Speaker 1: This is the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: He Everybody's almost Famous podcast. We are here today celebrating,
Speaker 2: as we have been celebrating, the upcoming premiere January twenty seventh,
Speaker 2: of Grant season of the Bachelor, and we have Grant
Speaker 2: with us today.
Speaker 3: Grant, Hello, what's going on?
Speaker 4: Man? How you doing?
Speaker 3: I'm so good.
Speaker 2: Hey, We're gonna dive into it because we are on
Speaker 2: a time crunch and You've got a lot of people
Speaker 2: to talk to today, so I'm just gonna jump right in.
Speaker 3: Is that okay?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's cool with me.
Speaker 2: All right, So we're gonna start with this. Are you
Speaker 2: happy how the season went? Obviously we sit here now
Speaker 2: getting ready for the premiere. There's a lot to still happen.
Speaker 2: But as you sit here, are you happy of how
Speaker 2: this whole process went on?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I'm really happy. I'm extremely happy with how everything went.
Speaker 5: The whole season was like a big therapy session for me, honestly,
Speaker 5: you know, with my family and the ladies and everything
Speaker 5: that happened. It was it was great and I'm extremely happy.
Speaker 2: A big therapy session. Now, let me push back on
Speaker 2: that a little bit. I've been through this process. I
Speaker 2: get what you're saying. I actually I do one hundred
Speaker 2: percent understand what you're saying. I'm not coming against you here,
Speaker 2: but I think listeners may hear that and they say, wait,
Speaker 2: this is a dating show, and the lead of this show,
Speaker 2: Who's Ready for Marriage, took you know, the therapy part
Speaker 2: of this as the biggest highlight. I'm sure there's some
Speaker 2: other things that stood out to you outside of just
Speaker 2: you know, working through some stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah, of course.
Speaker 5: Well, with me not giving away too much, you know,
Speaker 5: there was some you know, my family was involved, and
Speaker 5: the women were involved, and there were so many.
Speaker 4: Intricate relationships throughout the course of.
Speaker 5: The season that I learned a lot about myself and
Speaker 5: I'm sure that the ladies did too. And in relationships
Speaker 5: and love, I think that you learn about yourself. So yeah,
Speaker 5: when I say a therapy session, it was me rekindling
Speaker 5: with my dad. It was me learning what really makes
Speaker 5: me me and what really makes.
Speaker 4: These women themselves.
Speaker 5: And then time that all together and involving romance is
Speaker 5: something that is a really cool experience.
Speaker 2: It is a time in our life I think some
Speaker 2: of the most growth can be done. How is that
Speaker 2: different than your time on the Bachelorette. You know, obviously
Speaker 2: that was a I look back on that time too,
Speaker 2: and that you know, had a lot of healing, a
Speaker 2: lot of introspection. The leads different, So how did the
Speaker 2: two compare.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's totally different because when you're on the side
Speaker 5: where you're one of the contestants, you're not telling your story.
Speaker 5: You are, honestly you're living through the lens of somebody
Speaker 5: else and you're trying to have a relationship kind of
Speaker 5: on their terms. When you're the lead, everything is happening
Speaker 5: on your terms. But also as a lead, you have
Speaker 5: to be very conscious that these stories are also the
Speaker 5: lady stories, so you have to balance both and there's
Speaker 5: a lot more responsibility on your part. So there's a
Speaker 5: big difference, but also there's some similarities because, like I said,
Speaker 5: it's involving love and that's the that's the common that's
Speaker 5: the common ground.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of a whirlwind, right, I mean, you
Speaker 2: I think the best leads listen. Well, so how did
Speaker 2: you prepare for this leading up to obviously that first
Speaker 2: night which we're going to watch, As I said January
Speaker 2: twenty seventh, how did you prepare for that evening?
Speaker 4: Yeah, just honestly.
Speaker 5: Well, luckily, my sister and my mom loved to talk,
Speaker 5: and I've been growing up being a listener, so that's
Speaker 5: something that has been.
Speaker 4: Something I didn't have to prepare for.
Speaker 5: And you know, I really care about people, and I
Speaker 5: was you know, I was single for a long time,
Speaker 5: so I know what it takes. And prior to me
Speaker 5: being single, I was in a seven year relationship, so
Speaker 5: I know what it takes for to make a relationship last.
Speaker 4: And a big part of that is listening and understanding.
Speaker 5: So it is a little different and special because there's
Speaker 5: multiple people, but each person has their own story and
Speaker 5: listening to that and finding, like I said, a common
Speaker 5: ground that relates to you is the main thing that
Speaker 5: has to happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, during you know, my time, I found it unexpected.
Speaker 2: But one of the biggest gifts was what you just said.
Speaker 2: Hearing so many different people's stories, it opens up you know,
Speaker 2: you kind of have this worldview education and in just
Speaker 2: a few months because you have all these different stories
Speaker 2: that are true coming at you. So how did you
Speaker 2: handle that? How did you compartmentalize and process as relationships grew?
Speaker 2: And then also obviously the breakups are a big part
Speaker 2: of this. And so how did you hear these stories
Speaker 2: that are from the depths of people's souls and then
Speaker 2: know that maybe that same week you're gonna have to
Speaker 2: say goodbye to them.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that was the hardest part, saying goodbye after hearing
Speaker 5: what people have been through and their stories and how
Speaker 5: it kind of affected them. But at the same time,
Speaker 5: everybody has a story, and when you're dating for marriage,
Speaker 5: you have to find what fits you best. So in
Speaker 5: the back of my mind, I knew that it wasn't personal.
Speaker 5: It wasn't something that you know, just because this person
Speaker 5: didn't make it that they weren't good enough. It's just
Speaker 5: I'm one person and I'm looking for a relationship with
Speaker 5: one person. So at the end of that, I think that,
Speaker 5: like I said, even the ladies that I got sent home,
Speaker 5: they learned about themselves and you know, just just by
Speaker 5: talking about you know, being just by being in this experience.
Speaker 5: So yeah, just I handled it and navigated through it,
Speaker 5: just knowing that this is what it takes for me
Speaker 5: to find my person.
Speaker 2: Speaking of you finding your person, the rumors have been
Speaker 2: swirling and even the host of the show, Jesse Palmer,
Speaker 2: has teased this a little bit. You know again, I
Speaker 2: know you're not going to tell me how this ends
Speaker 2: and who you ended up with or if you ended
Speaker 2: up with anybody, or whatever however this played out. But
Speaker 2: the word used to describe the end of your season
Speaker 2: was that you were indecisive. That isn't exactly the word
Speaker 2: I would want to be put on me as the
Speaker 2: season starts. So can you elaborate on that? Explain that
Speaker 2: and what does he mean by that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a big word.
Speaker 5: I'm very decisive in what I do, and when it
Speaker 5: comes to the matters of the heart, emotion is involved.
Speaker 4: So not that I was indecisive.
Speaker 5: I think that the woman and the ladies that were
Speaker 5: presented during the season were so wonderful and they brought
Speaker 5: so many things to the table that as time went on,
Speaker 5: it became increasingly.
Speaker 4: Difficult to send some of these women home.
Speaker 5: So in the end, right, I made the decision that
Speaker 5: was best for me, and there was no indecisiveness. It's
Speaker 5: just that when you're dealing with the lack of time,
Speaker 5: plus multiple people that you're dating, plus the stakes of
Speaker 5: the show, you need to take a beat and take
Speaker 5: a little more time to make a decision.
Speaker 2: You know I'm going to ask this question because it's
Speaker 2: the sword I fell on, and I really don't know
Speaker 2: how yours ends. You know, obviously I was known for
Speaker 2: saying I love you to multiple people.
Speaker 3: It was a big issue at the time.
Speaker 2: Could you claim or say to me, did you fall
Speaker 2: in love with multiple people in this process?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I think that, especially when you're dating multiple people, it
Speaker 5: is very possible to develop feelings and to fall in
Speaker 5: love with multiple people. Now, when you say it, you
Speaker 5: have to mean it, and I know that that's something
Speaker 5: that most people aren't really gonna understand. Right, It's not
Speaker 5: every day that you fall in love with or that
Speaker 5: you date multiple people. So and there's different levels to love,
Speaker 5: you know, there's different there's different levels to love. You
Speaker 5: can love somebody and know that they're not for you.
Speaker 5: But when you spend you know, intricate moments and you
Speaker 5: have memories and you go on these extravagant dates, you
Speaker 5: do fall And that's something that the audience maybe they
Speaker 5: will maybe they won't understand. But at the end of
Speaker 5: the day, choosing who's for you requires several different factors.
Speaker 5: It's they have to fit your lifestyle, they have to
Speaker 5: fit what you're looking for and you could still love
Speaker 5: somebody and not be with them.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so the answer that I mean, I think
Speaker 2: you would say, yes, you fell in love with multiple people,
Speaker 2: but you have to choose kind of who is best
Speaker 2: for you in the end, and that's a whole different
Speaker 2: type of consideration. Now, going off of that a little bit,
Speaker 2: there also are rumors out there that your season maybe
Speaker 2: does an end unlike any season we've ever seen before,
Speaker 2: but maybe the process to the ending is unlike anything
Speaker 2: we've seen before.
Speaker 3: Can you say if that's true or not.
Speaker 4: Listen to answer to that.
Speaker 5: I think every season is unique, but there's definitely unique
Speaker 5: factors in my season.
Speaker 4: And I don't know.
Speaker 5: If I haven't seen I haven't seen all the seasons,
Speaker 5: but I do know that it's very unique and that
Speaker 5: it's exciting.
Speaker 2: It's exciting, oh my, exciting for the viewer, exciting for you,
Speaker 2: exciting for all of us.
Speaker 5: Well, I don't know how the viewers are going to
Speaker 5: take it, honestly, that some people might watch it and
Speaker 5: fall asleep.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 5: What I know is exciting for me, and I know
Speaker 5: that my personally, my personality comes out the ladies' personalities
Speaker 5: comes out. You know, there's Lamas and there's Rise, and
Speaker 5: there's there's everything going on. It's it's it's it's a
Speaker 5: melting pot.
Speaker 2: In a kind of our closing minutes here. You know,
Speaker 2: you have been promoted, and I don't think it's arguable
Speaker 2: as an extremely handsome bachelor who is ready for love,
Speaker 2: but your journey to become the Bachelor is unique. Obviously,
Speaker 2: we didn't get to know a lot about you on
Speaker 2: The Bachelor apt and then they announced you as the Bachelor,
Speaker 2: and rumors start to spread that you were no longer
Speaker 2: the Bachelor. This went all across news networks. I don't
Speaker 2: know if you're filming at the time, so if you
Speaker 2: even saw this, but how did you how did that
Speaker 2: affect you hearing because I'm sure you did of these
Speaker 2: rumors that you are no longer going to be leading
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Honestly, when I was filming, I didn't even know that.
Speaker 4: I found out when I came back.
Speaker 5: So when when I got back and saw those rumors,
Speaker 5: I was like, well, I mean, don't I don't know
Speaker 5: what that was about. But when I was filming, I
Speaker 5: was like really locked into the journey and I didn't
Speaker 5: find out until I got back.
Speaker 2: But you know, with every rumor there's always a little
Speaker 2: sense of truth. So where would did these have even
Speaker 2: come from? Do you have any idea?
Speaker 4: I definitely do.
Speaker 5: I think I was on Instagram one day and I
Speaker 5: took a picture and I had a ring on my
Speaker 5: finger that I got at H and M.
Speaker 4: And I think that, you know, people picked that up.
Speaker 5: As me being already engaged, and they took that and
Speaker 5: ran with it, and clearly it was false. And you know,
Speaker 5: I think that, you know, everything comes to light eventually,
Speaker 5: so that's just what that was.
Speaker 2: I didn't even know guys wore rings once we got engaged.
Speaker 2: That must be something new.
Speaker 4: It's just like, I don't know what's going on. I
Speaker 4: don't know what's going on. Well.
Speaker 2: Also, as I mentioned, we didn't get to see a
Speaker 2: lot of you on the Bachelor ad. We've got to
Speaker 2: see the promos. Obviously, your journey's going to start here
Speaker 2: around the corner. I think it's only fair to you
Speaker 2: and to the listeners of the show for you to
Speaker 2: a few minutes to kind of help them get acquainted
Speaker 2: with you. I've seen, you know, the first episode. We
Speaker 2: do get to see a little bit more about of you.
Speaker 2: But I think one of the concerns going into the
Speaker 2: season is people just don't know who you are yet.
Speaker 2: They haven't invested, you know, emotionally into yet.
Speaker 3: So can you help them do that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, of course.
Speaker 5: So I'm somebody who has been through life circumstances as
Speaker 5: everybody has, that has shaped me into the man I
Speaker 5: am today. There's been some struggle, there's been a lot
Speaker 5: of happiness, there's been a lot of pain.
Speaker 4: But the one thing that.
Speaker 5: I could say is that I'm ready for my happiness
Speaker 5: and I'm ready for.
Speaker 4: I'm ready to heal. And I think that I've.
Speaker 5: Done the work and all I'm missing is somebody that
Speaker 5: I could help grow and that could help me grow.
Speaker 5: And I think that in life that's something that's really important.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I definitely I'm the season. I'm vulnerable, I'm
Speaker 5: open about my life. Experience is about what I'm looking for.
Speaker 5: And I think that the cast of women that came
Speaker 5: were on the same time that I was on and
Speaker 5: it just made for a really great story. And I'm
Speaker 5: excited and I hope that everybody's excited to watch also.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm very excited for it.
Speaker 2: I want to help out the show here with my
Speaker 2: final two questions in any way I can, and I
Speaker 2: want to get you answering these questions before the show airs,
Speaker 2: because things change once the show airs, and it's not editing.
Speaker 3: It's just how you react to it.
Speaker 2: The first is, was there ever a moment that you
Speaker 2: wanted to walk off this show that you were so upset, angry,
Speaker 2: confused that you're just like, I want to get out
Speaker 2: of here.
Speaker 3: I had it. I wanted to when I was a bachelor.
Speaker 3: I didn't.
Speaker 2: Obviously it's a little hard to do and I don't
Speaker 2: really know how I would do it, but I had
Speaker 2: those moments.
Speaker 3: Did you ever have one?
Speaker 5: There was definitely a moment where I was frustrated with
Speaker 5: certain a situation that happened. I didn't want to walk off.
Speaker 5: I wanted to find out what was going on. Yeah,
Speaker 5: there was definitely. You're not in control of everything that happens.
Speaker 5: You're not in control of what is said when you're
Speaker 5: not around, you're not in control of you don't hear everything,
Speaker 5: and you're not in control of all the situations. But
Speaker 5: that's in life, you know. So I think that I
Speaker 5: was frustrated at one point, but I didn't want to leave.
Speaker 5: I wanted to find out what was causing the commotion.
Speaker 3: You're a stronger man than me. You didn't want to leave.
Speaker 3: You want to dig in.
Speaker 4: I want to do good.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to get out of there. You know,
Speaker 2: this is the big question that so many viewers have
Speaker 2: an interest in if we ever do a Q and A.
Speaker 2: This is the number one question that you're going to
Speaker 2: get now for the next X amount of years of
Speaker 2: your life. As you sit here today, the show hasn't
Speaker 2: ator on television yet, but you've been through it. What's
Speaker 2: the biggest misconception that viewers may have about how the
Speaker 2: show is produced? You know, how the you know, secret
Speaker 2: sauce is made. You've been the lead, You've seen it
Speaker 2: all outside of maybe all the production rooms. But for
Speaker 2: the viewer, what's the biggest misconception.
Speaker 5: I think that the misconception that a lot of people
Speaker 5: have is that the lead doesn't have as much control
Speaker 5: over the choices that they make during the season.
Speaker 4: I think that they do have control.
Speaker 5: Now, what's done on the back end they don't have
Speaker 5: control over. But how you carry yourself, the decisions you make,
Speaker 5: the choices you make are are on you. Now, there's
Speaker 5: a time element that makes it a little more difficult.
Speaker 5: But throughout the course of the of the journey, you know,
Speaker 5: the decisions you make, they they mean a lot. And yeah,
Speaker 5: that's what I would say that the people people think
Speaker 5: that there's a lot of.
Speaker 4: How am I gonna word that?
Speaker 5: The producers have a big role on the choices you make,
Speaker 5: but ultimately you make your decisions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, good owning decisions. I love that.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's the best leads, right, you just
Speaker 2: own it good or bad, which means brings me to
Speaker 2: my final question. We sit here today, we're obviously, you know,
Speaker 2: in this moment of excitement, you're doing this whole media circuit.
Speaker 2: The show's about to air, Grant, are you excited for
Speaker 2: this to air? Are you nervous for it to air?
Speaker 2: Or is there something that happens this season that you're like, goodness,
Speaker 2: this is going to change the way people see me.
Speaker 2: How are you feeling as we get you know, come
Speaker 2: to this this moment where for the next few months
Speaker 2: of your life you are going to be the Bachelor
Speaker 2: on television.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that I'm excited, you know, I think
Speaker 5: that I'm happy with the way I carried myself I
Speaker 5: know that the situations on the show, they're difficult to navigate,
Speaker 5: but I think I did a decent job and I
Speaker 5: think that I was honest to myself and however anybody
Speaker 5: views me, I know that I did my best. So
Speaker 5: that's really all I could That's all I could say,
Speaker 5: That's all I could ask for, and now it's up
Speaker 5: for the people to decide.
Speaker 2: Well, I truly hope Grant, this is a season you
Speaker 2: walk away from with all the growth that you've done
Speaker 2: and all the growth that we're going to see with
Speaker 2: a beautiful love story, which is going to be my
Speaker 2: last question for you, which is everybody's last question probably
Speaker 2: for you. Are you happy, Grant?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm extremely happy.
Speaker 5: You know, I'm extremely happy with the way things went,
Speaker 5: and I think that it's something that you know, the
Speaker 5: audience is going to see and I can't wait for
Speaker 5: the premiere.
Speaker 3: Let's go. Well, the premiere is going to be January
Speaker 3: twenty seventh on ABC. This has been.
Speaker 2: Your most recent Bachelor, the one that is going to
Speaker 2: take over our screens and have a lot of really
Speaker 2: unbuttoned dressher videos and pictures. Goodness, they love showing that tattoo.
Speaker 3: Grant.
Speaker 2: We wish you the best here at the Almost Famous Podcast.
Speaker 2: Can't wait to talk to you again. Good luck with
Speaker 2: the season, and we hope you find love.
Speaker 4: Thank you, man, I appreciate that.
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