The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Taylor Frankie Paul Breaks Her Silence

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

Former Bachelorette DeAnna reacts to Taylor Frankie Paul breaking her silence for the first time since domestic violence allegations. Plus, we speculate how Taylor will handle her upcoming GMA interview. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Without this group, I'm going to die. Listen to Cino's show on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is the Ben and Ashley I, Almost Famous Podcast with IHart Radio. Hey guys, Deanna here, and you're listening to Almost Famous, and we are popping on tonight to just kind of follow the news. And I'm here with my producer, Heather, because she doesn't sleep, she doesn't eat, she doesn't do anything. and she could not wait to dive in tonight because so much has transpired over the last few days in our headlines for our girl, Taylor, Frankie, Paul. Diana, not even the last few days in the last few hours.

I just keep hopping on here and there's more and more to talk about. It's absolutely crazy. I honestly, I can't keep up, Heather. When you text me tonight with new links, I honestly can't keep up. And I have felt a way about it since we recorded with Trista just like, I'm so sad. I'm so sad for this girl and her child and him too. You know what I mean? There's the connection because of The Bachelorette.

But it's just sad. It's just really sad. It's really sad. And I said this a couple of days ago to Ashley right after the season, the new season had premiered. I scarfed down six episodes in one night. And I said, you know, that I was crying, watching it at one point. You know, she was getting really emotional.

and she was talking about that she just wanted to be chosen. And that really hit me when I was watching it. And I was just like, girl, I think so many women have felt like that in different areas of their life, whether it's chosen by a partner, chosen by a family member, you know. And I think that it goes without saying, I mean, obviously here on this podcast, we've been doing Frankie Friday. Frankie Friday is not where we rip her down. It's where we build her up and we talk about her. You know, we have really been anticipating and looking forward to this season, probably me more than anybody on this show, just because I've watched this whole evolution. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's a bummer, but unfortunately, as much as people love a comeback story, they love a tear down even more.

And it's really hard to be watching it happening in real time. It's really, really hard. It's really hard. You want her to come to this side, right? ABC has this whole thing about the show that it's this whole glow-up and it's this fairy tale ending and it's this good show, this good wholesome show of people finding love. And I feel her on the part of just wanting to be chosen. Are you joking? I've searched for it my whole life. But it doesn't feel good to me. What is happening. It doesn't feel good the way things are being released. It doesn't feel good. Oh, man. I want to choose my words wisely here, but it doesn't feel good the way they're releasing things and making this woman the lead of a show and making her live through it over and over and over again. We just, you know, one of the clips that we just saw of her online, she sounds broken. She went to an event.

She showed face because she is trying to promote a show that she has done. And she sounds broken. I almost cried, Heather, listening to it because you can hear the pain in her voice when she's is speaking that it took all she had to get there that night. Like, man, I don't have to say, can you imagine? Because I can't. I've been there. I've been there.

And that's so hard. That's so hard. I think a lot of us can't relate to that aspect that you can with her about the having to be a public facing figure in a time where your personal life or everything around you feels like it's crashing down. But I think that we all can relate. on some certain level about when things are happening in our lives and we have to still show up for our jobs or we have to show up for our kids or people that rely on us. And it's rough. It's rough

to put your emotions and everything that you're feeling and thinking on the back burner. And for her, you know, she's having to do it on camera and she's having to do it in front of millions of people. And kind of what I was saying with Ben the other day is, you know, um, it's, It's one thing that she's already been on two shows basically at the same time. It's another to now be the center of a media blitz that's been happening since Sunday night and having to face all of that alone again. This is where, I mean, things, we're going to see the change. It's been confirmed.

She is going to be on Good Morning America tomorrow morning, which is Wednesday morning. We're taping this on Tuesday. And so we'll have to see what she says. and, you know, what the approach is with that. Personally, we'll get into some of the quotes from tonight from the media event. And I want to get your opinion. And obviously, I want to talk about some of the things I didn't hear in some of these quotes when I'm listening to it. But why don't we first start off with, you know, the direct quotes to People magazine where she broke her silence for the first time.

All right, Heather. I've read this People exclusive tonight. And I know you've read it too. So let's dive in here. Taylor Frankie Paul breaks silence after domestic violence investigation news. Honestly, just like my heart hurts to see it, to go through it, especially at this time. Paul told people exclusively. Just the timing is hard and it's a big deal.

I feel like every premiere that I've experienced, I've never enjoyed fully. So this is another one. It's extremely hard and it took everything to get me here today. like even just reading that Heather is just like devastating. Like just saying that like there's no way she showed up to this and is whole in that moment.

You know, the things that are going on, the things that are being posted in the press, the screenshots, just every bit of it and having to show face in an event where really she's right. This should be a joyful moment for her. She's one of the biggest

love dating shows in television on ABC. This should be a joyful moment for her. When I did this, I was over the moon and I was joyful and I was excited and that's not what this is for her today. And I'll keep going. It's just heavy. It's a heavy time and it's unfortunate. She continued. I'm struggling for sure. But also at the same time, I feel like if I don't show up, then I'm just giving these opportunities away and not enjoying what we've worked on. and something super exciting that's coming up. I just feel like it was the right thing to do, show up even though it's hard. That's, I mean, I hear some humility in what she is saying and putting one foot in front of the other.

And you know what? She's also under contract. She's got to be there. Exactly. I think that's, you know, the in-between that's not being said. But also, right, as somebody who has been sharing so openly about her mental, health and her mental health struggles. I think that this is a reminder to anybody that's listening right now that you have to listen to that voice first and foremost. You know what I mean? Something

I've noticed is, and I apologize if I haven't done too much of a deep dive on this, but I haven't seen any photos or videos from tonight. The audio that we listened to was a different outlet extra that did not show video, but used audio from their recording. So I'm wondering, if cameras were allowed in on this event? Well, so that's what I'm wondering. And I'm also wondering with the stuff, the changes that have taken place over the last, God, what is Tuesday, 48 hours,

I wonder how much they scaled down for this event. I wonder how many people actually came, showed up, and I wondered how much press they actually let be there. Well, having people there for the exclusive, is an extra. These are the top kind of news outlets that I know that the show probably has very strong relationships with.

Yeah, they have their contracts, yeah. Yeah, you're not going to probably see TMZ. You're not going to probably see, you know, maybe a reality TV blog or something like that. That's not, and when we listen to the extra audio, the questions were, I don't want to say easy, but they were light-ish, I want to say. My guess is ABCPR took a look at those questions and said,

you may ask this, not this, not this. You know what I mean? To hopefully, I can imagine they are, I know that they are all scrambling to kind of put a Band-Aid over this and really like crisis control. Like that's where they're at right now. Their show is launching in one week. And I know we talked about this on. Not even one week less than, yeah.

Sunday. I know we talked about this on another podcast, and I'm really struggling with, was there a plan to release it beforehand to dry and drive viewership? And listen, either way, I think, Heather, if the show airs, people will watch. They will want to know. Everyone loves the drama, unfortunately. And I think that they'll get the ratings. I do. I think that people will show up.

They'll watch one way or the other, whether they feel good about it or they feel bad about it. But I just have wondered over the last day or so how calculated this was. And if it was calculated, do they understand that it has backfired a bit? You know what I mean? That people are not responding well to this if that was the whole point and saving this and hoping to gear up towards her release. Or if it wasn't, it's just all really questionable to me. I mean, I think that there's no doubt that the media release being late,

Sunday night was a calculated move. Like there's no ifsands or butts about it that she just happened to walk one of the biggest carpets of her entire career. And this, you know, wasn't at the top of people's minds because they didn't know about it, you know? So I think that that was a very calculated move for sure. I think that they really, as the kids would say, fumbled. Yeah.

You know, when it came to her, I think that having the season in the can and having somebody who, for lack of a better term, is a loose canon, it does not make for a good equation. It almost makes you feel like the show in itself has no clue who it is anymore. You know what I mean? They're pulling someone from Mormon wives, and did they think that that chaos would match well in this scenario?

You know, it's, I think that they translate some viewers, but I don't know that all translate back and forth and watch the two shows, but it just makes you wonder, Was this their thinking, if they pulled some of that and made it into The Bachelorette? Was that going to revive their viewership? I don't know. What do you think? I think so.

When we see what Dancing with the Stars just had, having two cast members on that season and seeing, you know, the wild success and, you know, the numbers and everybody tuning into that, I think that they saw that. And they were like, yeah, we are on the right track with this decision. I think where they lost the plot was holding on to the season. Whether that was like discussed or who made that decision or why that decision had to be made, that was the bad decision. You've finished filming in December. You should not be airing it in March.

You should have been airing it in late January. And you should have started airing it while you were still editing the end of the season. And the reason for that is because of the nature of who she is and the nature of. and the nature of how the other show roles, which is that they're constantly filming and they're pumping out two seasons a year because there's so much going on in these girls' lives. So whoever made those decisions up top,

I think that's really where you start with the bad decision making. I think, listen, we could go back and forth all day long about if she should have even gotten the role because of her background and if she were a man, she wouldn't have gotten this blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've heard it, guys. It's not like I'm negating the serious. of that, but the decision was made, and they did bend the rules for her. And unfortunately, she bent back. She did not, you know, fold into a pretzel into this mold that they were,

I think, expecting. And I think that they just don't have the bandwidth to anticipate somebody like her, because in general, ABC does not make that kind of programming. And they don't deal with kinds of people like her who live a little bit more coloring outside the lines than a typical bachelorette. I think that's why the show works though, Heather. You know what I mean? That's why in the past it has worked. They have taken people who relatively, I mean, I know that the show has followed the rhythm of taken people from past seasons, but relatively no TV experience, not doing anything else, because they can mold them. Of course. You need the show. Right. They don't need you. Right. But this is the reverse. They need her. She doesn't need the show. And so it is where you have a big power

difference, right? We knew she was not going to play ball. We knew she was not going to be the quote unquote typical person. I think there's good and bad that comes with that, right? There's no denying that the show was completely stale on its last leg, no viewership. If everybody can remember, The Bachelorette was not picked up for another season after 10 trans, season. That means that nobody's watching, guys. I love your comments of like, I'm not going to watch this season. I'm not going to watch. Nobody's been watching. Let's just be super, super real. Nobody's been watching. And this is a jolt of energy that the show has not had in probably more than 10 years. I think that, you know, you can go with the adage of all press is good

press. I think in this situation, that's not the case. And I think that unless there's some major, major course correcting that happens in this GMA interview tomorrow morning, I don't know how to get the horse back on the track with this. I do agree with you that I think people are still going to tune in and watch. But we should talk about the fact that, you know, we did confirm in our last that Sineban had pulled out of not only The Bachelorette, but also Secret Lives and Mormon Wives as a sponsor, you know, it's usually the House of Cards with one pulls out, then they all start to pull out. So I think we should move over to this report coming from reality blurb, which says ABC is holding emergency talks regarding axing the Bachelorette after Taylor-Frank-Paul's DV allegations as first advertiser pulls out. man, there's so much there because, you know, if you're looking at it on both sides

of the street, Heather, let's say they air it. They say, any press is good press. Let's run with it. Let's tell this fairy tale story over the next 10 weeks and let's see how it goes.

I'm not even touching the rumors that I've already started swirling yesterday about how her and her final one are not together. They have already broken up. They ended their engagement. before this whole mess started, there are screenshots of the amount of times that she called Dakota,

lots of things, or the other side of the street. Let's say they've invested all this time, this money, this effort, they've produced a show. It is fully produced. They have edited a few episodes, at least, at this point. I would think it's close to done. Well, remember, we still have a mental all special

that would have to be filmed. But the money, you know this, Heather. You work in television. Of course, that is just lighting money on fire if you do not air that show, that is literally taking hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not close to a million, and it is lighting it on fire

if it does not air. You is throwing it back. To the days of huge hits and unforgettable albums. A non-stop stream of the biggest and best. Drake, Rihanna, Beyonce, Katie Gaga, the weekend. And more. All your decade defining favorites.

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What was on his screen would change Saskia's life forever. I said, I need you to tell me exactly what you're doing. and immediately the mask came off. You're supposed to be safe. That's your home. That's your husband. So keep this secret for so many years. He's like a seasoned pro.

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I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him. Hi, Dad. And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen. She says, I have some cookies and milk. This is this badass convict. Right.

Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at mom. Yeah. On the Sino Show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon, Danny Trail, talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to binge,

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How do the executives sit down at the table at the end of the day? And they're like, nope, can it? We cannot put this on television. They will can it if the ad people pull out because then they will not make money on it. It will not be up to them at that point. If the ads pull out, they have to as a network, they have to make that decision to get rid of the show because those ad people don't just buy on to The Bachelorette. They also buy on to Gray's Anatomy and other things that air on ABC. And those are the relationships that are more important than one series.

Is that a huge loss for them as a network? Absolutely. Well, I think this will be the end of the show. How do they come back from this? Absolutely. It will be. If they have to pull it, we will not be seeing another season of the Bachelorette or the Bachelor, and we don't have enough contestants for Bachelor in Paradise. So the franchise will definitely, it'll go on an indefinite hiatus. That's what will happen. Because they would not be able, you have to make money. You have to make money. And if there's nobody buying ads, then that's what goes away. And I can actually recall two shows in my memory from the last.

10 years that had a similar situation. They were not dating shows or one of them, I can't remember that if it was categorized as a dating show, but they had to go away because the ads pulled out. And one of them was called sex box. I was going to say, I don't know. It was in a theater, and there was a giant box on stage. And the contestants were couples, real life couples, and they were assigned sex exercises. They had to go into this box that was like audio-proof.

view proof, whatever. They had to do the said act that they were assigned, and then they had to come back out on stage and talk about it. It aired one episode. All the ads pulled out. We never saw another episode of that show ever again. Thank God. Thank God. And then there was another one that was done on members of the KKK, I believe, for A&E, and they aired the trailer for it. It had a premiere date. It had already been shot and it was so poorly received by the ad, like the trailer that the ads for the network started to pull out that they can the show and they never. And I want to say that they didn't air it, but that it ended up on streaming years later. Wow. Yeah.

I, you know, there's so much more that goes into this. There's so much more that goes into this that we don't even consider and that we don't even think about. But you know what I'm the things, the topics that I have seen in the last 24 hours of people talking about, you know, fans of the show, fans saying like we knew this was going to be the end. We knew that this was going to ruin everything on the show. We knew this was not a good choice. What was ABC thinking? Like there's a lot, a lot, a lot of pushback. You know, Heather, there's supposed to be due a premiere in Los Angeles this weekend on Sunday night. I was originally supposed to go. I was. will be shocked if they still do it. Well, listen, they still had a premiere a media dinner tonight. You know what I mean? I feel like they keep moving forward as business as usual.

So that's why I really think we have to pay attention to what happens, one, with the GMA interview in the morning, and two, what happens with ads and companies within the next 24 hours? Because that's really, you know, the deciding factor. If we go back to this article, it says, according to Rob Shoot, Shooters, Substack, crisis discussions are being held by executives about what to do with The Bachelorette in the midst of the latest PR nightmare. The talks came fresh on the heels of Cinebon, pulling their promotion partnership from ABC for The Bachelorette and for Taylor's main gig, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. As for why they canceled their partnership, they stated it was due to recent developments and allegations that don't align with their brand.

This has turned into a full-blown crisis, a network source dished. There are serious conversations happening about whether the show can move forward as planned. An insider explained the situation was spurred by Cinebond pulling out, noting, once sponsors start running, it causes the networks to panic. Because at the end of the day, people are here to make money. And it's a shame that her mental health is, reason enough to do the pullback, but that's just not how the world works. And so, yes, money talks. And so if these ads start to pull, we're not going to see a show. And it can happen very quickly.

It can happen overnight. So that's why I say the next 24 to 48 hours will really tell if we're going to see a show on Sunday. Yeah, that was a really hard lesson for me when I became the Bachelorette is to realize that first and foremost, it's a television show. They're trying to make money. and foremost, right? I was so naive at 25, 26 years old. I thought, and these people love me. These people want to see me happy. And I think there is a part that they do. But first and foremost, it is a television show and they are trying to make money. And every bit of this will be proof to that. I'm very, very eager to see how things go. I am like clinging to the edge of my seat with this Good Morning America tomorrow. I can't wait to watch it. I can't wait to see, do this.

They let her run wild and say whatever she wants or how I will. Well, now guarded. But you know what is so funny, I think as viewers, people will know the difference. But you heard the difference in that video I sent you tonight from Extra. You already heard it. You already hear the canned answer. You already hear the life missing from her voice. She's already.

This is out of her hands now. The Titanic is sinking and she's got to grab on to the lifeboat and she's got to do what they're telling her. Otherwise, she'll be in breach of contract and I'm not going to get into what that could entail. But there's been plenty of people from the show that have come out in years past and talked about things that they've done that have been considered breach of contract and what the show has done to them to. make sure that it doesn't happen again. They don't play around with that kind of stuff. And so I think now it's like, we let you do what you wanted to do. Now you're going to play nice and do what we have you do. Now you're going to do what we want. Otherwise, we're going to go get big bad and scary because that's what they have the ability to do. It's honestly gross, Heather. It's honestly gross.

And it makes me feel gross. We're watching a woman, a young woman's life fall apart. There's children involved. She's a mother. She is a mother at the end of the day. He's a father, right? I'm trying very hard not to just play one-sided because I don't have a personal connection to either one of them. But we also do have to maintain the fact that nobody forced her to do this, that she

fully offered herself up or went through the process of this and was like game to do it. And so unfortunately, it's sad as well that she took on a role. that she wasn't prepared for. And instead of saying, I've taken on a very large responsibility, I have a lot of eyes on me right now. I'm going to need to put myself in check. I'm going to need to put myself in time out. I'm going to need to make sure that I'm looking out for me.

And I think that, you know, a lot of that kind of wisdom comes just with age and mistakes. And she's got to have to learn clearly the hard way. And some people are just like that. But I also think that this is maybe a wake-up call to get the kind of right people on your team. I hope so. I hope so. I hope we see some humility from her. That's what I think needs to happen on Good Morning America.

And that's what I want to talk about that I'm not seeing in these quotes. I'm not seeing a whole lot of, I've messed up. I'm sorry. Bachelor Nation, hey, I took this seriously. like I want you to come and see my journey unfold. Well, because the truth of the matter is, it's no longer just about her. She has filmed an entire show.

There's been 25 whatever guys who came out and were a part of a show. And for whatever reason, right, let's hope that they were all there for the right reasons, whatever. You know what I'm saying? But they also came and gave up a part of their lives and are going to be on television

and had expectations. I swear to God, these unmet expectations will kill us. all at the end of the day, you know? Yeah. They've all given up a part of their life. It was an experience for each and every one of them. You know, one of the things that I was seeing was that some of the guys are, are upset over the fact that they came there. You know what I mean? They came there hoping to date her and was she ready because of the situation between her and her ex. Yeah, I'm going to not take those quotes super seriously. I'm so sorry.

I've just been in this world for way too long, and I can tell you right now that men who get on these shows don't typically sign up for them themselves. They don't go around looking to go on a dating show because they're ready to find love, and like, this is their way that they're going to do it, and they just haven't had the right woman. No, I'm going to burst the bubble and tell you that about 95. percent of them were found by a casting team, a very well-rounded casting team who are talented at what they do. But men don't sign up for these shows. It is a very rare occurrence when they do. I will say this, women sign up for them all day long. We never have a problem finding women for a dating show. But men traditionally do not sign up for these. So they were approached by a casting person. They were either doing something on their social media.

that was looking for attention that caught somebody's eye, or they were reached out about a television show. And that was the opportunity that they took. Could they have been open to love? Looking for love? Sure. But I'm really kind of over this whole like here for the right reasons. It's in a numbers way.

It's the fairy tale ending for me always. I mean, I love that for the people that get that experience. I think that's great. but at the end of the day, the numbers for the show do not equal love for the majority of the cast. And there are other dating shows where you are more likely to find love. And this is not one of them. And I think just statistically you have to look at the fact that the Bachelor and the Bachelorette is actually not set up for a place for you to find love. And you might be thinking, you're crazy when I say this, but you're more likely to find love on Love Island.

Sign me up, Heather. Sign me up. Let's go. It's because there's more people. It's because there's less producer interaction. And you're able to just spend genuine connection time. There's hardly ever any integrations or things that they're off doing and filming little side plots and whatnot. The Bachelor and The Bachelorette is a whole fantasy world wrapped up in a television show to make it look like a love journey. And so have there. been successes over the 20 years that it's been on the air? Absolutely. Have we known people that have had successful relationships? Absolutely. I'm not saying it doesn't work. I'm just saying statistically, you are not likely to find love on the show these days especially, but you could on another dating show where you had more prospects, where you had more chance to spend one-on-one time with people getting to know them, where you weren't being isolated and the bachelor is like living in one location and the rest of the people are living in another. There's a reason why television networks and production companies don't make shows like this

anymore. They don't make, I can't think of another dating show right now where there's only one lead. Yeah. I don't think the third is. And the reason for that is nobody wants to take the risk of putting a show on somebody's shoulders. And that is what we're seeing happen with Taylor is we're seeing her crumble under the weight of what this franchise is right.

on her, plus trying to hold her own life together. So the problem is the show is outdated. The show took way too long to change with the times. And now they've done a huge swing and a miss because they're trying to play catch up. And they're trying to play ball in a field that they don't really play in, which is this messy kind of more PG-13, maybe R-rated kind of, you know, stuff. and it's just not their field and they're just not equipped for it. Am I going to be watching on Sunday? Absolutely. I want to see Taylor succeed. I really do. I want to see the comeback story. I prefer a comeback of an underdog than a take down.

But that's not the world we live in. And so right now I'm just really bummed for everybody involved. And I've said it before, but I really think that Taylor needs to go. to a real facility. Yeah. Really needs to be away from her phone and not engaging. I think her relationship with social media also needs to be addressed and adjusted. The fact that she, even on this most recent season, we saw the minute something bad happened, she immediately went and made TikTok videos about said person involved.

Those are all really bad responses and things to do, especially when you're 31 years old. You're not 21, you're 31. So I really like her and her vulnerability, and I really enjoy watching her. Right now, it is very obvious because she is using her words, and she is actually saying that she is struggling. And my issue is that nobody's listening. Yeah, yeah. I'm with you. I'm right there with you.

The next 24 to 48 hours, so much is going to be told. tomorrow's interview with Good Morning America. You know what I mean? Like, well, let's chat after that. I'll be really interested to see what she has to say, what all she addresses. I imagine there's some legal aspects, too, of some stuff that she cannot talk about. I don't imagine. I know that. There are things that she is not going to be able to talk about. And yeah, so much is going to be telling in the coming hours, that is for sure. And yeah, I'm with you. I hope that this is her rope. She's had enough length on it. And she is being yanked back to her knees right now because she is only 31.

She can live a happy full life with a lot of help and a lot of therapy and a lot of boundaries and healthy boundaries. She said in one of those interviews. They were addicted to each other. They were addicted to each other. She said that in one of those interviews, Heather. She has said it all season. She has said it's an addictive cycle that they are in. She's very self-aware in a lot of ways.

And this is why I say she needs to go. and do something a little more intensive because she's been very open about her therapy and working on herself. But I don't know if that's actually working. I think she really needs to do something super immersive. And that must be very difficult being a mother. I cannot imagine. But at this point, it's you are screaming for help. Yeah. And your kids can't help you. And you don't have a partner right now to lean on to help you. So you need to help yourself. Yeah. I would hope that there's some people surrounding her, Heather, that are that are pushing her in that direction. I hope that she has people who care about her and love her around her who are like, let's nip this in the

butt now. Let's get you some help. There's lots of places that she can go to. I've done it. There's no shame in it. And I hope that she's got people who love her enough around her and say, let this be it. Well, I hope the show is allowing her to have those kinds of conversations because that means not doing press for the show. That means stepping away. And that's what I say that this is a dying franchise for a reason. And it's because you're putting too much weight on one person. When you see another show where there's a dud, guess what? You have four other people that are sharing the screen time. So it's a lot. And we, we've seen in a lot of recent seasons, not all, but a lot, where we've seen that the lead

doesn't really rise to the role and doesn't really adjust well on camera and doesn't feel we've also had leads come off of the show and say that that wasn't really them on camera. That was a watered down version of them. That was them feeling very self-conscious. And I just really think that if we do end up seeing this season come to fruition, I don't know how quickly we're going to see another one after. And if this is the end, it's the end. And that's a shame because I do want to see it.

Well, listen, I mean, from somebody who's been on the show, you know what I mean? 18 years later, I love still being able to be a part of it. I do. You know what I mean? I don't have to be the main character anymore, which is a relief. I get to just show up, see my friends, make a little money, have a good time. I love that there is success to the show. and I get to be a very small piece of that.

I have a very full and grateful heart for that. And if it's done, it's like, wow, you know what I mean? It's almost like it's something that I can't quite comprehend the end of the bachelor or the Bachelorette because it's been living for so long. And I've reaped the benefits of being part of the franchise for years. And I'm not talking financial benefits, Heather. I'm just talking about being part of something so special. The sisterhood that you guys have is so unique and so cool to watch.

The guys don't have that. There's no group bachelor's text chain. I know. I've heard this. They just golf with Ben and Chris Harrison. But I will say that all good things must come to an end. And I think it's, you know, so cool that you're in this very elite club of being part of the longest running dating show in America. You know, that's a cool kind of little honor to have, you know, that all these years later, you're still. Deanna the Bachelorette. You know what I mean? I say this to Ben all the time. I'm always like, you're still Bachelor Ben. You know, and Bachelor Bob, no, Bachelor Bob after all these years.

You know what I mean? I think that's so cool. But at the end of the day, all good things do have to come to an end. At some point, the bands don't last forever. Shows don't last forever. And things change. And I think that it's honestly so incredible that we're still talking about this show. years later, who would have thought? What will we talk about then, Heather?

What will we do? We'll have to just hope that love overboard gets another season. That's for sure. Yes, multiple. Then we have something else, some other joy that we can focus on. Exactly. I really appreciate you coming on tonight and giving your opinion because it is so unique to hear from somebody else who's been in the Bachelorette position before. And let's not forget that Taylor's only the second single mom bachelorette ever to be on the show.

So she's coming in with, I don't want to say the word baggage, because that's not it. But she's coming in with her own full life. And normally we're used to seeing somebody who is, like you said earlier, a little bit more moldable. And so I think that that's what makes this different, different in a good way. And I have seen so many comments from people in Bachelor Nation, stop casting 20-somethings. They don't want courage. They don't want love.

Well, now you got it. And guess what happens? They're not happy with that either. With real life comes mess. With real life and age comes problems. Toxic relationships. You take toxic relationships of people who, that is messy. I know I've lived it.

It is messy. But that's life, right? And anything that I appreciate about Taylor is that she's never run from any of this. She's always been like, this is who I am. This is my life. This is how I roll. And I can appreciate that to a certain extent. And I can appreciate that as talent who is being their authentic self.

I won't say, but there are a lot of shows out there, unscripted reality shows, that are not genuine to what is actually happening in those people's lives. And we can honestly say this moment aside, because we haven't seen season five that's being filmed right now, Taylor has put it all out there. So that is why people are connected to her. Again, we do not condone violence. We don't.

And so nobody is saying that anybody was in the right. Again, we don't even know all the details to that night. but you cannot knock her for being inauthentic. Yeah. I thought that the day we filmed the reunion special, I said that several times. If anything, no matter what happens in the end, she showed up as herself.

Exactly. And I have nothing but respect for that. But sometimes when you take on a large responsibility and you are authentic and you make mistakes, or things happen, you have to own them because that's part of it. And we've seen, especially, and we can wrap it up on this, but we all saw what happened when Mel Owens took the role of Golden Bachelor. He did not watch the show.

He was not from the franchise. He seemed to not care when he stepped into that role and actually said disrespectful things and then doubled down and just was like, that's my sense of humor, blah, blah, blah. I think that in this situation, obviously there's a huge difference. These are not just comments. These are huge allegations. But she's not running away. Yeah.

You know, she's still trying to own it. And I think the biggest mistake they made with Mel was that they didn't get in front of it. They waited until his first night in the mansion to kind of half-ass address it. I said on Sunday when this broke, we will see her do an interview before next Sunday. And it's happening. And that is the way that you do it. When crisis, when things happen that are wrong, you have to get out there and you have to address it. It'll be interesting to see how she addresses it.

Because like you said, there's not going to be a lot she can say in terms of anything that's an ongoing investigation. But she can take humility and say that this is a large responsibility for her to take on two shows at the same time. She can say that maybe she wasn't in the right head space when she came to join this show, but that she's really hoping people will find and watch her on her love journey because it is something special. There's a lot she can say. And I think we'll all just be tuning in tomorrow to see what that is. I'm hoping and praying for it. Exactly. Well, thanks Deanna for coming on. And if you didn't listen in the other day, Deanna and I will be recapping Hulu's love overboard starting next week.

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