The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - The Bermuda (Love) Triangle with Jessenia Cruz

Episode Date: October 21, 2022

 Jessenia Cruz is back from Paradise and has a LOT of tea to spill with Ben and Ashley! She has a shocking admission about how this season compared to her first trip to Paradise and she spills everything about her love triangle! And find out what happened in tender moments that were cut during her time with Andrew!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone.

Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast and the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh, my God, perfect.

And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. Why are TSA rules so confusing? You got a hood of you. I'm take it all.

I'm Manny. I'm Noah. This is Devin. And we're best friends and journalists with a new podcast called No Such Thing, where we get to the bottom of questions like that. Why are you screaming? I can't expect what to do. Now, if the rule was the same, go off on me.

I deserve it. You know, lock him up. Listen to No Such Thing on the. iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. No such thing. Do we really need another podcast with a condescending finance brof trying to tell us how to spend our own money? No thank you.

Instead, check out Brown Ambition. Each week, I, your host, Mandy Money, gives you real talk, real advice with a heavy dose of I feel uses, like on Fridays when I take your questions for the BAQA. Whether you're trying to invest for your future, navigate a toxic. workplace, I got you. Listen to Brown Ambition on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Everyone thinks they'd never join a cult. But it happens all the time to people just like you. And people just like us. I'm Lola Blanc. And I'm Megan Elizabeth. We're the host of Trust Me, a podcast about cults, manipulation, and the psychology of belief. Each week we talk to fellow

survivors, former believers, and experts to understand why people get pulled in and how they get out. me new episodes every Wednesday on exactly right listen wherever you get your podcasts this is the ben and ashley i almost famous podcast with iHeart radio we have a very special guest today somebody that made headlines and also an appearance on one of our favorite shows bachelor in paradise she obviously is a contestant we remember from paradise because she is she's always it feels like somebody that sparks, not just controversy, but definitely enters into the mix in Paradise. She's definitely there to enter into the mix. She doesn't stand on the sidelines. Who's our guest today?

Our Jess, our Jess, our guest is Jesenia Cruz. You know her from Matt's season and last season of Bachelor in Paradise. She's a 29-year-old former pageant queen. And this season, it looks like She's going after Andrew quite hard. Now, before we get her on, Ben, I know that she was involved in some drama last year, but this is classic Bachelor memory. I know her as being somebody who, like you said, is integrated in the drama, but I have no idea what was so dramatic last year. All I know is that she's a great character to have on TV.

Do you remember? I don't. I don't remember a lot. But we're going to ask her. We're going to talk to you about her experience, why she came back. because I know Paradise wasn't exactly easy for her on her first time around. And then we're going to talk to her about her kind of pursuing of Andrew. I want to know what it's like, Ashley, to be on the beach, to know that this guy is interested

in somebody else. He's telling you he's interested in somebody else and still being like, hey, you know what, I'm going to still give it a shot. That takes confidence. That takes grit. And I want to hear where her mind was at through the whole process. So, hey, let's bring her on. Let's talk to Jacinia Cruz.

Hello, how are you? I'm good. Hey, you know, we prefaced it in the intro. Ashley and I were trying to remember exactly what happened last season. We just know you're always a main character. And you feel like, it feels like you dive into paradise, not in a good or bad way, probably mostly good. You just dive in. If you feel like you take advantage of the opportunities in front of you, which seems with the setup of paradise to always involve if you're going to dive in head first, love triangles. You're always going to find yourself in some type of like, confusing relationship dynamic and it doesn't feel like last season was the only time that's going to happen watching it now. It kind of feels like it's going to happen all over again. So we're so excited to have you here and talk about Paradise and talk about your life. So again, thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me.

Well, Jessenia, did you know going into Paradise this season that you were going to be entering as a group? Ooh, good question. No, not at all. I think everyone kind of goes into paradise, hoping that they be in a good spot, I guess, because as we all know, the later you go in, the harder is to build the connection. So when I first arrived, I was just kind of like, you know what, I'm just going to, you know, take it as it is, whatever happens, happens.

So as I'm getting ready that day to go down to the beach, I have no idea if I'm going alone or like what the twists might be because obviously we're going to speculate to the point where it almost drives ourselves mad. So it wasn't until I literally arrived in the holding room with all the other ladies. And I was like, wait, this is actually really fun. It's going to be all of us together. And I kind of felt like the weight was a lot lighter because there is a lot of pressure when you're arriving into paradise.

So going with a few other ladies definitely helped. Oh, interesting. See, I would have thought maybe differently. I would have been like, oh, I'm like walking in with my competition. I'm not making like an individual entrance to like make a splash. But I guess together you made a bigger splash than anything. How intimidating was it to be in front of the ladies who were about to leave? Like, you're like, hi, I'm your direct competition.

No, it was so uncomfortable because, so yeah, I totally agree, like, what you're saying, that, yeah, you are technically walking with your competition, but nerves-wise, it definitely helped. I couldn't imagine, like, walking into that situation where all the ladies are just looking at us up and down if it was just me by myself or if it was us as a group. Like, I felt like we could take the hit a little better as a group. Yeah. I would have just melted in place if it was just me by myself and all the ladies were looking at me that way.

It's, I wonder, who do you think had the biggest advantage in that situation? Well, was it the new group coming in or was it the women who had been there for a few weeks with these guys already? I'm yet to, I'm yet to be clear on exactly who had the best advantage after, you know, they left. No, the girls and I talked about that a lot because the way we kind of agreed on the whole thing was we definitely felt like the girls who were already there for a while probably had a better advantage. So the only hope that we really had was, well, we need to find out who doesn't really have a solid connection. So in my case, for example, I felt that I was, if anything, the luckiest because Andrew, although yes, he was linked to Brittany, they had only really spent a single day as like a linked company. And they did, yeah. The connection was, you know, growing over the last few days.

Like, you know, she was linked to someone at first. She, you know, had her one-on-one date and then Andrew was linked to someone. So I feel that I was the luckiest in that situation. Well, who was on your list going in? For sure, Andrew. I think, if anything, Andrew was at the top of my list. I was curious about Michael A. I had always heard, like, wonderful things about him.

So I was like, well, of course, you know, I'd be open to meeting him. I was curious about, what's another guy? that I had on my list. I honestly can't remember. I just know, because really those were the two that I was the most familiar with. I really wasn't familiar with any of the guys from the most previous season, from Gabby and Rachel's. So I was just kind of like whoever from that season will come, I'm open to me too.

So, I mean, it's interesting because, you know, obviously we talked about your first season of Paradise. I don't know. I don't know what you would say. Would you say it was a success? Like, did you enjoy it? I mean, I wouldn't. I mean, I wouldn't say it was a complete success.

Okay. I don't think it's a flop either in the sense that I genuinely had fun. A lot of the people from that season I'm still very much friends with. And we, if any, the thing I've always said to myself, even back during that season is even if I don't leave in a relationship or get the guy or whatever, I know that I'm walking away with some lifelong friendships, as you guys know, I mean, you're connected to each other. As the years go by, you see each other grow and get married and build families. So that's really a treasure for me, too. I think that's always one of the best things to come from Paradise is the group that has joined. And so then was it hard for you?

I mean, we're just already speaking about, you know, you arriving to the beach, you not planning on arriving in the way that you did, you having interest in people. Was it a hard decision at all for you to say, hey, let's go and try this again? I would say it was a little bit just because, you know, you can go into it with, you know, the most positive mindset, but you really never know what's going to happen until you're there. And what sucks about that environment is that nothing's really in your control. So, yeah, it can be stressful, whether it's things happening towards you or things happening to other people.

It sucks to see your friends, for example, be upset. And it sucks to be upset. It's in an environment where it's not like you can go and call your best friend or call your parents or whatever. Like, you're just there. So I think when it came down to making the final decision, to be completely honest. It's just, you know, I've always had this firm belief that, you know what,

I've seen how it works for my friends from previous seasons. They're still together. They're planning weddings. If it works for them, like, I think it could still very much work for me. So why not give it at least one more shot? Because that's what I'll say that right now. It was just one more shot that I was going to give it after this. It's done.

If you get invited, just go. Obviously, that's my theory. You're like, you know what? Yeah, I've got. I've got a clear schedule. Let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah. It's a really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you may have a couple times. We'll see. We'll see. Okay. So I want to go back to Andrew for a second because I was really, like, I was surprised that you went from basically like being kindly rejected by him.

He literally said it's not you. It's me. Yeah. Pretty much saying like I really want to pursue things with Brittany. But then you set up a whole date. for him despite that what gave you the like the gusto to do it to be completely honest and i will be frank uh that conversation was extremely chopped up um okay so it was a little frustrating to see how it kind of played out so i was like okay i guess that's how you know they want to show it then that's fine but a lot went into that conversation and which is why in my interview i'm i'm not sure i'm like wait

so does he want to explore options or does he not not. Like, at the end of the conversation, I was still very unsure. And then some things happened that weren't shown. So that's ultimately what kind of gave me, as you said, like the gusto to go ahead and set up a tea anyway. Because honestly, I would not have done that if there wasn't even like a crumb of a possibility that he would be interested in me. So definitely a lot went into that conversation that wasn't shown. And I took it as a viewer too as I was even watching us. He's kind of going a roundabout way of trying to explain this. Yes, he like all, he would like kind of like be like I'm interested

you're great but I'm very interested in Brittany but you know I'm not closing like he kind it was like a confusing thing where it's like I don't know exactly where he's at either uh yeah that my boyfriend's professor is way too friendly

and now I'm seriously suspicious oh wait a minute Sam maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit well Dakota it's back to school week on the okay story time podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now hold up, isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor and they're the same age. And it's even more likely

that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. Do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Imagine that you're on an airplane, and all of a sudden, you hear this. Attention passengers, the pilot is having an emergency, and we need someone, anyone, to land this plane. Think you could do it? It turns out that nearly 50% of men think that they could land the plane with the help of air traffic.

And they're saying like, okay, pull this, until this, pull that, turn this. It's just, I can do it my eyes close. I'm Mani. I'm Noah. This is Devin. And on our new show, no such thing, we get to the bottom of questions like these. Join us as we talk to the leading expert on overconfidence. Those who lack expertise lack the expertise they need to recognize that they lack expertise.

And then, as we try the whole thing out for real. Wait, what? Oh, that's the runway. looking at this thing. Listen to no such thing on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Yumanzoor. And I'm Drew Phillips.

And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, Psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you.

Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. Hey, sis, what if I could promise you you never had to listen to a condescending finance, bro? Tell you how to manage your money again. Welcome to Brown Ambition. This is the hard part when you pay down those credit cards. If you haven't gotten to the bottom of why you were racking up credit or turning to credit cards, you may just recreate the same problem a year from now.

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For more judgment-free money advice, listen to Brown Ambition on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hola, it's Honey German. And my podcast, Grasias Come Again, is back. This season, we're going even deeper into the world of music and entertainment with raw and honest conversations with some of your favorite Latin artists and celebrities. You didn't have to audition? No, I didn't audition. I haven't auditioned in like over 25 years. Oh, wow.

That's a real G-talk right there. Oh, yeah. We've got some of the biggest actors, musicians, content creators, and culture shifters sharing their real stories of failure and success. You were destined to be a start. We talk all about what's viral and trending with a little bit of chisement,

a lot of laughs, and those amazing vibras you've come to expect. And, of course, we'll explore deeper topics dealing with identity, struggles, and all the issues affecting our Latin community. You feel like you get a little whitewash because you have to do the code switching? I won't say whitewash because at the end of the day, you know, I'm me. Yeah.

But the whole pretending and code, you know, it takes a toll on you. Listen to the new season of Grasas Has Come Again as part of my Cultura podcast network on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. So, but it was shocking to see you then plan this date. I think I would have taken that. This is where maybe my. insecurities in paradise would have totally had me fail. As soon as I, like, even closely got rejected by somebody, like, even if there's a hint

of it, I'd bounce. Like, I am not. But that's what I mean. Yeah, that's what I mean. I feel like, you know, in real time, that conversation to me felt so, like, one or the other. He is interested, but he also might not be interested just because of his whole thing with Britney.

But he also made it clear, like, it's only been like a day. it's really like a new, new thing that I'm not even sure about. So that ultimately for me kind of felt like, well, I can maybe give it another shot if he's open to it. But if it was so blatantly clear that he wasn't interested, then I absolutely would not have done that. I would have just kind of, you know, tried to see it as a connection somewhere else. So you might be the lucky one who the ladies come back and Brittany is more interested in

Tyler. because just in the previews, it seems like Tyler is what she's going for right now. So you might just be able to be free. Can you give us a little preview as to what's going to be when those ladies do walk down on the beach next week? I think so.

I think, you know, a lot of things can happen in paradise. Things change really within the day, as you know. So honestly, a lot of people have a lot to see next week. And I think that there's going to be some new connections forming that people may not expect. And there might be a lot of flip-flopping, too, so expect that. Now, can you tell us if the guys from Vendanta are all going to come down to the beach to meet the new girls,

or are the guys that don't get paired up at Vendanta just eliminated? Well, that's the beauty of paradise, though, right? Like, there's opportunity for anything. So I think if anything, especially us as cast, we're constantly speculating every day. Like I said, to the point where it drives us crazy. so some of us get it right some of us get it very wrong but i think that next week is definitely a big surprise for everybody let's uh spend a second here selfishly talking about somebody that i had a very uh protective uh feeling over and i didn't expect it um the only o g from from our time on the bachelor

is in and the season 20 of the bachelor was lace uh lace was was on uh my seat season. And she lives in Denver, so I have gotten to know her outside the show. Lace is very similar to what she comes off on television. She is passionate. She is deeply emotional. She expresses openly what she's feeling and how she's feeling it. And she's very easily hurt, like deeply wounded. And I think we saw that. And so as Somebody that maybe hadn't met Lace before, I don't know if you had or hadn't, but she shows up to the beach and is obviously confused and obviously very stressed out. What were your feelings? What was the conversations like amongst the women there? Did it make everything feel very real? All of a sudden, like less fun, more real? Walk us through what you guys were talking about as she was obviously they were very upset. Yeah. No, I think based off, yeah, the conversation with the ladies, a lot of it was just kind of uncomfortable in the sense that like we really felt for her because we would obviously hate to be in her position. And I agree. Like as you say, like, yeah, she definitely seems like the kind of person that like she cares deeply and it shows. And I hated also that that was the way I, you know, had to meet her and, you know, not necessarily at her best. So whenever she came down, we obviously had already been seeing or witnesses. eliza and rodney connecting so we kind of already knew what she was walking into if it was

in our power we would walk her right back up the steps just to like you know make sure that she wouldn't get hurt but it is what it is and you know that's what sucks about paradise is yeah oftentimes people will get their feelings hurt um so when she was coming down we all kind of like we're bracing for that that crash for sure and also bracing for what may be to come next week when all the other ladies show up and go you took my man yes no it literally in that moment too like we were wondering okay are they going to be just trickling down the ladies one by one like what's going on but you know for for that night it was just lace but we absolutely got a taste of what it could be like i know you can only tell us so much but from your last paradise season compared to

this paradise season which one did you prefer being part of um i love that question i'm going to be completely honest here. I love my cast from last season. They were really fun. They bounced back. We could have a hard day the next day. It's as if, okay, you know what? Let's be positive. We'll have a new day. This cast, although they're great, I think that they really struggled with bouncing back. Yeah. This cast individually, I love them all so much. But as a group, they did love to commiserate together and just be like, this is an awful place. place. Yes. It was almost like, I don't know, I guess to me, because I get it. I, you know, whenever they were doing the cuts back to the badanta and to the beach and seeing the ladies

moping around and being all upset, I totally feel that. Oh, same. I would be one of them. I know it. Yeah, but it's like, you know, try to just roll with the punches and see the positive in it, you know, and I think even the men were saying once we did the switch, they said, honestly, we felt like the energy just lifted. Like, if truly, feels like a fresh start. So I don't know. I think they were maybe struggling with just moving on from the hard times in paradise. And they kind of lingered on that a little too much. But I do feel like a lot of times they just didn't want to accept the fact that they were on a reality TV show. Yes.

Do you know what I mean? That they were like, how dare they? How dare this like spin or this, this twist? It's like, well, you guys are on TV. You're not just actually, you know, in La La La Land. I'm glad that you see that because when I was there, Obviously, like, this is now my third season. So by then, you kind of already know how it works, right? You know, you're supposed to have conversations, you know, you signed up for a show. People are going to see you at your most vulnerable, at your most awkward, at your best even. So have fun with it.

You know, be human. And I think that's what a lot of people in this cast were afraid to do was to just be human. But I'm not going to entirely place the blame on them either. I think that in a lot of ways, the audience doesn't allow us to be human either. We're not allowed to be upset. We're not allowed to buy. So, you know, I'm not going to necessarily blame that on them either. It's definitely the audience that's a big impact on that.

The dynamic was interesting to watch where, you know, the guys in the beach and, you know, the paradise location felt like the vibe increased. Where at the Vedanta, it did feel like it stayed very melancholy. Yeah, I remember when the girls, um, Eventually, they do come back, obviously, to rekindle whatever they think that they might have back on the beach. You know, they kind of expressed how it was a little down. And no one really wanted to interact with guys as we saw, like, you know, Olu asking the girls to just jump in the pool and have fun. And they were just not having it. So they were also pretty transparent about how they were feeling being over at the Vedanta.

How awkward. That's such a weird situation. I don't know what I would do. I just, if I was one of the dudes there, I'd just crawl up. in the couch, probably take a couple of naps, say, all right. Yeah, no, that's my favorite part is, like, the guy is looking up at the walls instead of looking at us. It's like, they didn't know on any problems. I would probably be laugh crying.

All right. Well, Justena, thank you so much for joining us. Can't wait to see where your storyline ends on this, or begins, whatever way you want to interpret it, on this season of paradise. No, thank you so much for having me. Always fun talking with you guys. Yes, then you get to see you. Bye. it's always great to talk to

Jacinia what a character in Paradise and I do really appreciate her diving into Paradise I am very excited not only for her story but all the stories to progress into next week I'm waiting I'm waiting for next week's episode me too

this was a week of Paradise episodes that was very very captivating in the sense that I wasn't on my phone at all during all four hours. Like I was glued to the TV. And we will be recapping both those episodes and another episode of the Almost Famous Podcast this week. So if you haven't listened to that one yet, go look for it. We love you guys so much. Until next time, I've been Ashley. And I've been Ben. We'll talk to you soon. Follow the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcast on IHartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly and now

I'm seriously suspicious. Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Why are TSA rules so confusing? You got a hood of you on take it all! I'm Mani. I'm Noah. This is Devin. And we're best friends and journalists with a new podcast called No Such Thing, where we get to the bottom of questions like that. Why are you screaming?

I can't expect what to do. Now, if the rule was the same, go off on me. I deserve it. You know, lock him up. Listen to No Such Thing on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. No Such thing. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor.

And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psycho babble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you.

Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime.

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