Speaker 1: This is that Ben and Nashley I Almost Famous Podcast
Speaker 1: Bachelor Countdown.
Speaker 2: Hey guys, welcome to the Almost Famous podcast. Today we
Speaker 2: are continuing our series leading up to Grand Season in
Speaker 2: which we are interviewing a ton of former bachelors. This
Speaker 2: is episode two with the Prince Lorenzo Burghesy. Welcome to
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Happy New Year, and thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Okay, so Lorenzo, please tell us all how
Speaker 2: your prince and like you come across to me very American.
Speaker 2: I look at your Instagram, You're very entrenched in American culture.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, are you an American citizen and are you still
Speaker 2: a prince?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Well, I'm an American and Italian citizen. I was
Speaker 3: born in Italy most United States when I was five,
Speaker 3: so I am pretty much an American now because I'm
Speaker 3: fifty two, so I've been here for forty seven years.
Speaker 3: The prince title came back in the well. It started
Speaker 3: in the sixteen hundreds. My relative was Camillo Borghesi. It
Speaker 3: was Pope Paul the fifth. He was Pope from sixteen
Speaker 3: oh five to sixteen twenty one, and back in the
Speaker 3: sixteen hundreds, the pope was like a king he had
Speaker 3: his own army. At that time, my family controlled about
Speaker 3: let's say, a third of the land of Italy. And
Speaker 3: because he had power, he also had the power to
Speaker 3: bestow titles on different family members and heads of the family,
Speaker 3: and my side of the family received five different titles,
Speaker 3: everything from duke to prince. So it's trickled down from
Speaker 3: generation to generation. I've said this and means absolutely nothing
Speaker 3: regarding power. It's just sort of like the Colosseum is
Speaker 3: there to you know, you go to the Coloseum in
Speaker 3: Rome and there's history there, and it's just states that
Speaker 3: I'm part of a family that helped to, you know,
Speaker 3: build Italy and create Rome.
Speaker 1: Without those that know Italian history, the obviously that your
Speaker 1: family's name does carry so much influence and historical significance.
Speaker 4: Do you have an issue with the Medicis.
Speaker 3: I haven't met him. The only issue I have was
Speaker 3: with one of my great uncles who was playing cards
Speaker 3: and how to Medici castle and lost in a card games.
Speaker 3: That's the only story I have my father. I go
Speaker 3: back with my family occasionally into Rome and he gives
Speaker 3: me a little history and I learned a little bit
Speaker 3: more and more, and we were in Tuscany one day
Speaker 3: and driving around and he stops and he showed me
Speaker 3: this castle and he said, yeah, that used to be
Speaker 3: it was his uncle's castle and he was and he said,
Speaker 3: I used to go there and we lost it in
Speaker 3: a card game.
Speaker 2: So no, wait for real, that's that was so good,
Speaker 2: my gosh. Okay, So if you're a prince, you come
Speaker 2: from this very well known Italian family, why did your
Speaker 2: family come to America when you're five?
Speaker 3: I asked my father the same question because every time
Speaker 3: I go to Rome, I mean, I love Italy and
Speaker 3: Rome's my favorite international city. And when my father was
Speaker 3: growing up, he tells me a story. How you know,
Speaker 3: he grew up during World War two when he was
Speaker 3: a little kid, and he said, at that time he
Speaker 3: didn't realize anything about our background. But the family was
Speaker 3: taken to Florence and he stayed in He and his
Speaker 3: brother stayed in the penthouse in one of the five
Speaker 3: star hotels in Florence while the war was going on.
Speaker 3: So he said to him, you know, everything was great
Speaker 3: because they played soccer with the soldiers up on the
Speaker 3: penthouse there and he had a great time. And then
Speaker 3: they started bombing Lawrence and taking out the bridges and
Speaker 3: they would drop flyers telling everybody to get out of Florence.
Speaker 3: And then he moved to another hotel, which was I
Speaker 3: think a one star hotel and into the basement. And
Speaker 3: at that point he realized that war wasn't so great.
Speaker 3: And when the war ended, a lot of our property
Speaker 3: had been damaged, a lot of the family property had
Speaker 3: been damaged, and my grandfather at the time realized that
Speaker 3: he had to.
Speaker 4: Go to work.
Speaker 3: That everything, as you know from the sixteen hundreds on
Speaker 3: with the family accumulated, was ending quickly. And for example,
Speaker 3: nineteen oh one, the Roman government took over the gallery
Speaker 3: of the Villa Borghese, which is Gallery of Borghese now
Speaker 3: and all the property. And the way they did that
Speaker 3: actually was nineteen oh two, was that they nationalized it.
Speaker 3: And they were able to nationalize it by taxing the
Speaker 3: family an amount that we couldn't pay, so we had
Speaker 3: to hand it over to the Roman municipality. So it
Speaker 3: started in the early nineteen hundreds. But after the war
Speaker 3: we lost a lot of property and my grandfather realized
Speaker 3: he had to go to work. And what he did
Speaker 3: before this, which is what my father told me, it
Speaker 3: tells me is that he was a hunter and what
Speaker 3: they would do is go hunting almost every other day.
Speaker 4: And the hobby.
Speaker 2: What's that like a hobby?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, but that's what they did, go horseback riding
Speaker 3: and hunting for pheasants, and it was a big thing.
Speaker 3: It's like, you know men that play golf now and
Speaker 3: they talk about their golf game. This is what my
Speaker 3: grandfather grew up doing and that's all he knew. And
Speaker 3: then when everything was essentially taken away after the war,
Speaker 3: he's like, I need to go to work, and he
Speaker 3: became head of Ford Motor Cars then. And then my
Speaker 3: grandmother also realized that maybe it's a good thing that
Speaker 3: she goes to work, and she had the idea of
Speaker 3: creating lipsticks that match your wardrobe. At the time, I
Speaker 3: think there were only three lipstick colors and she's like,
Speaker 3: you know what, I would like different lipstick shades to
Speaker 3: match everything. I'm worrying. So she met with Charles Revson,
Speaker 3: who was the head of Revlan at the time, and
Speaker 3: they decided to create a cosmetic line called Princess Marchella Borghese,
Speaker 3: which she launched, and in order to do so, she
Speaker 3: had to get permission from the pope at the time
Speaker 3: in order to start a business, and it was really
Speaker 3: frowned upon from what my father tells me from other
Speaker 3: members of the family, because it was the first time
Speaker 3: that Borgheses actually had to go to work. When my
Speaker 3: father was twenty one, his first job was working for
Speaker 3: his mother. He was working at Princess Marchella Borghese Cosmetics.
Speaker 3: He got married shortly after that to my mother. He
Speaker 3: met her at a wedding in Florence and they spoke.
Speaker 3: They had maybe three sentences in three months they were married.
Speaker 3: So now he had a family. My mom was living
Speaker 3: in the United States. She moved to Rome with him,
Speaker 3: and he realized that if he kept working with my grandmother,
Speaker 3: his mother at the time, that he was sort of stuck.
Speaker 3: He was, you know, the son of the founder and
Speaker 3: he didn't want that. And at that time, believe it
Speaker 3: or not, it was difficult as Borgesy to get a job. Okay,
Speaker 3: you just and I don't understand the real background why,
Speaker 3: but he said, listen, you know, you just can't go
Speaker 3: into a company and ask for a job. There was
Speaker 3: it was sort of frowned upon. So he knew that
Speaker 3: there was another thing. At times at the time, didn't
Speaker 3: really work very hard, and he knew that he wanted
Speaker 3: to bring us up with a good work ethic, and
Speaker 3: he realized that it wasn't going to happen in Italy
Speaker 3: and to get away from Italy, and at that time
Speaker 3: we decided to move the family to Paris and we
Speaker 3: lived there for two years. And he said, you know,
Speaker 3: the real place to live is the United States, because
Speaker 3: that's the real place of opportunity and it sort of
Speaker 3: leaves the family history behind and we can start from scratch.
Speaker 3: So my father really moved us here with nothing. I mean,
Speaker 3: he didn't have a job. He did have he did
Speaker 3: go to Oxford for his underground and then he went
Speaker 3: to UPenn for grad school. So obviously he was fluent
Speaker 3: in English and had an American education, least in business school.
Speaker 3: And he just my father's an incredible work ethic. And
Speaker 3: he also doesn't like to talk about the past very often.
Speaker 3: And I don't know why either. It's just he just
Speaker 3: grew up in a different time than I did. But
Speaker 3: I learned more and more about our history every time
Speaker 3: I talked to him, and every time we go to
Speaker 3: Italy together. But it's you know, some people love to
Speaker 3: talk about everything, and he doesn't. He's more passionate about
Speaker 3: having a family that has you know, that's that understands
Speaker 3: what it is to be a family. Priority is his family, work, ethic,
Speaker 3: and friends. And he realized that wasn't gonna happen in Italy.
Speaker 3: And that's sort of a short story of why we
Speaker 3: moved here.
Speaker 1: It's so interesting to me picking up on some of
Speaker 1: that stuff you said, you're your grandfather realized he had
Speaker 1: to go back to work, so he took over Ford
Speaker 1: Motor Company. What a wild decision to go back to
Speaker 1: work and say, hey, you know what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take over one of the largest automobile manufacturers
Speaker 1: in the country or in the world.
Speaker 3: And it was our first job. Yeah, it was. It
Speaker 3: wasn't them. And then my grandparents and I don't know
Speaker 3: the whole story either, but they I think got exhausted
Speaker 3: being in Rome, and my grandma would tell me, you know,
Speaker 3: every night they had to go out, they had to entertain.
Speaker 3: It was really tiring, and so they decided to leave
Speaker 3: and they moved to Switzerland and they ever since I
Speaker 3: was a kid, I visit them in Switzerland, not Italy.
Speaker 3: I would go with them in the Summertimes Italy, but
Speaker 3: they live primarily in Switzerland and they just said they
Speaker 3: just wanted to get away from Italy.
Speaker 1: Well, not to make a massive turn here, but your
Speaker 1: background now leads me to this question. You have the
Speaker 1: prince title, as you mentioned, based on your family history.
Speaker 1: But I'm assuming, and tell me if I'm wrong. But
Speaker 1: I'm assuming now in your work and in your personal life,
Speaker 1: you don't interest in You don't introduce yourself as Prince Lorenzo.
Speaker 3: I don't I feel you know. I I think if
Speaker 3: you do, you're doing it for the wrong reasons, right, sure,
Speaker 3: and it's not really genuine. But I also have to
Speaker 3: look back. You know, there's there's blessings to it too,
Speaker 3: because I know there's no way that I would have
Speaker 3: gotten chosen for the Bachelor if I didn't have the history.
Speaker 3: And one of the first things they asked me when
Speaker 3: they interviewed me is like, why why don't we know
Speaker 3: anything about you? Do you have any head shots? Et cetera.
Speaker 3: I was like, head shots, I'm not a model. Like,
Speaker 3: if you guys looking for a model, I'm not your guy.
Speaker 3: I'm just a regular guy living in New York City.
Speaker 3: That happened to have an interesting background. And when I
Speaker 3: met with them, I remember, you know, we looked at
Speaker 3: it at a map of Rome and obviously Billi Borgiaes
Speaker 3: is a huge part of it. It's like Central Park
Speaker 3: of Rome, and they started looking at the history and
Speaker 3: that's when it really became exciting for them. So, you know,
Speaker 3: I used it in that sense because I knew that
Speaker 3: they wanted to do it, and I figure, obviously not
Speaker 3: a lot of people have the background, and if I
Speaker 3: can get an edge, and you know, because life is
Speaker 3: very hard, I will take it. But I don't like
Speaker 3: to do it when I'm around, you know, friends and
Speaker 3: just meeting people, because it's just I don't feel it's
Speaker 3: necessary and I think it's a sign of weakness when
Speaker 3: you have to introduce yourself that way.
Speaker 1: But it's an incredible like you said, it's an incredible
Speaker 1: history and it's an incredible gift, and it is a
Speaker 1: title that is true to you. I'm wondering, though, is
Speaker 1: there any I mean resentment on your end that the
Speaker 1: show did use it, because now when people you know
Speaker 1: that are fans of the show here your name, they
Speaker 1: immediately associate it with Prince. Are you is that something
Speaker 1: that you're proud of or are you kind of like
Speaker 1: I wish that wasn't the case because I'd prefer not
Speaker 1: to have people know me in that way.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm realistic about it. And again, if it
Speaker 3: wasn't for the title and the and the family history,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't have been picked for the show, especially because
Speaker 3: of the family history. And you know, I'm not upset
Speaker 3: that they did it. I think they had to do it,
Speaker 3: and I think it's it helps ratings. I think that
Speaker 3: if it was just Lorenzo Borghese hanging out in New
Speaker 3: York City as a bachelor, I don't think the ratings
Speaker 3: would have been, you know, up there as they were.
Speaker 3: I understand it's a business and they use the show
Speaker 3: as a business, and I said, you know what, why
Speaker 3: don't I use this as a business too, And as
Speaker 3: I said, you know, if I can, I will use
Speaker 3: it when I think it's necessary, when there's there's an
Speaker 3: opportunity that I don't think I can get without it.
Speaker 3: That's a gift that was given to me just because
Speaker 3: of my family history. But as a person, I don't
Speaker 3: use it and I'm not upset when they When they
Speaker 3: do use it because I realize it's opened a lot
Speaker 3: of doors for me, Like you know, I have an
Speaker 3: animal charity and I was able to start it and
Speaker 3: really grow it because of the of the Bachelor, and
Speaker 3: the Bachelor's opened a lot of doors for me. And again,
Speaker 3: I won't have opened up those doors for me if
Speaker 3: there wasn't that family history.
Speaker 2: Were the casting producers on the hunt for a prince
Speaker 2: because this was back in the day where the bachelor
Speaker 2: wasn't necessarily from the previous season, but often just a
Speaker 2: very wealthy uh you know, I don't know how to
Speaker 2: else describe it, like desirable desire, like yeah, Desira, there
Speaker 2: you go, Yeah, thank you man.
Speaker 3: So this was two thousand and six, and I think
Speaker 3: a couple of years before they almost canceled it. The
Speaker 3: ratings had dropped and then they picked up again. And
Speaker 3: I believe the season before mine was in Paris, and
Speaker 3: I think it was the first and I could be wrong,
Speaker 3: but I think it was the first time they filmed abroad,
Speaker 3: like a season outside of the US, and I believe
Speaker 3: the ratings were pretty good for that season, and so
Speaker 3: they were trying to, I think, look for something different,
Speaker 3: and they were trying to find an angle, and I'm
Speaker 3: sure they had a lot of people that they were
Speaker 3: looking at too that had a different sort of story
Speaker 3: to tell. And I think that they love the fact that, hey,
Speaker 3: maybe we can get you know, like this fairy tale
Speaker 3: prince princess wedding at the end, and you know, if
Speaker 3: I had been from a different country, that wasn't as
Speaker 3: pretty to film as you know, and like being in
Speaker 3: Rome is a beautiful place to film, and it's obviously
Speaker 3: very scenic, but also extremely expensive. And I think that
Speaker 3: they told me they would never film in Italy again
Speaker 3: because it was so expensive and every time you turn
Speaker 3: on a light switch there you need ten ten crew
Speaker 3: members from Italy to do it, like basically, like it
Speaker 3: was like unionized everywhere. I believe they really ripped off
Speaker 3: ABC and Warner Brothers because they knew it was it
Speaker 3: was a TV show, but it was extremely expensive, and
Speaker 3: you know, I don't really know what they were looking for,
Speaker 3: but I think they were looking for something different and
Speaker 3: that whole you know, history of the family and being
Speaker 3: able to film at Villa Borgaze and being able to
Speaker 3: film all over the Borghesy properties in Rome was something
Speaker 3: that they were excited about.
Speaker 4: I was excited.
Speaker 1: I'm excited about it just because I love Italy. My
Speaker 1: wife is Italian and we just went and I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is this has to be one of the coolest
Speaker 1: moments for everybody on the crew and cast.
Speaker 3: Did you go to Rome or where'd you go?
Speaker 4: We went to Rome and we went to Florence.
Speaker 1: That's why when we were prepping for this, I was
Speaker 1: very familiar with the brig acy name and the influence,
Speaker 1: and it was very exciting for me now to speak
Speaker 1: with you because I think this is such an iconic
Speaker 1: season of The Bachelor, and we've talked so much now
Speaker 1: about your family history that I think so many people
Speaker 1: are going to be intrigued by because I think, yes,
Speaker 1: you had the prince title, but I think people have
Speaker 1: forgotten exactly how.
Speaker 4: What that means to you and what that means.
Speaker 1: To your family, and that you're still here in the
Speaker 1: United States and that you don't live in a castle
Speaker 1: in Rome. I think this is going to be really helpful,
Speaker 1: But I want to transition because you have a huge
Speaker 1: thing happening in your life. You just got engaged, and
Speaker 1: this engagement is something that we want to celebrate because
Speaker 1: that's why The Bachelor exists is to help people find love.
Speaker 1: You're fifty two years old, though, and so my question
Speaker 1: before we transition into the engagement is, with everything that
Speaker 1: we've talked about so far, and now that you're fifty
Speaker 1: two and you just got engaged, how much of The
Speaker 1: Bachelor is still a part of your life? Do people
Speaker 1: still bring it up? Does it still help you get
Speaker 1: doors open? Is it still something that you talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, in once a week, once a day, once
Speaker 1: a year. How much of The Bachelor still is a
Speaker 1: part of your life experience right now.
Speaker 3: I would say maybe one percent at best. I don't
Speaker 3: talk about it. My fiance obviously despised, not obviously, but
Speaker 3: despises the fact that I was on the show. You know,
Speaker 3: it was very hard for her to tell her parents
Speaker 3: that she was, first of all, dating an older guy
Speaker 3: and secondly that he was on the Bachelor. And I
Speaker 3: can understand, you know, one day I'll be a father,
Speaker 3: and I think I'd be pretty upsetset about it too
Speaker 3: in a way. It but you know, for I can
Speaker 3: always defend myself and saying, hey, listen, you know, people
Speaker 3: don't get these opportunities often, and if you get an opportunity,
Speaker 3: I never want to be the person that thinks of
Speaker 3: what if, you know, I like to if I gets
Speaker 3: something unique, I like to try, and if it didn't
Speaker 3: work out, it didn't work out. But I was I
Speaker 3: was given an opportunity that most people, the ninety nine
Speaker 3: point nine nine percent of the population, will never get,
Speaker 3: and so I don't regret doing it. But as part
Speaker 3: of my life now it's it's really non existing. People
Speaker 3: don't recognize me anymore. I remember it lasted for about
Speaker 3: five years and then it started slowing down. And now
Speaker 3: with you know, with how media has changed too. You know,
Speaker 3: everyone's preoccupied with with their social media there through the TikTok, Netflix,
Speaker 3: everything else is going on, and so you know, talking
Speaker 3: about a show those in two thousand and six, you know,
Speaker 3: it makes me sound ancient almost at this time. So
Speaker 3: it's not really brought up. If I'm doing I do
Speaker 3: a lot of charity work, and when I'm introduced, they
Speaker 3: will they will get my history, like and they'll say
Speaker 3: that I was the Bacheter and things like that. But
Speaker 3: day to day it's it's not brought up. And I know,
Speaker 3: you know, I work with a lot of people that
Speaker 3: all of a sudden I'm known for ten years and
Speaker 3: they'll call me like, wait a second, I know you
Speaker 3: were the Bachelor. That's like, yeah, Like why don't you
Speaker 3: tell me? I was like, why would I bring that up?
Speaker 3: You know, it's just nothing that I would just.
Speaker 4: Have Prince Lorenzo former Bachelor's.
Speaker 3: It just doesn't come up. But what's interesting though, sort
Speaker 3: of going back to the Bachelor and to realize that
Speaker 3: it did have an influence on me, is that we
Speaker 3: filmed the show primarily in a town called for Scotty
Speaker 3: and I and you probably didn't get to see it
Speaker 3: from you probab didn't go there from Rome, but it's
Speaker 3: about an hour outside of Rome's. It's up on the
Speaker 3: hilltop and it overlooks the city. On a bright beautiful day,
Speaker 3: you could actually see you could see Rome in the distance.
Speaker 3: In for Scotti, they found a billity that used to
Speaker 3: be owned by buy my relatives, And I wrote a
Speaker 3: book on one relative that actually lost her son there,
Speaker 3: and that was Paulinea Bonaparte Borghese, who was Napoleon's sibling.
Speaker 3: It was his sister and she was only sibling that
Speaker 3: went to Elbow with him when he was exiled. She
Speaker 3: married at Borghese. She married Camillo Borghese, and it wasn't
Speaker 3: a marriage out of love, but it was a forced marriage,
Speaker 3: an alliance with the Vatican and in Italy. And one
Speaker 3: of the reasons why there's a Borghese area in the
Speaker 3: Louver Museum is because Napoleon forced Camillo to ship paintings
Speaker 3: from Rome to Paris. Okay, so there's he gave. He
Speaker 3: gave Napoleon a lot of paintings. But going back from Frascatti,
Speaker 3: it used to be called Villa Borghese, there where Paulina
Speaker 3: Bonaparte Borghese lived for a while and her son died
Speaker 3: there and that's where The Bachelor was filmed in this
Speaker 3: in this villa, and there are frescoes of my family
Speaker 3: painted on the wall. And I didn't even know this
Speaker 3: villa existed until I was on The Bachelor, and it's
Speaker 3: my whole family history is right there. And in the
Speaker 3: same town it was ann or miss villa called Villa
Speaker 3: Aldo Aldo Brondini. My tie is terrible, but the Aldo
Speaker 3: Brondini family was another huge family in Italy. The pope
Speaker 3: prior to Camillo Borghese was an Aldo Brundini. He is
Speaker 3: buried in the Borghese crypt in Rome, and he's related
Speaker 3: to us because the family had no more males left.
Speaker 3: So another Camillo Borghese married Olympia Aldro Bondini and changed
Speaker 3: his name to Aldre Bondini, so that family is related
Speaker 3: to the Borgheses now. And I said, the pope is
Speaker 3: there's we have two popes in our crypt ones are
Speaker 3: borghesian Ones and alder Berndini, but they're both affiliated with
Speaker 3: the family. And that gigantic villa is where my fiancee,
Speaker 3: Dosh and I are getting married in June, so in
Speaker 3: the same town that The Bachelor was filmed in and
Speaker 3: in that and I used to see that villa every
Speaker 3: day and it was enormous and it was my favor
Speaker 3: one there besides the Borghese one. And I didn't know
Speaker 3: the history of it until I started doing the research
Speaker 3: for this wedding. And they don't allow a lot of
Speaker 3: weddings there, but they do it if by, you know,
Speaker 3: if the family says okay, and they said okay, that's well. Fortunately.
Speaker 3: But it all sort of ties back to, you know,
Speaker 3: being in FRESCOTTI doing the show, because I would have
Speaker 3: never even known that either of these places existed.
Speaker 4: That's cool, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean it's it's amazing, and I do I
Speaker 1: want to lean into then, this beautiful love story that
Speaker 1: is happening right now.
Speaker 4: You're gonna get married soon. Do you have a date
Speaker 4: or are you sharing the date?
Speaker 3: Yeah? No, it's June fourteenth.
Speaker 1: June fourteenth of this year coming up. It's an exciting time.
Speaker 1: You did get engaged in Bora, Bora. There's a ton
Speaker 1: of fun stories to this. I want to start with
Speaker 1: the question that seems to be out there. I don't
Speaker 1: know where our investigative team found it, but you hit
Speaker 1: the ring in your underwear.
Speaker 2: Right, very princely?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 4: Why? And how? And did she? Did she know this
Speaker 4: after saying yes? Or before?
Speaker 3: Oh? After like a couple of days after I okay,
Speaker 3: the reason being you know you're you're married, right?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: Okay? So first of all, you're pretty nervous doing.
Speaker 4: This, right goodness gracious?
Speaker 3: And I had my mom bring over the ring because
Speaker 3: I didn't want it. You know, obviously you don't want
Speaker 3: to put it in your bag, so so you want
Speaker 3: on your carry on. But if they go through your
Speaker 3: carry on in front of your your future fiance, hopefully
Speaker 3: your future fiance. You don't want them point out the ring.
Speaker 3: So I had my mom take the ring for me.
Speaker 3: We were celebrating her eightieth birthday. There were twenty eight
Speaker 3: of us on this trip, and I'm like, including my
Speaker 3: fiance's parents and her sister. So I was like, what
Speaker 3: a perfect time to do it. And if I don't
Speaker 3: do it, you'll probably break up with me as soon
Speaker 3: as we get back, all right, it's been over two
Speaker 3: years since I was dating her. So I have this
Speaker 3: sunset cruise planned and I put on my jeans and
Speaker 3: they're pretty tight, because I don't like to wear like
Speaker 3: really baggy clothes unless you know, I'm in my I'm
Speaker 3: in my place, just hanging out on the weekend. But
Speaker 3: if I'm going to propose, I want something that looks
Speaker 3: sort of decent on me. So I've got these tight jeans,
Speaker 3: tight pants, and a shirt and the ring is in
Speaker 3: a pretty big box. So I put it in my
Speaker 3: pants pocket and it's bulging out, and I already thought
Speaker 3: that she was. She suspected somebody was going on because
Speaker 3: it's just two of us going on the sunset cruise
Speaker 3: and Bora Bora. So I was like, you know, if
Speaker 3: she sees a big bulge in my pocket, She's gonna
Speaker 3: know what's happening.
Speaker 4: She's going to know what's a ring?
Speaker 3: It has to be a ring, its because I don't
Speaker 3: know what else would look like a square in my
Speaker 3: pocket with a big bulge like that. All right, So
Speaker 3: and I'm like running out of the room. I'm like,
Speaker 3: all right, where I put this? The only place I
Speaker 3: could put it that had a little room was in
Speaker 3: the front of my pants. And then I thought, then
Speaker 3: her line on the boat, and I thought she was
Speaker 3: gonna sort of she was holding my hand and like
Speaker 3: her hand was on my leg. I was worried that
Speaker 3: her hand would like sort of reach over by oxid
Speaker 3: and feel this.
Speaker 4: Maybe you happy to see me? Or is that a
Speaker 4: ring in your pocket?
Speaker 3: This is going to be this is going to be
Speaker 3: a problem. So that's when I got up and I
Speaker 3: went to the the It wasn't a very big boat,
Speaker 3: but it had it had a downstairs area, and I
Speaker 3: went downstairs, pulled the ring out and put it under
Speaker 3: a pillow. And then I went back down there when
Speaker 3: the time was right and proposed. But yeah, that's why,
Speaker 3: that's why I had to put it in my pants.
Speaker 2: So you didn't propose on your season of The Bachelor.
Speaker 2: How much flack for that did you get from producers
Speaker 2: in the network, especially probably since they were trying to
Speaker 2: go with their fairy tale happily ever after.
Speaker 3: Storyline because of NDA's.
Speaker 2: Oh come on, they've are expired.
Speaker 3: Oh no, no, no, that was me. You can't even
Speaker 3: find my season? Have you tried looking up my season?
Speaker 2: Are you sure it's not on Apple? Because Apple seems
Speaker 2: to have.
Speaker 4: All of them.
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm gonna look it up right now as
Speaker 2: we speak. You tell that, you tell them as much
Speaker 2: as you can.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying they weren't happy.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, so then you don't propose. Have you
Speaker 2: ever proposed until this point?
Speaker 3: Yeah? You know what's what was?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 3: I was the wrong person for the show for many reasons,
Speaker 3: and one that really hit me. And you're you're gonna
Speaker 3: think I'm an awful person. But I'll tell you why
Speaker 3: I ended up doing this. I was engaged prior to
Speaker 3: the show. Okay, I dated the girl was engaged to
Speaker 3: for seven years. I got engaged and we went to
Speaker 3: Rome to plan the wedding, and I broke off the engagement.
Speaker 3: It just things just didn't feel right. And I made
Speaker 3: the right decision because she got married shortly after, has kids,
Speaker 3: she's happy, and I think it was, you know, it
Speaker 3: was better off doing it before things got completely out
Speaker 3: of control with the engagement. So when I was on
Speaker 3: the show, I knew she and her friends were watching.
Speaker 3: I knew we were in a place that we were
Speaker 3: supposed to get married, and I knew it was like
Speaker 3: very hurtful. And I had this in my head the
Speaker 3: whole time, and I'm like, I can't be I can't
Speaker 3: do it. I got them like I can't, I can't
Speaker 3: go through with this. It's you know, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: I don't even really know these girls. I was there
Speaker 3: for two months, you know, and I'm not gonna I'm
Speaker 3: not sharing any secrets. Everyone knows this. You know, you're
Speaker 3: filmed essentially the entire time, so you never really get
Speaker 3: to understand what these people are like when they're not
Speaker 3: on camera. You don't really You've never fought with these people.
Speaker 3: These girls never met my friends. I never saw these
Speaker 3: girls with other guys. Like what happens that they have
Speaker 3: a couple of cocktails and they're you know, they hit
Speaker 3: on every guy at a barrow. I don't know. All
Speaker 3: I know is that I'm the center of attention. They're
Speaker 3: excited to see me, but I haven't experienced anything real
Speaker 3: with them, and I'm about to propose and then also
Speaker 3: really hurt the person that I was in love with,
Speaker 3: you know, prior to this, and I couldn't do it.
Speaker 3: I couldn't do it. And then I had another ex
Speaker 3: girlfriend that I dated through high school, throughout my entire
Speaker 3: college for nine years, my first like real girlfriend who
Speaker 3: I was still talking to, you know, and you know,
Speaker 3: I was still like in love with her, and I
Speaker 3: know she like loved me, and I was like, I can't,
Speaker 3: I can't hurt. I can't do this in front of
Speaker 3: in front of them, you know. And I didn't know
Speaker 3: that before I left, but you know, probably six weeks
Speaker 3: into it, I was really you know, I couldn't sleep.
Speaker 3: I just I didn't feel right. And you know, unless
Speaker 3: I really was one hundred percent positive that this was
Speaker 3: my true love on the show, which is very hard
Speaker 3: to do because again, you know, they don't really know me.
Speaker 3: They're not with me in my in my everyday work
Speaker 3: life in New York City that you know, they've they've
Speaker 3: just experienced this vacation for two months where everything's paid
Speaker 3: for and there's there's nothing to argue about. So I
Speaker 3: didn't think it was worth hurting the people that I
Speaker 3: really truly cared for before the show just for a
Speaker 3: TV show to propose when I wasn't sure.
Speaker 2: It seems like you never got wrapped up in the
Speaker 2: bachelor bubble.
Speaker 3: I I I, you know, I didn't really. I saw
Speaker 3: maybe two two shows, not series, but two Batchelor episodes
Speaker 3: before saying yes. And you know, I say, everything happens
Speaker 3: for a reason. And and it was by coincidence too.
Speaker 3: After my breakup of my engagement, I was I always
Speaker 3: had a girlfriend, like ever since high school, and I
Speaker 3: was all of a sudden, I didn't have a girlfriend.
Speaker 3: And I was, you know, working on my own in
Speaker 3: New York City. I didn't have an office. I worked
Speaker 3: out of my apartment, and I was like, I'm sort
Speaker 3: of lonely. And I went out and I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: just and I had two tickets. I've told this story before,
Speaker 3: but I had two tickets to go see Billy Joel
Speaker 3: at Madison Square Garden and they were like third row
Speaker 3: center on the floor. I was like, I'm gonna go
Speaker 3: to this party that I was invited to and I'll
Speaker 3: find a girl on invited to go see Billy Joel.
Speaker 3: I go to this party and ask maybe ten girls,
Speaker 3: hey what are you doing? Like you know, I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm Lorenz and I to meet you. I've got an
Speaker 3: extra going to go see Billy Joe. You want to go?
Speaker 3: And I turned down ten times. Nobody would say yes
Speaker 3: to me. Then I went to my friend. I'm like, hey,
Speaker 3: you want to come see Billy Joel with me? He's
Speaker 3: like you me and the piano. Man, No, man, I'm
Speaker 3: not going with you. I was like, all right, whatever.
Speaker 3: I went by myself and I go to mass Madison
Speaker 3: Square Gard who was in the middle of the wintertime.
Speaker 3: And I go to my seats and there's two chairs
Speaker 3: and they both have these jackets on them from the
Speaker 3: people sitting to the side of the chairs. And I've
Speaker 3: got two beers in my hand, and the person who's
Speaker 3: jackets they were takes both jackets off off the chairs.
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, no, you can. You can keep the
Speaker 3: jackets on one chair, Like aren't these both your tickets?
Speaker 3: And I said yeah, Like did you come with anybody?
Speaker 3: And I said no, and I'm watching Billy Joel. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I am such a loser, Like I'm at this concert
Speaker 3: by myself, Like, how is this possible.
Speaker 2: I don't know how it's possible that nobody agreed to
Speaker 2: you to go to Billy Joel. It wasn't like you
Speaker 2: asked to go to like weird thing.
Speaker 3: It was a billion masterve square guard. I know you
Speaker 3: don't know me, but come on, you don't have to
Speaker 3: talk to me. Just watch a pano Man play, you know.
Speaker 3: And I told myself during this concert, if anything comes
Speaker 3: my way, I'm taking it. And sure enough, like two
Speaker 3: weeks later, I get that call. But I forgot one
Speaker 3: of them was important part of the stories. Prior to
Speaker 3: that Billy Joel concert, I was dating this girl that
Speaker 3: lived in my in my building. But i'd been lowly
Speaker 3: before then when my engagement broke up, and then I
Speaker 3: started dating this girl and it was like for a month,
Speaker 3: and I had tickets to go see the Rolling Stones,
Speaker 3: like really good tickets to the Rolling Stones. I go
Speaker 3: to her apartment and she's watching The Bachelor. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: this show is still on and she's like yeah, And
Speaker 3: I guess it was a rerun because the show was
Speaker 3: at eight, so she must have been she must have
Speaker 3: recorded or something, and she goes, it's almost over. Let's
Speaker 3: just wait till it's over. I'm like all right, So
Speaker 3: that show ends, we go see the Rolling Stones and
Speaker 3: she's like blowing me off the entire time, and after
Speaker 3: the constut like, what's wrong with you? Like, we just
Speaker 3: want to go see the Rolling Stones? You want a
Speaker 3: bad mood the whole time. She goes, yeah, you know
Speaker 3: what're you're moving? And I was moving that following week
Speaker 3: out of the apartment into another one, and she says,
Speaker 3: I'm Jewish, you're Catholic. I don't see this going anywhere,
Speaker 3: so you know, and now that you're out of the building,
Speaker 3: there's no reason to continue. I was like, all right,
Speaker 3: you could have told me that before the concert. I
Speaker 3: would have maybe brought somebody else that I would have
Speaker 3: had fun with. You just broke up with me after
Speaker 3: the Rolling Stones. So then I go to the Billy
Speaker 3: Joe concert by myself. I get a call two weeks
Speaker 3: later to be interviewed for a show that my ex
Speaker 3: girlfriend was obsessed with. I'm like, hell, why not, right?
Speaker 3: And I never told her that I got picked, and
Speaker 3: then she found out and text me said, I just
Speaker 3: heard your night. You're the next Bachelor's that truly? I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I hope you enjoyed my season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know you're a better man than me, Lorenzo,
Speaker 1: because when people ten women would say no to going
Speaker 1: to the Billy Jewel concert with me, that's when I
Speaker 1: would start introducing myself as Prince Benjamin Higgins. You should
Speaker 1: want to hang out with me because I've got a title, Lorenzo.
Speaker 1: As we close up here, though, I do want to
Speaker 1: give you a moment to tell all of us why
Speaker 1: your now fiance is so perfect for you after two
Speaker 1: years of dating. As you said at your mom's eightieth
Speaker 1: birthday celebration with twenty plus family members there, you did propose,
Speaker 1: she did say, yes, you're getting married in June. Why
Speaker 1: was she the right partner for you now for the
Speaker 1: rest of your life.
Speaker 3: Well, I'll start by this. I say it's my first marriage,
Speaker 3: and I go right to my second. I've learned a
Speaker 3: lot in my life. I've been in many different relationships,
Speaker 3: and you learned something from each one, and I never
Speaker 3: regret anyone I've had a relationship with. I think it
Speaker 3: makes you stronger. I think you learn a lot, and
Speaker 3: most importantly, you learn what you love and what you
Speaker 3: don't love of a person. And when I met Dasha,
Speaker 3: you know, I didn't wasn't love at first sight or
Speaker 3: anything like that. It was I think she's a very
Speaker 3: pretty girl. But when I got to know her is
Speaker 3: when it really app And first, first of all, she's
Speaker 3: a huge animal lover. I'm a huge animal lover. You know,
Speaker 3: the worse off a dog is, the more she wants it.
Speaker 3: We have one dog with two legs, there's another one
Speaker 3: with one eye and no jaw. We just took another
Speaker 3: one in that has been in a crate for an
Speaker 3: entire year and just goes around in circles. She's a
Speaker 3: she's a huge dog lover and an animal lover, and
Speaker 3: she understands me, and you know, we don't. We fight,
Speaker 3: but it's it's so seldom and it's not like a
Speaker 3: real fight, you know, like you've got those really angry fights,
Speaker 3: and I've had a lot of them with my with
Speaker 3: my exes where you really don't want to see him again.
Speaker 3: Our fights are are pretty stupid and we make up
Speaker 3: right away. But she is like the nicest person inside
Speaker 3: and out that.
Speaker 2: You can meet That was it you mentioned early your
Speaker 2: future kids and that she's younger than you. What's your
Speaker 2: timeline for.
Speaker 3: Kids, assuming I can have them?
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, no, my timeline.
Speaker 3: Is probably you know, after get married a year forty three,
Speaker 3: fifty four. It's a good time. I still have I
Speaker 3: can still throw a baseball and football and run around,
Speaker 3: and you know girls play sports too, so I figure
Speaker 3: by the time I'm fifty five, I'll have children.
Speaker 4: It's an exciting chapter for you. Lorenzo. Thank you for
Speaker 4: giving up the time.
Speaker 1: I know you don't do a lot today when it
Speaker 1: comes to the Bachelor world, but we appreciate you coming
Speaker 1: on the Almost Famous podcast during our countdown to this
Speaker 1: next season interviewing past bachelor's. You are one of the
Speaker 1: most recognizable seasons of all time, and we appreciate you
Speaker 1: doing this.
Speaker 4: Interview with us.
Speaker 1: Congratulations again on the age. That's an amazing chapter and
Speaker 1: we look forward to hopefully you sharing some photos in
Speaker 1: June from this incredible villa in Italy where everything comes
Speaker 1: full circle.
Speaker 3: Lorenzo, thank you, Thank you both, and I wish you
Speaker 3: all of great New Year's and I will definitely be
Speaker 3: posting some pictures from the wedding. All you guys can
Speaker 3: save cheers.
Speaker 2: Have a great year, Lorenzo, you're correct, by the way,
Speaker 2: Apple does not have your season.
Speaker 3: Now, there you go, there you go, right all right by,
Speaker 3: all right, see you later.
Speaker 4: Follow the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on
Speaker 4: iHeartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.