history. That's it. walked for two months. What made you take so long before meeting in real life? It's kind of funny because remember how you had your, Ashley, you had your event in L.A.

the beginning of January. Right. Well, I had like constant travel. So I couldn't see him. He was busy with work. We were just text and we both were just really crappy at texting each other back. And then finally he sent me a text and it was really funny. And I'm like,

why have I not met this guy yet? And so he finally went on our first date and, yeah. How long have you been together? We're our past four months now Did you ever get worried that maybe Grant would go back on the show And would you care if he did? No, I could pray less. I hope you finds love.

Oh, wonderful. Well, Lace, I'm excited to see you next week in San Francisco. We have an event, and it's sponsored by Zeal. You know the Zeal massages are so good, right? I just got my massage yesterday, and I have to tell you that might have been one of the best massages I've ever had. It's so good. Are you serious?

So, Lace, I was just talking to Ashley about this. Last night, I had my first zeal massage. It was absolutely incredible. I got on the app. Wait, where did you have it at? Where'd you have it been? My living room. Perfect.

You guys were both in Denver having massages. How many miles apart? The zeal girl goes, yeah, there's someone else within your group that's having one, too. I'm like, oh, I can't imagine who that is. Yeah. I hope that point you pictured me in my living room

with a huge smile on my face laying on a bed and some really soft music. It was absolutely incredible. And for any of the listeners out there, as we mentioned earlier, that wants to give Zeele a try,

we have an awesome deal. You can sign up for Zeele's massage membership and get 20% off all full massages plus a free, and I mean that, a free massage table

and sheet set, which Ashley mentioned she has in her house, that's a $380 value, and you could get it for free. That massage table alone is a big deal. I know. And just in case somebody's out there just absolutely dying to get a hold of Zeal, and they can't quite understand what we're saying,

because as I've heard over the last couple weeks, sometimes I say words incorrectly, it's Zeal, Z-E-E-L. Okay, so download the app. I'll go to zeal.com. And, Lace, I can't wait to see you in a couple of days. No, it's going to be so fun, Ashley. All right, Susan. Thanks for calling in.

All right. Bye. Bye, thanks. Bye. So we just got up to phone with Lace, who has been to Paradise, who's walked away from Paradise with a partner that she just described to us as not love, but lust. And on the line we have Chase, who we all hope is going to Paradise. Chase, can you confirm that you're going to Paradise for us? Hey, Ben, what's up, man?

What's up, buddy? I can't. You can't? I can not confirm Paradise. Chase is still deciding, you know. We all know how this franchise works. They do everything last, last minute. Right.

So you may or may not be flying to Mexico tomorrow. Well, I'm definitely not flying to Mexico tomorrow. I can confirm that. Okay, either way, Chase, from a fan's point of view, we all hope you're going to Paradise. You don't have to tell us if you are or not, even though, you know, your good buddy Luke mentioned that he wasn't going to Paradise on this podcast. But no matter what, if you're not going to Paradise, Chase, we have some things I want to check up with you on.

You're running a company now called Leisure Lettics, correct? Correct. How's that going? Correct. Yeah, Leisure Lex is going well. You know, it's definitely been a learning curve a little bit, but a lot of fun. I mean, we're just having a lot of fun with that. That's one of the bigger reasons that brought me out here to L.A.

And me and my partners are just selling some yoga pants, t-shirts, and flim-feets right now. Chase, I got to rip on you a little bit, right? You're, you're, you're, you're, you used to live in Denver. Uh, we, we've hung out a couple times here. Um, but, but I got, I got to know, okay? What in the heck was up with the butt pick with Robbie? I mean, I mean, honestly, like, I'm looking at that thing, and I'm thinking, how in the world did this pick even happen?

Like, did you look at your buddy and you just say like, hey, buddy, like, see you've been working out? Like, can we show that? this off a little bit or like it was just this all of a sudden like this this picture on instagram of you and robbie standing shortless like really threw me off i know well that's you know you're not pushing the limits a little bit and what are you doing out here but no we're in cuba obviously having a lot of fun the entire premise behind that trip was just kind of content creation so we were in front of the camera the whole time and you know at some point you just kind of

get a little weird I guess and so we just dumped our asses out for a minute and that's what that picture came from I think then we were just hanging out one day you know all the edits came through and that one gave us a big laugh and we were just kind of figured out why not

wait a second all the edits came through did you have a professional photographer taking pictures like that? Yeah it's Photoshop I knew it yeah I knew it well maybe not edits proof that's the same thing whatever, yeah, you know, it came, it came through on the email.

I don't know if it's edited or not. Chase, you had somebody there taking pictures of your butt. Correct. Interesting. You're very particular about what you put on social media. I can get super journalistic on you here, but I'm going to let you go on this. What made you decide that that was the one to post? You know, it was just the one that gave both Robbie and I a big laugh.

Yeah, as you mentioned, if you're not getting a little weird, what are you doing? Is Robbie going to Paradise? Robbie, he's already shipped out. Oh, so Robbie is already looking for love down south. I don't know if I'm supposed to share that information or not, but yeah, he's a... You can say. What's the worst that's going to happen? So who's Robbie looking at in Paradise? Who does he hope he mingles it with?

You know, he spoke a little bit about raisin. Obviously, there's a little bit of history there between me and Sarah. Wait, what? I don't know this history. Yeah, you got to explain the history. We know it, us friends, but the world doesn't. I actually have no clue what you're talking about. So please tell me.

I think, you know, Robbie and Sarah kind of met. Sarah Vendell, if you remember her from Nick's season. She was the runner-up, quote, quote, the one who ran up to him in sneakers when she did her limo entrance. there you go yeah you're good Sarah so yeah I mean they hung out quite a bit over the winter she lives out here

in L.A so they hung out a couple times you know what as soon as we moved out here I think it kind of fell apart a little bit but it'll be interesting to see how that plays out in paradise can we confirm that Sarah's there because

I don't think she's there yet I have a pretty good hang claim that she's going to be there. At least, I don't know if she's there yet. This is some good stuff. So I hope all the listeners out there hear this. Watch out for not only Chase to show up on the beach, but also for the Robbie Sarah connection that we would be seeing very soon in Bachelor in Paradise.

Chase, I want to tell you, I hope to see you there. I'm becoming a huge fan of The Bachelor and Bachelor and Bachelor and Paradise. When The Bachelor becomes a fan. Yeah. Like I'm actually a fan now. So, Chase, I know the ladies are going to be flotting over you and flocking at you. So just go down there. Have a good time, whenever that may be. But until then, good luck with leisureetics and good luck with everything going on in LA. And Chase, just bear in mind that there is a group thread with past guys that are in it and you and Robbie aren't in there. But the guys make fun of you up the wazoo. Just letting you know. That's fine. I mean, any PR. is good PR, right? Right.

Hey, thanks a lot, Chase. We appreciate it, buddy. Appreciate it. Thank you guys. Have a good day. Bye. Hold on a second. I have to, I had to say what I was going to say to him.

I cannot. I cannot with the butt picture because I'm going to rat him out. Should I rat him out? Why am I feeling feisty right now? Ben, should I rat him out? You know, we have to also be appreciative that he came on to our podcast. That's one. And this is why Betta and I make the perfect team here,

because I would talk too much and then he keeps me in line. If you have something you want to say to Chase, I recommend two things. One, is you can probably get his number. Two is in an even, I think a better idea, because as we talked about last week, your dating life isn't exactly going to plan. What does that have to do with texting Chase?

Let's talk about your dating history, because last week, we mentioned Chris Stranbert, and Chris has continued to confuse you since last week's episode, correct? Correct. Okay, catch us all up on that. All right, so let's see. We left off with that confrontation on the air, and that was really awkward,

and I have never been so embarrassed in very, very long time. Then I saw him two days later at Clever TV, which is where I do some hosting, and we did a little interview, and he continued to tell me that I was the prettiest girl he's ever seen in his life and asked the crew

he was like, is she not the prettiest person you've ever seen? And I'm like, this is ridiculous. Okay, so then get this. You guys, Chris is going to be super pissed that we're airing this. But then again,

he was probably in the wrong. He, the next day, it's his birthday. And I text him happy birthday. We go back and forth for a little bit. And this is after he was flirtatious the day before. Then about four hours after the initial birthday conversation is over, in which he tells

me that he wants to go on a hike with me this weekend, four hours later, he goes, hey, would you mind setting me up with some of your friends? And I was like, so that is him trying to really make it clear that he does not want to actually date me. And that is totally fine, but I also think that he could get that setup through one of his guy friends even through you because you know some of the girls that he wanted me to set him up with i i do and i and i and i chris is one of my good friends i think super highly of chris and i know that he's not doing anything here um intentionally uh really it seems very intentional but when but when i

talked to chris here recently he did mention that there might be something happening um this week uh with just the two of you or with a couple of people it's not just the two of us We're going to the new kids on the plot concert together, but it's definitely just his friends. Well, it sounds like it's just his friends. Oh, but I should also say that he's, like, texted me again saying something this week, like, as in two days ago, saying I'm falling in love with these pictures of you. And I'm like, what? He's laying it on thick and then pulling back fast. I like how, I like how thick he lays it on.

Like, I mean, oh, my gosh, these pictures of you. are so sexy. Yeah. And in the next moment he's texting you like, and by the way, can you set me up with your friends? It's so weird. And then that same day that he texted me the whole, like, I'm falling in love with these pictures of you thing,

he ended up, he told me he's like, you're prettier than Kim Kardashian. Like, you're so crazy. Ben, you know him probably way better than I do. And I know that he's not like a hookup guy. Like he's not looking for a hookup, right? No, no.

And like, the good thing is I'm not really invested in this. I'm just really mostly confused. Yeah. All right, to close out the podcast this week, we're going to take one last caller. She's been on the line now for a while with a question it looks like for me, one that she wants a little more explanation on, and I would love to give it to her. So I think we have Erica out there. Yeah, I saw, okay, so I saw your post, and I've always watched the show. And I really was, I mean, I was rooting for you and Lauren to stay together.

But I really think that you just speak, like, so well about all of this. Like, you really made sense of a situation that I think you were put in kind of a bad place and people weren't to being the kindest. And it was just, like, really nice to see being so real about it. Well, thanks, Erica. And for those who don't know, the post she's talking about as a post that I put on Instagram this week, that really came out of a place of a place of peace. And as Erica said, you know, we haven't talked a lot about it on the podcast, but Lauren and I have broken up.

And it's easy to speak very positively of my relationship with Lauren and of Lauren because of the woman she is and the place that we were at in our relationship. So that's not hard, right? That's easy. And I actually, in a sense, enjoy speaking highly of her because that's the only gift I can still give her. but the post came from a place that is you have a lot of judgment coming out of relationship and and I don't want to talk a lot about my relationship with Lauren that's not appropriate that's not right but what I will say is that when you really care about somebody and you really love somebody and that has to end for whatever reason even just

reasons that maybe either person can't really explain it's just just a feeling it has to end and you have to go your separate ways it hurts it hurts bad and when you have people continually putting that on you and saying things that not only hurt me but also hurt Lauren. I felt like it was time for me to make a post to say one thing. And what I said was this, you can judge me. You can judge Lauren. I can't stop that. But that won't affect me because I only have one thing I will be judged by. And that is my belief in a God above. And I will hold myself to that standard. I will hold myself to that standard through this podcast, through the work that I do outside of this podcast. And I will hold myself to that standard in relationships.

And so for anybody wanting to hurt me or to hurt Lauren or hurt anybody out there on social media, I wanted to communicate that you can do that, but know that I believe in something bigger than that. And so your words won't hurt. They'll just sting a little bit. And so thanks, Erica. I appreciate you're asking about it. I know. He's just wonderful. It's not, no, and that's not it either. You know, I get that like, you know, part of that was what we talked about being the perfect Ben, and that's not the case, is I fail often. I'm going to fail often. And as we continue to be vulnerable on a podcast like this, Ashley and I are going to continue to fail off. We're going to say things that people won't appreciate. I'm going to say

especially instead of especially, and I'm going to make a statement that will probably come off incorrectly at some point or I won't be as funny as people expect. And Ashley, won't be as funny as people expect, but we're trying. And we're doing this because not only do we enjoy doing it, but we also want to entertain you. And the you is the viewers and the listeners. So I want to be vulnerable. I want people to know who I am.

And part of that is making posts like that to just kind of let everybody take a reality check because your words can hurt somebody. and luckily they're not going to hurt me. So with that, this was the Ben and Ashley podcast, Almost Famous with IHeart Radio. We want to give a special thank you to Zeal. Please, please, please, if you love massages, and trust me, and I mean this, I needed a massage after the post this week

because of all the words being spewed at me and about me. so massage helped. So if you like massages and you like in-home massages, download the Zeal app or go to Zeal.com. It's Z-E-E-E-L.com. You can download that on the iPhone or Android app. And then make sure to click Add promo code at checkout to use our promo code for the show Almost Famous

and get $25 off your first in-home on-demand massage. I'm telling you it's worth it. You can just roll over to your couch, turn on the TV, and relax the rest of the night after a massage, and in your house. So thank you, everybody, for joining us today on the Ben and Ashley Almost Famous Podcast. We'll be with you again in a week.

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