The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - The Fall of JPJ and the Matt Donald Tornado

Episode Date: September 4, 2019

Ashley and Ben are back together and ready to break down this week’s episodes of Bachelor in Paradise! How DO we feel about John Paul Jones? We discuss how little we actually know about his character. What was up with Matt Donald bringing his mom into the conversation? And we’re faced with the question: do we watch The Bachelor for the love? Or the drama?Plus, we hear some secret details about Ashley’s wedding that nobody knows! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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RSP today for a crate and barrel private registry event at cratebarrel.com slash stores slash events. This is the Ben and Ashley I almost famous podcast with IHartRadio. She's back. I was back last week, but I wasn't back with you. You weren't back with me. I've missed you, Ash. I've missed you, Ben.

You've got like a pre-wedding glow to you. A pre-wedding glow? Not a post-honeymoon glow? Post-honeymoon glow, I mean. Oh, thank you. It's going to fade fast. Why? I say that because I feel like today.

Why? That was the worst thing I could say. I meant like, today was like the first official workday back from like, our whole month off, pretty much. You know? I've responded to some emails here and there and, like, I've ignored a lot of shit. Oops.

And then today, like, Jared and I were, like, bombarded with phone calls and emails and texts. And it's like, oh, we're back to work, which is an absolutely fabulous thing. But, you know, it's, we were, like, trying to drag out that nice little honeymoon period as far as we could. But we definitely realized, like, today we're no longer on vacation.

The, how long does it take you to, like, wind down when you're on vacation? This has been a popular topic over the last few years as millennials have kind of pull back on how many vacations they're taking. Instead, they're doing more like just adventure travel. So, like, when you go on a vacation to rest, relax and get your mind off of everything going on in your world, how many days is it take you to kind of just relax? I think it depends on whether I wrap up everything, the, days before we go away, which I really try to do. Like, I'll stay up really late to just try to get everything done and responded to. And with Jared and I on the honeymoon, like, pretty much midway that week before the

wedding, we were like, okay, like, Thursday night, we're like, okay, we're done with everything. And we're just going to, like, let loose. And so I think on our honeymoon, it was super easy. Of course, we were in Europe for 13 nights. So we did, like, have a couple nights where we, like, have a couple nights where we, like, had to get on the computer and respond to emails and edit some stuff. But for the most part, we were like very, we were pretty unplugged. This is a good question for the listeners.

Ashley, over the last few weeks, we've been asking our listeners to Twitter in or email in responses to just two questions each podcast. And they've been incredible at it. And it's super fun to read. So I'm going to ask all the listeners, if you go on vacation and you've got a hectic, we're all busy. Everybody is busy these days. If you're busy, you take a vacation, how many,

days does it take you to wind down and then I'd also for my own benefit like to know what do you do like Ashley said she kind of tries to get everything done beforehand in prep so that winding down is easier also I have to say apologize everybody listening and do you Ash my allergies are awful right now so I am stuffy it's okay yeah it's cute you sound like a little mouse I know it is awful like over the last week it has like tripled so if I sound like sound like melancholy and not into this it's not at all the case i just can't breathe oh i want to say one thing uh in response to your question i think what jared and i do as far as like like just having nights or like blocks of time to if any work comes up to address it is the best way i think if you like

are responding to every email and every text while they come at you then you never get centered on a vacation. I think you need to be like, okay, I will address this tonight, like, and ignore it until then. Yeah, that's not a bad idea. Yeah, I think, so I was talking to Jessica about this other day, because we're going to take a trip to a wedding in Mexico here coming up. And we decided that I can't not do anything all day. Like, I just don't, it doesn't help me. And so what I found is it doesn't help you relax if you realize how much you have. So I like an hour and a half after my workout in the mornings on vacation are the best. Hey, um, Ashley, we've got a lot. lot to talk about. But before we do, let's take a quick break to talk about some of our sponsors.

And we're going to get back and break down this week's episode of Bachelor in Paradise. Jared and I are obviously still getting some gifts in from our crate and barrel registry. We have the most wonderful things. And that's one of the things that we're working on now, now that we're home, is decorating our apartment and putting all the registry items away. and well not a way but on display and making our house our home now and a home together not a home that jared moved into not like a girl retreat that my sister and i created it's now our home and we love the crane and barrel items that we've gotten we were able to schedule a private registry event when we started to get our crate and barrel registry put together so these events

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You're going to leave and you're going to be like, wow, we're going to get this done one day. It's not like this gigantic undertaking of like, where do we get started in making this house our home? This expert that's going to bring you around crate and barrel is really going to help you make your vision become reality. You can RSVP today for a Creighton Barrel private registry event at crate and barrel.com slash stores slash events again you can start your crate and barrel private registry event today at crate and barrel.com slash stores slash events I feel like I should say we're back and we have a special guest co-host Ashley like Kennedy because now we're together that's sad Ben we've missed you

Ash it's been it's been sad with that we've had a great time and we've made it work and we've done our best but you were missed by so many you had to talk about a lot of hot topics by yourself or and with the help of easton and mark and tory and amy i'm sure and whoever the guests were that week but there were some very spicy topics that you had to address from demi and christian to uh what was the other really i guess blake you did blake all alone dean wow okay that's crazy But since we've been talking so much about my vacation and my wedding, I want to ask you what you've done the past couple weeks, besides the podcast alone. Ashley, this is something so cool. And I'm glad you asked.

At the end of this podcast, by the way, we have in our notes here. I really want to talk to you about your wedding and the honeymoon and just like go into more details. I think it's important. So even if you feel like you've talked about it a ton, I want you to be selfish and talk about it more. All right. It's the last time. Until our honeymoon video comes out in the wedding video. But we'll break down the podcast first or the episodes first. But this is what I did, Ashley.

For a couple weeks, I've been talking about on almost famous podcast. I haven't gotten into too many details. About 10 months ago, two friends and I came up with an idea. And I want to say I followed them. It was called the wedding party. And the wedding party was this festival where nine couples got married at one time. on a stage. I was the officiant.

And then the reception is a joint reception where all the couple's friends and family come together to celebrate. And then we also sold 500 wedding crasher tickets for random strangers that just want to come to a massive, huge celebration. So the reception is a food and drink festival. It happened this last Sunday.

Oh, this happened this week. Oh, my gosh. I can't believe it came in one already. This has been something. thousand people showed up 2,000 what? I don't know how I feel about that I mean like I just want to know

everybody at my wedding I don't know why these people would choose to you know to have strangers at their wedding but okay so here's here was our thought process actually it was a magical night we had couples from all different backgrounds all different love stories

it was a very diverse group and that made it so beautiful and everybody is sharing love on stage here's the type of people we had right we had people that were going to elope and so they were just going to go to the kind of the courthouse and elope they were couples who maybe didn't have the time to plan a wedding or maybe didn't have the finance to plan a wedding or they just wanted something weird so like we had some couples that just wanted like their wedding to be something weird and so all of those couples kind of matched our criteria it was beautiful I'm telling you we were all nervous I was so anxious

for weeks now I've been anxious about this thing and it happened and every couple on the bus home that night was crying saying this is one of the most magical nights there was awesome amazing did you officiate just one of the ceremonies no all nine are you officiated nine ceremonies it was one massive ceremony so the nine couples stood up on stage they each had individual vows walked down the aisle and then all nine couples stood up on stage and I went through the whole thing with all nine of them. That's really cool if you're into something that's a little bit like different. You know, if you, if you don't, if you never imagined yourself having a traditional wedding, like you said, some of these people were going to elope, some of these people didn't want to plan, then it makes a lot of sense for you. But, you know, it would be, I would, you know, it would be, it's unconventional. It is, it is unconventional.

It has to be the right person. But I'm telling you, if you are the right couple, it worked really well. But I just wanted to say, congratulations, dining out of Vince. that was it was just a massive beautiful ceremony and the wedding planners knew troy from your wedding they were good friends with them so that was cool anyways hey uh if you're out there listening to this and you think this is weird or you think it's cool uh check out the wedding party on uh instagram all the videos from this weekend we're on it uh we'll do it again uh in a city near you i think really soon okay hey that's enough about me ashley we'll talk about you at the end of the podcast let's jump in

to this week's episode of Bachelor in Paradise. Ashley, there's so much going on. There's so much. There's so much to talk about. I feel like we're at a place where every love story is kind of culminating. And now it's the make or break week in paradise. It's that decision making week because we have two more weeks left, which is I think two more weeks. Am I wrong?

Which is the longest season of Paradise ever, though. That's seven weeks. And it's four hours a week. All right, Ashley, after watching this week's episodes, I think there's only one way to really break these down fairly. And that's to kind of do it in all in one, like not to do episode by episode like we usually do, but they kind of tie it all together because it feels like during this make or break at week, all the storylines are so tied together. Are you down for that? Let's do it. Okay, perfect.

Okay. So here's the thing. This whole episode or all these episodes kind of are set up coming off of Chris and Crystal's wedding, which would, was way more dramatic than any of us preferred or wanted or even probably they wanted. But it caused a lot of... They were like that was, they didn't feel happy watching this back. It seems like all this whole episode is set up by Chris and Crystal's wedding, which had a lot of drama.

And they're here last week talking about that. It wasn't preferred, but it happened. I mean, it's paradise. And some of the biggest drama leading into this week was the question over is Clay over Angela, Ashley. to me it has been very clear and this is why I'm confused the whole time that he is very over Angela

it's still weird it's his ex like there's still a little bit of a pole it's still probably hard to see her like that that's natural but he's he's very much over her it feels like the beach though the people on the beach are trying to convince him that he isn't over it

isn't that so weird I would have never thought that he wasn't over it until Tasha made a big deal that he wasn't and she said like you didn't mention that you had a girlfriend to like everybody at the wedding the newcomers and such

Angela included in that and I was all like understanding what you just said until Tasha brought up that fact and I was like wait that is weird that he didn't bring up Nicole's name when talking to Angela that's wacky

that that's proof to me that maybe he was or okay maybe that doesn't signal that he is not over angela maybe it signals that he didn't want to hurt angela more in that moment i that was where i was going okay i have been around now i was just thinking about this preparing for the podcast was been around some of my friends one of my my good buddies you know went through a pretty bad breakup he he's now dating again i cannot imagine if he saw his ex and like within that conversation like you like how hard it would because they care about each other still like they're it's a mutual breakup

they're fine but I think it would hurt them both if like another name was brought up just out nowhere now if it was asked hey how's your girlfriend I think it would be great to say she's awesome she's great we're doing really well but just this like I think probably he felt like he was going to just be like rubbing it in a little bit yeah if if he brought up her name yeah and he should have told tasha when she confronted him about that that he simply didn't want to hurt her feelings anymore and that he probably thought or he was probably naive to the thought that there was a possibility of Angela coming into paradise he possibly thought that he was just having a conversation with her at the wedding and that she would find out when he got home from paradise with a girlfriend

that she showed up is it hypocritical at all she's mad at she's mad at clay for coming down to paradise and being there so soon is it hypocritical at all for her to show up or is it fair because since he went it gives her the permission. Not permission. Nobody needs permission to go to Paradise, but it does give her to the right or does it make it feel better that she came? I think I'm on the side of it's fair that she's there. And like she gets

to do the whole thing too, especially if he was the one who ended the relationship, then she definitely should be allowed to go down to Paradise. I think people in this whole like drama are probably being like, yeah, but she's just there to create drama for Clay and prevent him from having a happy ending.

Possibly, she probably wanted to go in and ruffle little feathers she probably wanted to make him feel a little bit jealous by going out with mike she probably or or anyone for that matter she but like i don't think that she i think maybe her intention was to go in in ruffle feathers and make him jealous but i think that at the end of the day she's just going to end up moving on yeah i'm with yeah i mean it doesn't feel like it feel like both of them had a mutual breakup there was pains involved it's time to move on and it honestly throughout this podcast or throughout this episode I felt like we moved on and we moved on

to it mutual though Ben I think that he broke up with her and she wanted to get back I think what you mean is like she wasn't like it was done it was there was no loose ends but I actually think that there was a loose end and I think that

it was because Clay was trying to ease the blow and he probably said something along the lines and I'm not sure if I said this last week in the podcast and I apologize to listeners if I I am repeating myself, but he said, I think when he was trying to ease the blow of the breakup, he must have said something like, you know, I'm not in the place right now, but one day I might be. So like maybe this isn't over, but maybe, but I really need to take a break now. And if he did

end it like that, then I can see her holding on hope and I can now understand why she was so upset to see him there because he should have just been up front and being like, you're not my person. It's a weird breakup, Ashley, because I remember when this whole paradise season started, we were just getting into it. And I mean, there was a thousand rumors around why they broke up from cheating rumors to. Yeah. Like there was all these different rumors going on. I don't have any clue what happened. There was no cheating. But I don't know why that rumor started. I think I think honestly because of the way she acted at the wedding. She seemed like a woman scorned. Oh, she did. Holy cow. That walk was we all were like, what the? Like we felt the power in the stride. It was so funny.

It was something. It was great. So, well, let's close that chapter, though, because it feels like a chapter needs to be closed. Clay is happy. Angela is moving on. And I want to sit here for a bit, Ashley, and try to dissect the JPJ kind of interactions that he's having on this episode. It feels heavy. It feels odd.

It's hard to watch from a guy that we've loved for his joy and peacefulness and just kind of. of go with the flow attitude. Ashley, it's going to be a lot. But I want to ask the second question of the podcast. Okay. To all the listeners out there, please email us. It's been Ashley at iHeartMedia.com or tweet us on Twitter and hashtag the Almost Famous Podcast.

What are your thoughts on JPJ? I don't know. I want the listeners to know. I really want the listeners to kind of, we're going to talk about ours, but I really want the listeners to kind of fill in it on their thoughts. I think everybody's confused. feels hard to watch and it isn't getting any easier to watch with that actually before we talk about jpj let's take one more break to talk about our sponsors let's do it cliffanger

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 medicated 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. The Super Secret Festi Club podcast season four is here. And we're locked in. That means more juicy cheesement. Terrible love advice. Evil spells to cast on your ex. No, no, no, no. We're not doing that this season.

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I'm Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford. And in session 421 of Therapy for Black Girls, I sit down with Dr. Afia and Billy Shaka to explore how our hair connects to our identity, mental health, and the ways we heal. Because I think hair is a complex language system, right? terms of it can tell how old you are, your marital status, where you're from, you're a spiritual belief. But I think with social media, there's like a hyper fixation and observation of our hair, right? That this is sometimes the first thing someone sees when we make a post or a reel is how our hair is styled. You talk about the important role hairstylists play in our community, the pressure to always look put together, and how breaking up with perfection can actually

free us. Plus, if you're someone who gets anxious about flying, don't miss session 418 with Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett, where we dive into managing flight anxiety. Listen to therapy for black girls on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. All right, Ashley, one of our favorite people to ever come onto the Bachelor franchise. We've loved him. We've supported him. We've lifted him up and we put him on this prestigious pedestal and then this week jpj feels like falls hard he feels like he falls hard in multiple ways he's falling hard for tasha but he's falling hard on the show as well ashley you're always an expert at this you break these things down better than i ever could

what are you seeing what are you feeling and then leading into even the second episode what what are we thinking about JPJ right now? My thoughts on JPJ are really all over the place. I want to say that I think that he's been one of our favorite people to watch, but we haven't really like known his character. And now where he's kind of like showing his character, and it's like he just seems to want to fight.

I don't know. I really, I wish I could articulate myself better here with JPJ, but maybe he truly heard something. I really want to give him a bit of the benefit of the doubt right now and say that maybe he truly did hear something behind the scenes of Derek saying something that he really thought symbolized a character fall on him. And he was really trying to protect Tasha from a bad guy. But what it appears on TV is that he's really just jealous and coming up with anything

to claim that Derek is just a jerk who is unfit for Tate. Tasha. His behavior has been the way that he's dealt with his jealousy or whatever he heard is really been completely immature.

He has very poor argumentative skills. And I think now that Derek is gone, I think it's going to be hard for him to win Tasia back after all the drama that he's created. Here's what I think.

What do you think? I think that JPJ is feeling like he really cares for Tasia. He doesn't know how to handle that well. I don't think his ability to debate has gone well at all. I think he gets him in his own head. He doesn't make great points. So we're watching him just kind of get frustrated with not only a situation, but with himself because he has things he wants to say.

But then he just laughs in people's face, which is one of the most childish disrespectful things I could think of. And I'm not okay with that. If I have an issue with another person. And actually, I need to go off in a little tangent. I haven't done this in a while, but it feels kind of good. If I have an issue with a person, how Derek handled that? Now, I don't know what Derek said behind the scenes.

I don't know Derek really well personally. But if I have an issue with somebody, what Derek did by going to JPJ and saying, can we talk about this together personally because I want to just try to get this fixed is the right way to handle it. But I can see where anger ensues when somebody starts laughing in your face about some of the things you're upset about. I also now, I fear that J.P.J. blaming this on Derek is going to come back to Biden because I think JPJ's issues are going to still exist, even with Derek gone, which is going to show that Derek wasn't the issue. The issue was J.P.J. himself struggling with whatever emotion was internally inside of him. And I'm coming to all of this. And I didn't say a lot about it last week because I didn't know how I felt. I'm saying all of this because for me, it was proven this week that J. JP has something going on that is not healthy and not good when he spoke to Haley. When it was just Derek and JPJ, I was like, okay, maybe Derek did say something behind the scenes that upset JPJ.

Maybe Derek is like showing a side of not around cameras that we aren't saying. I don't know that side of it, right? I got to just kind of watch and see. But once JPJ sat down with Haley and the way he handled that conversation and how much confidence he had and that he handled it correctly, which he didn't, and how sad and hurt she was, and how bad he wasn't communicating. Then I, then for the first time,

really started to think, this is a JPJ issue only and nobody else's issue. Yeah. You're right. Boom. You said it. You're talking about the conversation that they had at the bar. And that was she just,

I was so proud of her in that moment. And I loved the way Demi was reacting to her. Because like she kept hitting all of his hypocritical points. Yeah, definitely. It's just, it's tough. And we see it through episode two as well is the guys, worked up and when he works up it feels like he does the common thing where once we get angry

we stop listening and we start to like get defensive and have more confidence that our anger is necessary but here's the thing none of us are our best cells when we're defensive I said it last week I'll say it again this week none of us are our best cells when we're defensive we have to in those moments take a step back and go what am I seeing here what what is the situation Am I wrong? Am I right? You know, there's a great quote that my mentor told me. And when you put yourself in a place of leadership or you have a platform like anybody in this show has, you give up the ability to overreact.

And I think in this moment, JPJ is overreacting and we're watching it live on television and we're not seeing his best self. I don't think. And I want to ask you and I want to ask our listeners, what we're seeing right now is not who JPJ typically is right it's not a microcosm of his everyday life or do you guys believe it is like is this how he interacts in his normal everyday life and we just haven't seen it yet no i think that this is a case of the show and the situations that the show puts you in um putting displaying the worst part of your personality a part of your personality that you yourself don't even see

very often but like it comes out in this very weird culture that is batches or in paradise. I think that remember before the wedding, the first half of the wedding, it was so funny that during the, during like the pre-coctail party, everyone was talking about JPJ and like how surprised they were by him

and how wonderful he was and the best listener and communicator and all this stuff and like people said that they felt so deeply connected to him. And then the second half of the wedding during the actual, you know, like the cocktail party before the reception, everybody was like

that was so out of character and everybody's felt so thrown off by him so I think what his normal personality is is what they described but then I think the situation that he was part of just made the worst of himself come out well and it doesn't seem

to throw it off Tasha too much right? I'm super confused because like you'd think that it would but maybe and like you know what she's like at the wedding I'm just going to say this at the wedding she told me that both J.P.J and Derek were interested in her,

but she said that her heart was really pulling her in the JPJ side of things. But on the show, I've seen her more torn than anything, and I don't see any of these strong emotions that she told me about. I think she just seems confused. And if doesn't she just seem confused to me? Like, when she dumped Derek,

it was because she clearly didn't really have feelings for Derek. But with J.P.J, I don't really feel anything for her either. And it's almost like, maybe we didn't see all of it, but it's almost like if she was so unattracted to the arguments, it felt like I'm not, it felt like JPJ almost was leading these arguments. So like if she was unattracted to Derek because he was argumentative, then wouldn't she just be unattracted to JPJ as well? But she chooses him. Oh, no. I don't think she, she wasn't, she wasn't, she wasn't unattracted to

Derek because of like any argument she just like truly felt more of a intellectual emotional I don't know physical attraction to JPJ over Derek and this was before the fight even happened that I was having this conversation with her but I wonder why she felt that she why she would even entertain the idea of Derek there yeah I don't I have it I have a theory her what's your theory her brain was saying JPJ makes no sense with you you have no future with a guy like that he's never what you pictured yourself with but there was some pull in her heart that said like you should give this a try I yeah and it's almost like the you hear it every once in a while kind of whispered into bachelor nation is like the bachelor's

the one time you can date somebody that you're not typically used to dating and it feels like Tatia isn't used to dating like the JPJs of the world and it scares her and then and then when she like starts to like tip her you know toe in the water the JPJ water she's like oh I kind like it but yet it feels weird and it's like a little bit off yeah i i think that this whole situation is going to be an interesting one to watch i mean obviously tasha hasn't given up on him yet it it feels it feels like hopefully jpj can start to get his stuff together i still feel bad honestly for haley i don't love how this played out for her um it it isn't great she's a great girl um i've gotten to know them personally obviously they're on my season uh

And Haley, for the first time, you know, a long time kind of took a risk and came there without her sister. It feels like this isn't going to end well for Haley. And unfortunately, JPJ is the cause of it. And we should also say that Haley ends up getting, giving her rose to, to, I was going to say Nick, which is really, it's not Nick. It's Luke S. And I don't understand these comparisons. There's a similarity, but they're not the same people. You think they're very similar.

No, they're very similar looking. You think so? Not like the same person. I said yes and no. Like yes and no. I mean, okay. It's, it's, if you set them side by side, you'd be like, okay, they look similar. Now, now, Nick is like.

It's the face. It's just all the hair textures in like the facial hair. That's it. I mean, Nick's, Nick's a division one athlete. Like, there's a different like body structure that exists with Nick than then Lucas. Well, hey, we brought up Lukeass. So let's talk about it. Nothing crazy going on here.

But Lucas shows up to the beach along with Mr. McDonald. And they are, I mean, Matt McDonald's the hot commodity in paradise. Lucas doesn't get a lot of attention. I think he's kind of like takes Christina out by default or Christina goes out with him by default. But McDonald now, women are all over him. Yeah, women are like super into him. And it's funny. And you see it?

I don't, I don't, I think he's a good looking guy. I don't like understand why the women are just fawning. He seems very sweet. He comes from apparently a very wholesome household because he's very concerned about his mom seeing him kiss on the show. He's not used to the whole Bachelor format considering he was eliminated on night one of Hannah's season. So he, he's very slow to kiss Sydney, which he does before the rose ceremony. in which she gives him her rose but then he ends up going out on a date with Bree

who is super beautiful and from Ari's Ari's season wait no she's from Colton season why would I think she's from Colton season totally under the radar she comes in and Matt McDonald goes on a date with her and they kiss there too it's Donald by the way I said McDonald but it's Donald Matt Donald I just looked it up

It is Donald. Whoops. I just thought of Mr. McDonald's farm. Yeah, old McDonald. You know, he was being kind of hyped up as the next grocery store, Joe. I don't know if he's got that swagger. No. Actually, I'm all for wholesomeness.

I really am. Like, it's nice. It's especially good to see on this show. But it feels weird to me. And I love my mom. And I don't want her to see me doing weird stuff on TV. That's not good for anybody. But it felt like almost awkward for me to watch.

him say I can't do this because my mom wouldn't like it. It was super weird. I'm like, you're an adult. You're on the bachelor. Your mom, I'm sure condones you being on the bachelor because this is your second time around. It's okay. And it was super awkward because she said, I'm sorry, I keep saying super awkward, but she said that thing like, how do you say kiss? And then he was like, I don't think I can do that. I mean, so we agree. Like Matt Donald seems like a nice dude like he seems like his intentions are good he you know the women are saying that he's super attractive they're into it i i'm rooting for matt donald here i i mean i know his like whole hey i'm not going to kiss you thing because my mom's watching feels weird but then he ends up kissing

her he you know he he doesn't hold back from the kissing after he gets comfortable with the cameras i i get it like when you show i mean he was only we forget this he was only there for a few hours during his time on The Bachelorette, he isn't used to the cameras at all. The rest of these people are. He shows up now for the first time ever he's in front of cameras and he's dating and he's going to be kissing. It is a hard transition. So that's what we can't forget here.

I think for me, I got like right away, I was like, oh, that's weird. He's just being weird. And then I was like, no, for the first time ever, this dude is in front of cameras. And he's being pursued for the first time ever. Like, he got thrown in fast to this whole. thing he did he's not used to it and like that always happens with the night oneers that end up in paradise but he's gonna thrive it kind of already feels like it right i mean did we see him with with brie who is a beautiful person we've met brie and she's into him so now matt donald has his

hands full and i wonder like how is i want haley to do well i want haley to do well i want haley to do why can't Haley and Map be okay? Why can't they be dating? I just feels like I think that Haley, I honestly thought Haley and J.P.J. were the couple that could make it work. Remember when we said like going into Paradise?

I think even before it shot, that we were like, JPJ and Haley makes so much sense together. She said that he's playful and funny and smart and they could, you know, that she could be a really good match with JPJ, but we obviously see that she no longer felt that way eventually, but we still want happiness for Haley,

but I guess we want happiness for everyone. Yeah, I mean, we do, but at the same time, we want good matches, and it feels like the JPJ Haley match worked. It also feels like Matt Donald is compatible here with a lot of the women left in paradise. I mean, we see Sidney still in tune by giving him her rose,

and then we see, you know, the Bree situation kind of come to ahead with her asking Matt on the date. Matt might be, kind of that like last couple week person to step into paradise and cause a whirlwind or you know

a big mess for the couple sitting there a tornado the mad donald tornado it always is weird though with these late entrances because it's often encouraged to leave paradise engaged or you know

or then you can just like you know kind of flirt in real life so it's always like well if they're going to come in late they're obviously not going to get engaged so these people are just going to have to be okay with dating in real life and leaving the show before it's real like the show is done filming yeah right it's like what's the point i think that there should be a season and this is a great question for the audience i think there should be a season where people stop coming in at a certain point and if you don't like anyone if there's you're not hitting it off with anybody there and you're not like

going to get to an engagement point then you go and we watch people who are in relationships serious relationships grow and we get to know their relationship more because I do think that there there's a problem with Paradise because sometimes when you couple up

and get into a serious relationship that's when we stop seeing anything from you like we've seen so little Hannah G. and Dylan the past couple weeks because they're just happy and there's no drama with them anymore, but then we're not really getting to know what they have. The same thing.

I mean, the same thing could be argued with Chris and Katie. We haven't seen any of Chris Bukowski and Katie. Yeah. Because, you know, like we saw this week, he asked her to be his girlfriend, which means they've been doing great with little drama. So we don't see them.

Like, we lose the love aspect of the show because they aren't creating any of the stories. Yes. So I think, like, you know, maybe Bachelor producers next season, and you cut people coming in off at a certain point, and then we just get to see what's flourishing in Paradise more. Let me know, audience, if you think that this is something that they should explore for a future season.

That's a good question. And, I mean, it really comes down to this, Ashley. Are people, we're talking about this right now with The Bachelor Live show, where we're doing the tour around the United States, is are people more interested in watching the drama or watching the love? We don't know yet. That's a question that everybody's been asking about The Bachelor since the beginning of time. Do you watch it for the drama or do you watch it for the love?

If it was just a love show, would you still be as interested? I would argue you wouldn't be. I think we like watching the drama. I think you're right. I think there's a balance to be had. And I think maybe the quota for love is a little low right now. Maybe a little bit more, 5, 10% more. Just some funny moments between Katie and Chris or Hannah and Dylan.

we did see some pretty intense boom boom room action yeah I mean okay so speaking of boom boom room yeah let's move on to Kaylin yeah we have a few more stories that we need to break down we have Blake and Christina start in their little love triangle we have Dean showing up to

paradise we have Kalin and Connor and Kalin saying that she is taking Connor to the boom boom room or he's taking her I don't know how that works it's mutual there's consent I'm sure actually there is very much consent. And we're going to find out about that consent and more coming up. But before we do, let's take a quick and final break to talk about some of our wonderful sponsors.

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It gets me really excited. Hey, Ashley, we have a few of the things to discuss. We have a big engagement in bad nation. We also have your wedding to chat about. In addition to all that, we need to finish breaking down this week's episodes of Bachelor in Paradise. There's really two main storylines that I think we need to talk about that are currently existing in Paradise. One is that, you know, obviously we see Mike go home. That's sad.

And then, you know, we don't know what his future entails, but we're hopeful that we'll see more of Mike. But outside of his departure, which is obviously a big departure from Paradise, we have the biggest story of the week, which is, in my opinion, the Dean scenario. And so let's start with a huge story, but not as impactful of story. It's the Blake and Christina situation. Here, let's lay it down for a second. Blake and Christina, it's been public that they've dated before Paradise. They had something that was good. They had ended it mutually. But then also, Christina was involved in the stage coach scenario. So we saw her show up to Paradise, take Blake on a date.

She wasn't very happy with him. She had no intention of any romantic relationship with him. And then as this season has continued, she's been very supportive of Blake and kind of kept him around because she believes he is a good man that deserves love. We have Blake then. And we see him alone often, sad. He always has a football on his hand. he's sometimes sitting off the side.

He's stubbing his toe. His whole time on paradise. His whole time in paradise has been painful at best. And it has not been good for him. I think it has caused, obviously we saw the public things that he's done on social media. He's gone out and said, hey, this Kalin situation, it's not what it's look like. It was a mutual thing. All this stuff has led up to this point.

I told him to go to Europe and I will clarify, I told him to go to Europe just for the paradise airing. not to live forever. Just, you know, to ignore things. And ignore things he probably should have for the first few weeks, but he obviously didn't. Leading up to this moment, when Blake starts saying all the characteristics he wants in a woman,

he starts claiming all these things that he sees. And then he goes, holy cow, this woman is right in front of me. And it's Christina, Ashley. Yeah. Just without, let's even take the show. out of play here for a second. If somebody were to tell you this story without you having any context,

your first reaction would be what? Would be, he says he doesn't want to do friendship roses anymore. So he's going to up the ante with Christina just for paradise. I mean, sorry, but they already did that whole relationship in real life thing and it didn't work out.

I guess, I can't speak, though. Because Jared and I did very similar things where it was like, we're kind of together in paradise. And then it's like, we're kind of together off camera. And then we're very much not together off camera. And then we're very off camera. We're very not on in paradise.

So feelings can change and evolve. And friendships can definitely turn into more, even if they started romantic in the first place. So I can't completely crap on this. But I think it is a little bit hard for the audience to believe. that at this moment, all the sudden, his eyes open to this girl who's been there all along. And it's supposed to be romantic, but it's just a little bit hard to buy. But sometimes things that are real are also hard to buy.

Definitely. I just, and I think she's skeptical too. I think that's maybe how you sum this up is we just don't know yet, but she's obviously skeptical. This whole scenario is a little skeptical. But we're also coming in this. And I want to give Blake the benefit of the doubt. We're coming into this whole thing with a frame of how this season's gone for him so far. And so, you know, Blake hasn't been maybe beloved or rooted for as much as maybe some of the people in paradise are kind of ruined for him.

We don't know. But all this, you know, if this was, if this same scenario was reversed and it was somebody like a, let's say Clay, who we know has wanted love, maybe hasn't messed up like Blake did a couple times, we would be saying this is maybe sweet. this is maybe nice this is awesome that he's still this woman that has been front of the whole time he's actually into yeah it definitely definitely you're right it depends it's because blake started out with such a bad taste in people's mouths but i do want to say that blake has come across over the past two weeks now like really sweet he seems like a good listener he's there having heart to heart with everybody and i'm i'm feeling better about blake and i'm sure a lot of our listeners aren't too i think he's gonna be rude for it the end that's That's my thing is I think on the live show and then here, I think it will be written for Blake. I don't know. I would just imagine just knowing his intentions. This whole thing maybe just like we go, Blake, you messed up. It wasn't good.

But like, let's move on from it. Truly. Let's learn from it. The Kalin and Blake drama that happened with the text messages, it was about four weeks ago today. And it's like it feels like it was forever ago. People move on quick in paradise. well speaking of moving on quick does it feel like dean moved on quick ashley no he did it he came back to america and within literally i feel like 24 to 48 hours he was like i'm going to go back

for her i miss her and if you guys really want to know what dean did i'm sure he'll talk more about it on the help by second dating podcast but he went to the grand canyon by himself he like must have landed back at LAX, took his van to the Grand Canyon, which is like, what, eight to ten hours away or something? And then he like sat there looking at all the majestic beauty that is mother nature. And he thought, I want Kalin besides me for this moment. And then he turned around. And I don't know, I don't know how this man doesn't get tired of driving. But he like turns right around, goes back to L.A., records a help I suck. a dating podcast and then he got back on a plane to Mexico to go after Caitlin and I think it's super

romantic and I wish they had documented well I guess I didn't know this was going to happen they didn't know that his feelings were just not going to disappear and that he was going to have so much regret but it would be super it would have been nice to see like all the emotional turmoil he was going through for those 48 hours and the decision to go back and try to get her well I mean that's you explain it perfectly so he went through turmoil he came back did a little work here in studio said oh oh i like this girl flew back shaved his mustache but she didn't pause her time in paradise she has a good thing going what we see at least with connor i mean they're hot and heavy they seem to be into each other they're kind of those cup that couple that we haven't seen a lot

from probably because they're not causing a lot of drama they're doing a lot of kissing it feels very uh physical it feels like they're very attracted to each other and she also says on I'm going to go to the boom boom room with Connor. Oh. All of this leading up to Dean coming back. And we're kind of on this cliffhanger right now. The idea is that people believe Dean and Kaylin had a stronger kind of connection. Also, Kaylin was pretty beat, just like very sad about, you know, Dean leaving.

What happens? Does she leave? I don't know. We don't know. We're going to find out next week. They've really been teasing this. It's been two cliffhangers, really. They showed us a preview last week

and then we really didn't get any answers and we're getting the same preview for next week. I obviously love Dean. Dean is a very close friend of both of ours. I think we're rooting for Dean and Kalen to get back together in this situation. I personally, I don't, you know, I'm not there. But I feel like there was a more,

there was more depth to Dean and Kalin's relationship and then with her relationship with Connor, it seems to be a little bit more just physical. but maybe I don't know the whole scenario and I know that Dean is perhaps not the most trustworthy person in relationships. I don't mean that as far as like his fidelity goes. I mean that as far as like just like if he's in the right spot in his life to have a real relationship. We talked about this last week and how he needs to find someone who's totally okay with him going all over the country in a van and maybe not being with her on even a weekly basis. and living this lifestyle

that's not going to be compatible to most but I am rooting for them because I just like them both individually and I like the connection that they had together and seeing her so sad over Dean the day of the wedding. It just made me feel like I want them to give another go.

And there's always somebody here in the process and we all like Connor and let's see how he handles this if that were to happen and if not how Dean's going to handle possible rejection. That'll be coming up next week but that was this week's episodes of Bachelor in Paradise. It was wild.

It was crazy. To summarize it all, I just want to run through the roses that we're getting handed out. So everybody knows listening kind of where we're at. Nicole picks Clay. Christian picks Demi. Hannah G. picks Dylan.

Katie picks Chris. Haley picks Luke S. And probably the most surprising Rose handout this week. Kalin picks Connor. Sidney picks Matt. Tasha picks J.P.J. And Christina picks Blake. And it's not a friendship rose.

this time. Ashley, that's this week's episodes of Bachelor in Paradise. We have two things to talk about to finish out the episode. One is Aston and Kevin are now engaged. It was announced on social media this week that Kevin and Astrid are engaged. We're happy for them. We celebrate them. Everybody is finding love in Bachelor Nation, and we couldn't be more excited for it. Speaking of love, love blossoms here on the Almost Famous podcast. And Ashley, like Kennedy, was celebrating her love with her lover in a lover's week. and a half together. Hey, Ashley, our listeners have been asking,

I've been wondering, I'm just going to let you have the floor here. No, I like question time. Give me questions. Ashley, your wedding was beautiful. I've summarized a bit of it. Yeah. The ceremony was a beautiful ceremony led by Alon Gale.

The reception was something that was magical. What was it about your reception that you really, really wanted that you got, maybe as a surprise when you walked in can you at least give our listeners a picture of what your reception looked like because it was something to be seen well I guess they can see all the pictures on social media

and there's a couple links that we've put out there with like hundreds of pictures and we've already put out the surprise day of video that I know that Ben had spoken about what that our our videographers Larev put together which was really really cool because

they put together a video like all of our reception and we watched it at the reception it was wacky super cool anybody out there who needs a wedding videographer anywhere throughout the country check out l rev it's uh i'm i'm shameless plug but i don't care it's uh it's l-e and then space r e vee they are unbelievable so i think the the thing that that was our reception i people made fun of us for saying that we wanted our wedding day to be a romantic experience and not just like a party in which Bruno Mars like uptown Funk You Up Up plays and like the most standard wedding music. I'm sorry. So we kind of created a musical

journey and I think one of the most special things about our reception was that we handpicked every single song that was played. I just my wedding planner thought I was nuts like he loved it but he also was like all these music cues was the hardest part of the day for him. So we had one of Jared's best friend, but also shout out to Troy Williams. If you need a wedding planner, Troy Williams of Simply Troy. It's very easy to find his info. So we had Jared's good friend, Frank. He played the song that I walked on the aisle to, which was Hanson's For Your Love.

So our romantic experience. And it's no different than Catherine Lowe saying that she wanted a grown sexy theme. Like, what the hell is? I remember watching their wedding. I mean, like, what is grown sexy? Anyway, it made sense when we all saw it put together. So first we had Frank heard sing for your love, and I walked down the aisle to that, and I had to have the doors open.

The church doors had to open at a specific note. And it was right before Frank said, like, is the modulation of the song. When our video comes out, the extended video, you guys will be able to see that whole moment. And that was just the coolest thing ever. But walking down the aisle was definitely the biggest blur of the night. People say, your wedding day is such a blur. You know, try to be in the moment. But I truly, I really feel like I, I lived in the moment a lot.

And Jared and I got more time together than I ever imagined. We didn't even have to take those five-minute breaks to be together. We really, we sacrificed some conversation with some guests. You know, we definitely said hi to everyone that we invited. And we had like, you know, a 30-second banter. If a song came on that was like super meaningful for me to dance with Jared, I was like, I'm so sorry I have to go. But yeah, let me go through the day in like in songs, in music. So then during our reception, during the cocktail party, we had a local band called the Timeless Band.

They're from Providence, Rhode Island. And all the kids are 19 years old. And they play hits from the 50s to the 80s. And they play great. I forget the spot in Providence, but it's like the row of all the Italian restaurants. So during the summer, they play out there. And it's just the cutest thing ever. And when we were first starting to wedding plan last September, we were at a restaurant and they were playing.

And we were with our wedding planner. And he was like, Jared, go dance with Ashley. So in Jared's head, Jared was like the only song I'll get up to was Earth Angel. But he didn't say it out loud to anyone, not even Troy. And I'm not even kidding you. 20 seconds later, they started to play Earth Angel, which I had never even heard before. And he was like, well, that's the song. So we had to have them perform.

I just want to show how, like, every little moment was, like, so personalized and just describe Jared and my story, unbelievably. So we had them play, and unfortunately, like, most bride and grooms don't get to really experience the cocktail hour, so we didn't even get to see them play. But everybody thought they were the cutest fit for the venue. Ben, did you get to see them play the timeless band? I definitely did They're awesome

They're great I actually I went up to them And I said you're like Other than the Taylor Pace band They're one of the best wedding like bands I've ever heard Oh that's so awesome Thank you

Yeah they were awesome So then for our first dance For the mother daughter The mother son dance The dad and daughter dance And just like The introduction of the bridal party We had David Cook

perform who is my favorite American Idol. Did I mention this last week? So that was like really freaking cool. It was wacky. But he was my favorite American Idol, one of my favorite musicians and one of like the only musicians that I've really converted Jared to, like loving as well. And we just, when the idea popped in our head to possibly ask him to perform at our wedding, we were like, could you imagine the warmth of his voice filling that venue? And then once it was in our head, we couldn't let it go. And we emailed his. amazing tour manager and he happened to be a bachelor fan. So it worked out well for us.

And then, but he wasn't free, okay? I'll tell you that. I'm not saying it worked out well for us and it was free. It certainly wasn't. And then after that, we had the, oh my God, we're so wacky. We had strings play. We had a quartet of strings. It was piano, two violins, and, um, uh,

And they played some of our favorite romantic movie scores during dinner, like during, you know, salad and stuff. And then we did some speeches. And then after that, we had the band come on. And the band was a Jordan Cohen band. And we hand-selected every, they were amazing. They were like, they were like rated one of the top, like, wedding bands in the country. And they played beauty in the beach.

they played the Lion King, Titanic, Aladdin, like again, more, more movie scores that we wanted to have vocals toured. It was really, really cool. And then after the music, after that band, we cut the cake and then we started more of the party. And my sister's boyfriend, Jack Ford, he went up and he DJed for about 45 minutes to like all the songs that were like party songs that I definitely wanted played. Yeah, it was the best. Okay. So that was our reception. I went after it. I'm telling you, it was one of the most beautiful place I've ever been. I took pictures and texted my family and friends and said, look at this place. It's beyond what I even could have imagined. We had a great week with you, Ashley. It was so fun celebrating you and Jared. It was special to everybody that was there. It was extremely special to me. I realized in that moment, really standing at your rehearsal dinner, I've always loved Jared. I think I, I take him for granted. I think I have always just viewed him as one of those people that I know will always be there that I can always trust. He's a good friend, a great friend, a great

human. And then for you, I felt in that moment this just deep appreciation for who you are, who you've been to so many people that stood up that night and said so many great things about you that were real and powerful and how you lay next to your friends and they're sick and you lay next to your friends through breakups and you're the friend that they all call it they're hurting and and I felt in that moment just a really deep appreciation for both you because you're both um I don't want to say great people I think that I think that uh diminishes a little bit of what I'm trying to get to is that this celebration of you guys was well deserved it was an honor to be there um the two of you as a couple is in the best sense a power couple and um it was a beautiful

wedding and I'm just I hope Ashley and I hope that you told you this I woke up the morning after the wedding and Jessica and I were talking and we just both hope that you felt as celebrated as all of us felt for you. We you and Jess being there. It was so sweet and I love seeing you two together. You were freaking adorable. My mom still is talking about the chemistry that you guys have and how adorable you are together um she's your perfect fit she really you guys makes so much sense and she fits in with the friend group and it's really really nice to see that and the speech that you gave at the rehearsal dinner was you know blew us away everybody's speeches at the rehearsal dinner i told my wedding planner i was like good luck tomorrow because i don't know how the rehearsal dinner could

be beat 10 speeches from you know half of each bridal party and it was just like wow i was sopping, but it was great. And I'm so glad we did the rehearsal dinner the way we did. And thank you for being there. And thank you for all the kind words that you said to us. It was just the most heartwarming thing. And that's a total

understatement. There isn't really words. I've got an idea for everybody. If you have any other questions about Ashley and Jared's wedding, reception, rehearsal, anything, honestly, I know this has been a hot topic. Email us at Ashley at iHeartmedia.com. We'll read through those emails. And if we have enough emails. We'll do a special episode where Ashley can just answer some of your questions

about the process. But until then, we're going to move on from her wedding because we have more Paradise to talk about in the upcoming weeks. Ashley, it's great to have you back. It's amazing to be able to sit with you and just discuss life again. Let's keep this thing rolling for another couple episodes of Paradise. Ashley, I've been Ben. I've been Ashley. See ya. We'll talk to you soon, everybody. Follow the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcast on IHeartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to 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. The U.S. Open is here and on my podcast, Good Game with Sarah Spain. I'm breaking down the players, the predictions, the pressure. And of course, the honey deuses, the signature cocktail of the U.S. Open.

The U.S. Open has gotten to be a very wonderfully experiential sporting event. To hear this and more, listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain, and IHeart women's sports production in partnership with deep blue sports and entertainment on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by Novartis, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports Network.

I was diagnosed with cancer on Friday and cancer free the next Friday. No chemo, no radiation, none of that. On a recent episode of Culture Raises Us podcast, I sat down with Warren Campbell, Grammy-winning producer, pastor, and music executive to talk about the beats, the business, and the legacy behind some of the biggest names

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Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.