Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome back to Bachelor Happy Hour and I'm
Speaker 1: Joelous and we are here with mister Ben Higgins.
Speaker 2: Ben, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3: Goodness, what an honor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know why I called you, mister, mister
Speaker 2: Ben Higgins.
Speaker 3: Respect. You just see you see me in It's immediate respect,
Speaker 3: and so you want to make sure that respect is communicated,
Speaker 3: and I appreciate.
Speaker 2: It, truly, truly.
Speaker 1: Well, I did talk about so we are we recapture
Speaker 1: night one, and one thing I said was when I, like,
Speaker 1: when I was going on the Bachelor, the one bachelor
Speaker 1: like the Bachelor season that I heard of was yours
Speaker 1: and it was I don't know if it was I
Speaker 1: was the right age group, but everyone was talking about it.
Speaker 2: And it also could be You're a Midwest guy and
Speaker 2: you were young. You were you the Were you the
Speaker 2: youngest bachelor?
Speaker 3: Second? Jesse Palmer was actually like two months younger than
Speaker 3: me when he was the Bachelor. So I was the
Speaker 3: second youngest bachelor.
Speaker 4: Are you still the second youngest bachelor? Do you know?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean I don't know how old Joey was.
Speaker 3: I mean I was twenty six years old, like when
Speaker 3: you were young? Yeah, like that's really young to be
Speaker 3: the lead of a show. So I would imagine that
Speaker 3: will hold up because I don't think the show is
Speaker 3: going backwards to have like a twenty four year old bachelor.
Speaker 3: I think they kind of tried that and stopped it.
Speaker 2: Well, looking back on it, now, do you think do
Speaker 2: you think you were too young? Because I mean, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of things I've done in my life from
Speaker 2: like when I was I was a trader, and I
Speaker 2: was like I was honestly, I was too I was
Speaker 2: too young.
Speaker 3: I don't think I was too young because I really
Speaker 3: was excited to get married. And I do think the
Speaker 3: reason I would say it was I was too young
Speaker 3: to be wise and how to handle kind of the
Speaker 3: aftermath of the show that was kind of crazy and confusing.
Speaker 3: But as somebody from Indiana, all my friends were married
Speaker 3: when I went on to The Bachelor, like I felt
Speaker 3: like I was never going to meet somebody because that
Speaker 3: was kind of my like world was seeing all my
Speaker 3: friends get married, all of my kids, have all my
Speaker 3: friends having kids, and so I was really ready to
Speaker 3: meet somebody to settle down, to kind of get into
Speaker 3: that season of life. And I think that's probably the
Speaker 3: best mark for a lead is are you actually ready
Speaker 3: for marriage or not? And for me, I really was.
Speaker 3: But so I don't think I was too young for that.
Speaker 3: I think I was too young to make good decisions always.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's actually interesting because yeah, we noted that you
Speaker 5: were twenty six.
Speaker 4: We're like, oh wow, he's definitely one of.
Speaker 5: The younger leads, like both Bachelor and Bachelorette probably, but
Speaker 5: you did really seem ready. And I think it's honestly
Speaker 5: rare to meet like girls or guys, but a lot
Speaker 5: of guys that are like ready to settle down at
Speaker 5: twenty six. But I guess it it's all relative, right,
Speaker 5: Like if you know there's people in like where is
Speaker 5: it like Salt Lake City where everyone's getting married at
Speaker 5: like twenty one years old, and like that's just like
Speaker 5: the norm there.
Speaker 1: Like even even in Chicago, it was if when I
Speaker 1: was growing up, you were if you were twenty seven
Speaker 1: and single, you were like.
Speaker 5: Yeah, like all your friends, like a lot of your
Speaker 5: friends married like their high school sweethearts, Like that's like
Speaker 5: the norm, whereas like none of my friends are married yet.
Speaker 5: Kind of think being from like Toronto, really the greater
Speaker 5: Toronto area, so I think like that does have such
Speaker 5: an influence on Like readiness for a marriage is like
Speaker 5: what is normal too?
Speaker 4: How old were your parents when they got married?
Speaker 3: Oh so young? My mom was twenty and my dad
Speaker 3: was twenty four.
Speaker 4: Oh so like I'm old, like I'm twenty.
Speaker 3: I will tell you this when I I have a
Speaker 3: vivid moment in my mind when I was out here
Speaker 3: in Denver. I had moved here from my first job.
Speaker 3: I was not dating. I really didn't have any new
Speaker 3: friendships out here because I was working all the time.
Speaker 3: I remember laying in the bed of the house that
Speaker 3: I had just purchased for like nothing, like I just
Speaker 3: bought a house because it was cheaper in rent and
Speaker 3: I bought this house. I was laying in this bed
Speaker 3: and I was like, I'm I'm okay being single forever,
Speaker 3: Like I'm going to like I need to get okay
Speaker 3: with the idea that I will be single forever because
Speaker 3: I just haven't found anybody. And I was twenty like
Speaker 3: I was probably twenty five at the time. Like it
Speaker 3: was why I have this moment looking up at the
Speaker 3: ceiling and being like I'm okay, Like I'm an only child,
Speaker 3: so literally, my mom my, poor mother gets a phone
Speaker 3: call from me on my way to work the next
Speaker 3: day and being like, hey, I know you've tried to
Speaker 3: like set me up with the dates, and I know
Speaker 3: it's a thing that you talk about, and I know
Speaker 3: every time I go come home from church, everybody's like,
Speaker 3: are you dating anybody? I was like, I want you
Speaker 3: to know that I'm okay being single and I might
Speaker 3: be single for the rest of my life. And she
Speaker 3: was like no, like grandkids, like you're the only shot
Speaker 3: I have at this thing. And so yeah, I had
Speaker 3: came to the conclusion that I was going to be
Speaker 3: and then the Bachelor came up and or the Bachelorette
Speaker 3: came up, and I was like, yeah, why not, let's
Speaker 3: get a shot. And I still think I was cool
Speaker 3: being single, but then you know that changed. I guess
Speaker 3: over time.
Speaker 2: How what was the state of social media? Instagram?
Speaker 3: You it's so interesting, such a good question that people
Speaker 3: don't think about. So when I was on the Bachelorette,
Speaker 3: it was like beta phase of Instagram. You can look
Speaker 3: up like the timeframe right, like it was a thing,
Speaker 3: but it was never the thing that any of us
Speaker 3: knew or talked about. It was I remember having this
Speaker 3: conversation with the guys sitting in the living room with
Speaker 3: a mansion, and they're like, what are we going to
Speaker 3: do with this thing? Like only one of us is
Speaker 3: going to get chosen? What are the rest of us
Speaker 3: do with this whole thing? And I remember some of
Speaker 3: the guys like talking about appearances, So you do those
Speaker 3: like big club appearances, right, you get paid for that.
Speaker 3: And then like somebody brought up The Doctors, so like
Speaker 3: the host of the Doctors was on was a bachelor
Speaker 3: at one point years ago, so like maybe somebody is
Speaker 3: going to go off and do TV and then the
Speaker 3: rest of us are like Paradise, Like you go on
Speaker 3: Paradise and like maybe extend this thing a bit and
Speaker 3: get paid for Paradise. We're all like, I think you
Speaker 3: get paid if you go on Paradise as a So
Speaker 3: you make some money doing that and then you go
Speaker 3: back to work. Yeah, and then I got announced as
Speaker 3: a bachelor. And it kind of in between that three
Speaker 3: month frame, like Instagram really took off, kind of like
Speaker 3: TikTok did, like here recently, like everybody started using it,
Speaker 3: everybody started to get involved in it, and then that's
Speaker 3: when like it got popular. But my first season or
Speaker 3: my season of The Bachelor was really the first one
Speaker 3: where Instagram or social media was a part of the show.
Speaker 3: It was kind of tested during Caitlin's season, but it
Speaker 3: was never like a focus point until I was the Bachelor.
Speaker 3: And even then, I think, and you'd have to ask
Speaker 3: the team. I think the Bachelor Instagram account came out
Speaker 3: during my season, like I think they. I don't eve
Speaker 3: think the Bachelor had like any type of like social
Speaker 3: media account until I was on the show. That's not
Speaker 3: because I was on the show. It's just because it
Speaker 3: didn't exist. It wasn't a thing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was like whoever was the Bachelor at that
Speaker 5: time that would have it would have happened. Yeah, them
Speaker 5: deciding we're going to pivot start incorporating social media, and
Speaker 5: that probably.
Speaker 3: The conversation now makes me feel so old we talk
Speaker 3: about social media.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but social media is still so young. H It
Speaker 5: really is, just like TikTok wasn't even a thing yet.
Speaker 3: No, No, I mean Twitter. So yeah, Twitter was kind
Speaker 3: of showing up, Instagram was shown up. Facebook obviously had
Speaker 3: its its place as kind of the thing. We were
Speaker 3: doing a lot of Facebook videos back then. But you
Speaker 3: gotta think I'm thirty five now, Like it's not like
Speaker 3: I still couldn't go on the show. Like, you know,
Speaker 3: I was doing this when I was so young that
Speaker 3: even today and I would you know, I could still
Speaker 3: I'm still in the age group.
Speaker 5: It just if you were single, you could go back
Speaker 5: on my last season of Paradise, I was thirty five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2: I got engaged at thirty five to you. Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 1: We we do want to break down a little bit
Speaker 1: of your of of that night one. But since we're
Speaker 1: on like the social media top the aftermath of your season,
Speaker 1: how much different was it then? Because I do feel
Speaker 1: like there was like didn't you do like late night shows,
Speaker 1: didn't you like didn't you have the opportunity like going
Speaker 1: like Jimmy.
Speaker 4: Kimmel don't do that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I don't think Yeah, but I don't think
Speaker 2: it's as much anymore.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So like that had always been a thing. So
Speaker 3: like Bob Guiney used to go on Oprah like weekly
Speaker 3: as a segment, right, So Bob Guiney was doing like that,
Speaker 3: that was the publicition.
Speaker 5: She was doing a segment before he was even the bachelor,
Speaker 5: Like he was a contestant segments next.
Speaker 3: You so loved and so known. So I went on
Speaker 3: Kimmel quite a bit. I went on Kimmel a few
Speaker 3: times and just kind of like more spoofy, like funny moments.
Speaker 3: The social media side of it was something nobody knew
Speaker 3: what to do with. So it was a lot of
Speaker 3: short clips, videos, pictures. It was I guess beneficial to
Speaker 3: the ratings of my season because people were seeing more
Speaker 3: of the show than ever. Yeah, but I'd say the
Speaker 3: thing that was different with my season than maybe others
Speaker 3: when it comes to like the aftermath and the publicity
Speaker 3: is how ABC kind of used Lauren and I because
Speaker 3: you got to remember too, you might forget this. Right
Speaker 3: after my season got done, we started filming Ben and
Speaker 3: Lauren happily ever after and so there's a whole spin
Speaker 3: off show on Freeform which was which was free that
Speaker 3: was ABC ABC Family, Yes, an ABC show right afterwards,
Speaker 3: and so that was the big deal for us. It
Speaker 3: was kind of the first time a couple had been
Speaker 3: followed post show and they were with us for a
Speaker 3: long time, I mean two months.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, what was that one? Did? That was that
Speaker 2: one season?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Because we broke up Buddy Yeah, what was Can you
Speaker 1: talk about what?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: Can you talk about what you got paid for that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I can talk about I mean it was good.
Speaker 3: We both got paid as individuals obviously because we weren't married,
Speaker 3: so they had to pay as separate talent. And so
Speaker 3: that's what I mean. Really, when it came down to it,
Speaker 3: you're like, hey, is this a good.
Speaker 6: Decision to get filmed right after we just got done
Speaker 6: with this other show and we're still trying to figure
Speaker 6: each other out as a couple, and we live in
Speaker 6: a seven hundred square foot house that that's the same
Speaker 6: house I built, And they're gonna, well.
Speaker 4: Were you accepted that you're going to be singling?
Speaker 3: Yeah? The one I accepted I was gonna be single
Speaker 3: in It was a one bedroom, one bathroom house with
Speaker 3: you know, a crew of thirty people with us every day,
Speaker 3: all day for two straight months. Is this a good decision?
Speaker 3: And we're like, yeah, it's a great decision. We're go
Speaker 3: get paid and I'm making no money, Like you don't
Speaker 3: get paid a lot?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you don't get paid a lot. And then
Speaker 2: like you're.
Speaker 5: Coming off the show, usually with either like the decision
Speaker 5: of like am I going to go straight back into a.
Speaker 1: Job, which is gonna be hard to do because you
Speaker 1: now just took off four months.
Speaker 2: Yeah whatever you were.
Speaker 5: Doing and you have this new relationship, like whether you
Speaker 5: have a job waiting for you or not. Like going
Speaker 5: back to work at that time is so hard. So
Speaker 5: it's like you've just go off TV. What what was
Speaker 5: the Instagram situation like at that time, Like were people
Speaker 5: coming off the show and influencing or was it not
Speaker 5: quite there yet?
Speaker 2: I don't think there was paid ads or it was
Speaker 2: like it was like new, right.
Speaker 3: It was new. It was new. It was it was
Speaker 3: new but also very lucrative because brands had this massive
Speaker 3: budget and they didn't know what to do with social
Speaker 3: media marketing yet. And then there was all these studies
Speaker 3: coming out that were there's.
Speaker 4: So few like you guys probably had like such a
Speaker 4: monopoly on it.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, So like the women from the like the time,
Speaker 3: I mean I've I've heard rumors that I would validate.
Speaker 3: Is like some of the women from like the season
Speaker 3: of The Bachelor I was a part of. We're making
Speaker 3: two plus million a year influencing at the time, and.
Speaker 5: So they go believe it they would have been the
Speaker 5: first cast coming off with like you know, social media
Speaker 5: is now just blowing up there getting these followings. There's
Speaker 5: like no one else from The Bachelor probably with followings
Speaker 5: other than like this chunk of women, and they're like great,
Speaker 5: like engagement high. We have way more money than we
Speaker 5: know what to do with, Like, let's throw it at
Speaker 5: let's throw it at them.
Speaker 1: I heard a rumor about you, Ben oh, I got
Speaker 1: many roomors. I remember many rooms right, No, this I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know how true this was, but I remember
Speaker 1: guys from my season talking about it that you had
Speaker 1: you were basically you had to turn down like a
Speaker 1: one point three million dollar radio deal after your season
Speaker 1: of The Bachelor with something like that.
Speaker 2: Is that true?
Speaker 3: I did turn it down. I didn't have to. Nobody
Speaker 3: had told me. So I did turn that down because
Speaker 3: other things are happening at the time that I was like,
Speaker 3: I don't know if I want to go into a
Speaker 3: full time job where I'm on the radio five days
Speaker 3: a week.
Speaker 4: Right, Well, we're filming Ben and Lauren at that time.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I was also filming Ben and Lauren at the time. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So I was like trying to manage and balance out,
Speaker 3: like what was life going to actually look like for me,
Speaker 3: and you know this person that I thought at the
Speaker 3: time we were going to get married, So like, how
Speaker 3: do I stay true to all of it? And is
Speaker 3: you know that money was obviously ridiculous, but like, is
Speaker 3: any amount of money worth pretty much knowing it's going
Speaker 3: to be the cost of this relationship? And I said no,
Speaker 3: And I think I'm glad I did. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: that relationship didn't work out, which was fine, but it did.
Speaker 3: I don't know what life would look like if I
Speaker 3: was a radio host five days a week in the morning,
Speaker 3: it would be different. So yeah, I did say no
Speaker 3: to that. And there was other things I said no to,
Speaker 3: not necessarily that we're that lucrative and that beneficial, but
Speaker 3: you know, you are under contract for a year, and
Speaker 3: when you're the bachelor or the lead, you're under contract
Speaker 3: for like a year and a half of your life. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And that's another side of the influencing, kind of like
Speaker 3: Takeoff World, where people you know right away you get
Speaker 3: off the show, and yes, you might have some lucrative
Speaker 3: deals and some things come through you have to say
Speaker 3: no to them oftentimes because you're still you know, you
Speaker 3: still have an obligation to the show that you were
Speaker 3: a part of that kind of gave you this new platform.
Speaker 3: And so it takes a year and so for us
Speaker 3: to say yes to Ben and Lauren have been and
Speaker 3: Lauren happily ever after question Mark question Mark it was
Speaker 3: a pretty much a sure thing yes, because it was
Speaker 3: one of the only things we could make money on
Speaker 3: post show. Here's the crazy thing. I was still working
Speaker 3: a full time job while we were filming, and so
Speaker 3: they would come and film at my office.
Speaker 4: Oh, when you were filming Ben and Lauren.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I went back to my social or my
Speaker 3: software sales job for another two years post Bachelor, just
Speaker 3: so I could have health insurance, and because they gave
Speaker 3: me a sabbatical to lead the leave the film. So
Speaker 3: I went back and film work there, and then at
Speaker 3: nights we'd film the show, and then during the day
Speaker 3: they would do stuff with Lauren, and then on the
Speaker 3: weekends we'd film through the weekend. And it was it
Speaker 3: was a grind, but I didn't I don't know what
Speaker 3: to do with it. You're again, twenty six years old.
Speaker 3: I'm like, what is it? Nobody knows what this Bachelor
Speaker 3: thing is going to do ten years from now. I
Speaker 3: can't leave my job yet. It's only why I'm getting
Speaker 3: health insurance. I don't have enough money to pay for
Speaker 3: health insurance on my own. So let's film the show,
Speaker 3: let me work my job, Let's see where this spits
Speaker 3: us out, and then you know, the rest, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of settles. But it was a weird and wild
Speaker 3: time and maybe one if you know, as we talk
Speaker 3: about that season, I do regret that I didn't enjoy
Speaker 3: it more because I was so focused on not knowing what,
Speaker 3: you know, the risks were to being on the show,
Speaker 3: and to what money would come in, what money would
Speaker 3: it come in, that I just worked all the time
Speaker 3: and I didn't enjoy a lot of the things that
Speaker 3: other people were enjoying. So I was so nervous.
Speaker 1: That makes sense, I feel like I would be exactly
Speaker 1: the same way. I mean, it's also like you don't
Speaker 1: want to. It's like it's like this huge opportunity, but
Speaker 1: you just don't know what what that opportunity is and
Speaker 1: how long and how long it's gonna last, And you
Speaker 1: feel like you need to take advantage of of kind
Speaker 1: of everything, But at the same time, you don't want to.
Speaker 2: Do this because that might screw up that and then
Speaker 2: it's a fucking headache.
Speaker 5: How long after the show into filming, Ben and Lauren,
Speaker 5: were you guys like this might not be a happily
Speaker 5: ever after situation?
Speaker 3: Good question. Well, so they asked us to do a
Speaker 3: televised wedding. This was on the show, So Chris Harrison
Speaker 3: flew out to Denver. We kind of did this this
Speaker 3: moment where he sat down. I said, you guys want
Speaker 3: to have your budding televised on national television. Obviously there's
Speaker 3: a good paycheck associated with that, so you're like kinda
Speaker 3: if we're going to get married. And we had already
Speaker 3: been struggling for about a month, so we're in couples counseling.
Speaker 3: We were really trying to make it work, but we
Speaker 3: were not doing it. I mean, we were button heads,
Speaker 3: and so we showed up to win the surprise when
Speaker 3: he asked us. Already kind of not talking and we
Speaker 3: were kind of more work associates, like we were living
Speaker 3: in the same house. We weren't really speaking to each
Speaker 3: other off camera because the cameras would leave a nine
Speaker 3: o'clock we'd be exhausted. I might be having to go
Speaker 3: to work the next day. She would be doing her
Speaker 3: thing with her job, and so she was still flying
Speaker 3: as a flight attendant a little bit and we'd just
Speaker 3: be like, dead tired, we want to talk to each other.
Speaker 3: We hadn't talked to each other really truly in weeks,
Speaker 3: and so when they asked, we both went, I remember
Speaker 3: the car right home. We were like, are we going
Speaker 3: to do this? Because if we're gonna get married, we
Speaker 3: better do it on national television, Like no question right, yeah,
Speaker 3: And we were both like, I don't think we're gonna
Speaker 3: get married. And that's when kind and that was kind
Speaker 3: of one of the final episodes, and so they were
Speaker 3: kind of done filming maybe a week later. We kind
Speaker 3: of tried to make it work a little bit longer,
Speaker 3: and then finally it was over. So I would say
Speaker 3: if they filmed for two months. About a month and
Speaker 3: a half into it, we were kind of calling it rough. Man.
Speaker 3: It was a weird It was a weird time. It
Speaker 3: was a weird time because here's how it happened. So
Speaker 3: as soon as the cameras dropped the next day, I
Speaker 3: flew to Chicago for a business meeting. Sitting in a
Speaker 3: hotel in Chicago, and I remember talking to her on
Speaker 3: the phone and she we were kind of talking. We're like,
Speaker 3: this is done, like we know this is done like that,
Speaker 3: We're not We're not going to make this work. It's
Speaker 3: not healthy on either of us. We should just try
Speaker 3: to move on. And I said, here's the deal. I'm
Speaker 3: gone for a week for work. When I come back,
Speaker 3: you know, it would be really great, is if like
Speaker 3: you were gone, because I don't think I can see
Speaker 3: you in person, Like it's going to hurt too much,
Speaker 3: Like we both cared that much still, And she's like,
Speaker 3: I agree. So her mom flew out to Denver kind
Speaker 3: of packed up her stuff. I went to New York
Speaker 3: City four days later on on a more work trip.
Speaker 3: We hadn't talked in those four days, and I look
Speaker 3: across the street and there she is on the street
Speaker 3: corner in New York City, randomly with Amanda Stanton from
Speaker 3: my season. They were doing event in New York. And
Speaker 3: you know what I did, bolted, took off there, took
Speaker 3: off the opposite direction. You're like, hood up, yeah, gone.
Speaker 3: She was literally across the street in New York And
Speaker 3: and then I got back to Denver and her stuff
Speaker 3: was packed up, and she got so mad at me.
Speaker 3: About this at the time. I think she could laugh
Speaker 3: about it today, but a lot of this stuff was her.
Speaker 3: She had done this deal with like People magazine or
Speaker 3: something and got like all the furniture in our house
Speaker 3: and it was really beautiful. And I showed up and
Speaker 3: all the furniture is gone. And so I showed up
Speaker 3: to this little house that's empty with no furniture, and
Speaker 3: I still had this lawn chair in the back. So
Speaker 3: I took my lawn chair and I sat in my
Speaker 3: living room. The TV was left turned on the TV,
Speaker 3: grabbed the bottle of bourbon set on the floor next
Speaker 3: to me. I was like, this is actually a funny picture.
Speaker 3: Let me take a picture of this. So I took
Speaker 3: a picture of it, talked about it on Almost Famous,
Speaker 3: and because Almost Famous launch the week we broke up,
Speaker 3: so I had to talk about their breakup on Almost Famous.
Speaker 4: That was your like opening episode.
Speaker 3: Opening up, and that was not played. That was literally
Speaker 3: just some brilliance from above saying this is a good idea.
Speaker 3: And so I took a picture and it's the saddest
Speaker 3: picture in the world. And she got mad, which she
Speaker 3: should have at the time. That was a dumb thing,
Speaker 3: because she's like you've made it look like I took everything.
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, it makes sense. You owned everything. It
Speaker 3: was yours, it was not mine.
Speaker 5: It was your right, but she had every right to
Speaker 5: take everything. That was like, you're making me look bad, Like, honestly.
Speaker 3: It does make you look terrible.
Speaker 5: It makes you look so bad again, but no context
Speaker 5: it does.
Speaker 4: It was context a full makes sense.
Speaker 3: And context it makes sense. I was like, I mostly
Speaker 3: did it because it's like it's a great picture of
Speaker 3: my life. So it's just like one chair and a
Speaker 3: bottle of bourbon and a pint of ice cream.
Speaker 1: The funny thing is like you were twenty six in
Speaker 1: your house before you're going on The Bachelor, telling yourself
Speaker 1: you're gonna be single forever. Ever, a year later after
Speaker 1: the Bachelor, you're sitting in your house in a chair,
Speaker 1: drinking a bottle bourbon and saying, I'm gonna be single.
Speaker 3: I'm right back where I started. I'm not getting any better.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you're still but you're still so young, which
Speaker 1: is which is crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: When we cut to night one, we watched all like
Speaker 2: the Limo entrances. Who do you? Who would do you remember?
Speaker 1: Being like your top It's called it like your top
Speaker 1: three or top four that night.
Speaker 3: Uh, Olivia. I think Laurence stood out to me mostly
Speaker 3: because she was like one of the only blondes I
Speaker 3: think in the whole show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she was. Did you like Brenas Did you tell
Speaker 4: them that?
Speaker 3: No? I don't think I told him that. I think
Speaker 3: it was just the way things worked out. Yeah, And
Speaker 3: so Lauren Olivia, and I was super curious about jin
Speaker 3: Saviano on that she was like very just like like
Speaker 3: very curious about me. And I remember her being like
Speaker 3: one of the only women that asked me really like
Speaker 3: normal questions on night one. I would also throw Kayla
Speaker 3: quint into that. Jojo was a sneaky one for me.
Speaker 3: Jojo didn't happen for a few weeks, mostly because I
Speaker 3: couldn't see her face on night one because she were
Speaker 3: like a horsehead or something. But yeah, those were the
Speaker 3: ones that really stood out.
Speaker 4: Okay, Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was interesting watching back because you know, we
Speaker 5: searched up just provide ourselves who your final four was,
Speaker 5: and we were like, I feel like these girls actually
Speaker 5: did it get that much screen time on night one,
Speaker 5: which is like not always the case, Like it really
Speaker 5: was Olivia had a lot of airtime.
Speaker 4: Who I believe that ended up taking a left turn?
Speaker 3: Was she like the villain in a way? Those girls
Speaker 3: there wasn't really a villain. She kind of like fell
Speaker 3: on the sword that season.
Speaker 2: She was.
Speaker 3: She was vocal, and she had the first rose, and
Speaker 3: so she was very confident. I would say Olivia was
Speaker 3: not a villain to anybody, but the one thing that
Speaker 3: she did have was over confidence, and she kind of
Speaker 3: like spoke to that and that might have been the
Speaker 3: downfall and kind of what rubbed women the wrong way, right,
Speaker 3: These women never like fight like they're not fighting at all.
Speaker 3: And I was proud of that. That was one of
Speaker 3: the things that I wanted. So, you know, on night one,
Speaker 3: you get to write your own speech. I guess you
Speaker 3: really always get to write your own toast. And my
Speaker 3: toast was kind of coming off of my experience. Was
Speaker 3: I hope everybody leaves here at least happy they did it?
Speaker 3: Uh not? Ever, all you know, one of you maybe
Speaker 3: is gonna get chosen, and that I hope you're happy
Speaker 3: you did it. If you got chosen, I can't promise
Speaker 3: that either. Obviously she wasn't, but I was like, I
Speaker 3: just hope you leave here happy you did it. And
Speaker 3: one of the ways that you can make sure you
Speaker 3: do that is by trying to have the best experience
Speaker 3: here in the house with these other women as you
Speaker 3: do when we're together. So I was proud that they
Speaker 3: weren't fighting. I think the show is like, we have nothing.
Speaker 5: We just well, it looks like your toast got cut off.
Speaker 5: I don't even know if we saw that part of
Speaker 5: your toast or not, but someone like pulled you in
Speaker 5: the middle of your toast, or at least that's what
Speaker 5: made it look like do you remember this?
Speaker 3: They probably did. I don't remember it.
Speaker 5: Okay, there was a girl who like dressed up as
Speaker 5: the first Impression Rose, who like cut you off and
Speaker 5: was like, oh you now, and you were like, O yeah, uh.
Speaker 3: There's many of those moments. I don't remember that specifically,
Speaker 3: which is wild to think. I don't remember that. I
Speaker 3: haven't watched my season and well since it aired, But
Speaker 3: there's those moments where you're like, goodness, like those are
Speaker 3: always kind of the red flags to me, is you know,
Speaker 3: knowing enough of the show. The dental hygienist who cleaned
Speaker 3: my teeth on night one, which is the most vulnerable, like.
Speaker 5: Crazy thing like leg on her lap with your mouth open.
Speaker 5: I was like, this is so vulnerable.
Speaker 3: It's so vulnerable. I mean there's those those are always
Speaker 3: the red flags on like who is going to be
Speaker 3: around longest? Is once you kind of see them play
Speaker 3: into the characters that you've seen in the past, like
Speaker 3: who pulls you first, who disrupts your conversations the most,
Speaker 3: who wants to talk to you four times in one night?
Speaker 3: And so I bet when she did that, because I
Speaker 3: think Mandy went home pretty quickly, I was like, probably
Speaker 3: not for me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Lace was Lace was kind of the star of
Speaker 5: your Night one, aside from you obviously, it was very
Speaker 5: much Olivia and Lace were kind of the two big personalities.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so Lace was a big story on Night one. Lace,
Speaker 3: you know, people don't believe me. I was super curious
Speaker 3: about Lace. Lace's things seems like beautiful.
Speaker 1: When we watch it, it seems like like we're watching
Speaker 1: it as viewers, thinking like, oh, she's spiraling, Like no way,
Speaker 1: ben Le likes her.
Speaker 2: But you can kind of tell that you're, yeah, you're
Speaker 2: somewhat in She.
Speaker 5: Is beautiful too, like she looks amazing night one, and
Speaker 5: she's kind of got like a quirky personality where you're
Speaker 5: kind of like, what is well it about this girl?
Speaker 3: And you appreciate I think on the show, you appreciate complexity,
Speaker 3: and she was complex. She had a lot of emotions.
Speaker 3: And the one thing I refused to do was send
Speaker 3: anybody home because it was an overwhelming environment for them.
Speaker 3: It's like, of course it's going to be overwhelming if
Speaker 3: you're like super normal here on night one, I have
Speaker 3: more questions than answers, and so those that are like
Speaker 3: kind of hesitant, and the ones that are having a
Speaker 3: hard time dealing with the cameras and conversations and all that,
Speaker 3: it's like, this is not a marker for me to
Speaker 3: send you home right now. If anything, this is a
Speaker 3: marker for me to try to get to know you better,
Speaker 3: because of what I would hate to do is send
Speaker 3: you home just because you're nervous. And nerves are fine,
Speaker 3: I don't you know, I get it. And and then
Speaker 3: over time it became very clear that it was overwhelming
Speaker 3: to her for other reasons, and so she wasn't in
Speaker 3: a healthy place to do the show. And that's when
Speaker 3: it was like, you know, you need to get out
Speaker 3: of here, like yeah, this is not going to get
Speaker 3: any better. You need to go home. But yeah, she
Speaker 3: lives in Denver, and so even afterwards, like my care
Speaker 3: and like love for her, like I felt for her,
Speaker 3: and what you watch on TV is very accurate, I think,
Speaker 3: at least in my experience to what happened there in
Speaker 3: real time, I've never you know, I think Olivia got
Speaker 3: the raw in the deal for sure, But I think
Speaker 3: we are so quick to like judge these contents Heston's
Speaker 3: based on like them being different or them being like
Speaker 3: not in their comfort zone. And it's like, you can't
Speaker 3: give Lace the villain mantra just because she wasn't in
Speaker 3: a healthy place. If anything, we need to be like, yeah,
Speaker 3: she is all of us, and so yeah she she
Speaker 3: She was very curious to me until it became very
Speaker 3: clear that she was unhealthy, and then it was like
Speaker 3: you need to go home and get like the support
Speaker 3: you're asking.
Speaker 5: For, right, Yeah, yeah, Well we saw Lace on two
Speaker 5: seasons of Paradise after your season, so and honestly, at
Speaker 5: the end of the day, she is a very entertaining
Speaker 5: personality in her like it might not have been the
Speaker 5: right time for her, but I can understand how she
Speaker 5: ended up on the show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got to know more of her, and now
Speaker 3: I get it when she's like all over the place,
Speaker 3: She's like, No, that's lace like she is. She's you know,
Speaker 3: going psycho, you know, crazy like thinking about everything, and
Speaker 3: she's very concerned about things, and she's very attuned to things,
Speaker 3: and she plays stories in her head that are not
Speaker 3: necessarily true, and you're like, that's just who she is.
Speaker 3: You love her for it, but it's not a great
Speaker 3: place for the bachelor. That's not a great headspace when
Speaker 3: you're also trying to figure out this weird puzzle of
Speaker 3: dating on nationale television with thirty other women.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you remember where your headspace was once the
Speaker 1: first episode aired and you had just done it all
Speaker 1: and you were sitting back, did you even watch?
Speaker 2: Did you watch? I'm assuming you did.
Speaker 3: I did watch. My head space was in a few places.
Speaker 3: One being very nervous about Lauren and how she was
Speaker 3: going to respond to things. Yeah, right, And that ended
Speaker 3: up being fine until it gets a little bit more intimate. Uh,
Speaker 3: And like you're a couple of weeks, and she was
Speaker 3: good with the first couple of weeks, And I remember
Speaker 3: kind of always every week, taking a deep breath, being like, Okay,
Speaker 3: we made another week. She's not super mad me yet.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but you know it's coming. At some point, there's going.
Speaker 3: To be a I told true women I love them,
Speaker 3: and that was never going to go overwhelm.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I also remember being very nervous. It is kind of funny,
Speaker 3: and I kind of forgot about this until you guys
Speaker 3: started talking. So I was nervous about my look. And
Speaker 3: here's the reason.
Speaker 4: Your physical appearance.
Speaker 3: Physical appearance.
Speaker 4: I always worried about that too.
Speaker 3: I was like, how am I going to look on
Speaker 3: national television? And the reason I was so nervous about
Speaker 3: it is because the show was not nice to me
Speaker 3: and they made me feel terrible going in the night
Speaker 3: one because the night before, the day before, you know
Speaker 3: you're out there for a week with Press. I was
Speaker 3: in Honduras for a wedding the week before that, flew
Speaker 3: back to LA started to like kind of press and
Speaker 3: the filming of stuff, I had a stomach bug and.
Speaker 2: So I have I remember you telling me this.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, the whole time I was on the show,
Speaker 3: I lost thirty pounds from start to finish, Like couldn't
Speaker 3: get off the toilet, so talk about like having fun
Speaker 3: on a date and being like, hey, I'm sorry, I
Speaker 3: gotta go. You know I'm not good. You don't feel
Speaker 3: very confident in yourself. All the women ended up knowing
Speaker 3: that I was sick, and then I needed a haircut
Speaker 3: because I was gone for two weeks. So I was like,
Speaker 3: I need I really like a haircut. And they're like, Okay,
Speaker 3: here's this barber at the hotel that you're staying at.
Speaker 3: I said, cool, just go down and he cuts my
Speaker 3: sides of my head, Like, really, you.
Speaker 2: Had a fathe you. I noticed your fade. I saw
Speaker 2: the man chat. I was like, that's an interesting look
Speaker 2: for Ben. But you, I mean you pull it look good.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I saw your haircut. I mean your whole
Speaker 5: look is obviously different. Now it's been like ten years,
Speaker 5: but I always just assume, like whatever. It is, like
Speaker 5: they're managing every single thing, like the fact that they
Speaker 5: sent you to a barber with like no one to
Speaker 5: go with you to like, for all they know, you.
Speaker 4: Could be like buzz it like yours.
Speaker 5: Like they're very particular about like the look of their lead.
Speaker 4: I can't believe they just had you some random hairdresser.
Speaker 3: Some random hairdresser, and he shaved it. So if you
Speaker 3: look at the man chat and you're like, okay, that's
Speaker 3: a hard fade, and you look at night one, it
Speaker 3: looks like I grew so much hair on the sides
Speaker 3: of my head in one evening. What they did was
Speaker 3: as they took and they painted this, they painted my
Speaker 3: head black on the sides. So they took this like
Speaker 3: like powdered spray and sprayed it all around the side
Speaker 3: of my head for night one.
Speaker 5: So you're already like you're probably not feeling your best.
Speaker 5: I a parasite.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're saying, I don't look good now, I can
Speaker 3: get off the toilet. I'm sweating, I'm nervous. I'm the bachelor.
Speaker 3: And so I was very just like more nervous about
Speaker 3: like my physical appearance. But like, is it as bad
Speaker 3: as what they told me it was?
Speaker 4: And I can't believe they were telling you it was bad,
Speaker 4: Like I did lie to like lie to me.
Speaker 5: I have to go out there no matter how I
Speaker 5: look right now, like at least let me believe I look.
Speaker 4: Okay, Yeah, tell me I'm a stud please, Yeah, Like
Speaker 4: you've never looked better.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, the spray paint on beside your head.
Speaker 5: One more person I feel like we got to cover
Speaker 5: quickly is Becca Tilly. She was a late entrance, came
Speaker 5: off of crystals this season. She we haven't seen it
Speaker 5: in a while. I feel like someone come back. This
Speaker 5: is something I feel like that used to happen quite
Speaker 5: a bit. Would be like someone would from a past
Speaker 5: season would show up and be like, hey, like it
Speaker 5: happened on my season, not my season, but like the
Speaker 5: season of The Bachelor I was on. It happened like
Speaker 5: way like Heather Martin showed up like week nine, I think,
Speaker 5: But what was that like? Like you had two women
Speaker 5: show up from a past season?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I U.
Speaker 4: The first thing you go is are there more coming?
Speaker 4: And they're like, we don't know, there's only two of
Speaker 4: us for now.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It was super sweet. I actually took it as
Speaker 3: a massive compliment, and so I remember feeling really like
Speaker 3: good about the two of them showing up because it
Speaker 3: did give me some confidence that I did I did
Speaker 3: really meet. I went into a feeling very non confident.
Speaker 3: I'm confident in my ability to you know.
Speaker 1: Beat up, but yeah, but don't you I feel like
Speaker 1: you were the like the guy that like was like
Speaker 1: unanimous like for Bachelor.
Speaker 3: So I never believed I was going to be the Bachelor.
Speaker 3: And I also didn't know I wanted to be the
Speaker 3: Bachelor because again I had to get I took a
Speaker 3: sabbatical from work. My work had to approve me going
Speaker 3: again for three more months and doing this show. And
Speaker 3: I was going to say no to it if they
Speaker 3: didn't approve it, because I didn't want to risk whatever
Speaker 3: it was affecting my ability to put food on my table.
Speaker 3: You asked about Beca, so that gave me confidence. Becka
Speaker 3: and I had talked before. I didn't know she was
Speaker 3: coming on the season, but I had her I still
Speaker 3: have it in my phone, so she and we connected somehow.
Speaker 3: We were texting and in my phone her name's Virginia.
Speaker 3: I don't know why it was Virginia, but she's still
Speaker 3: Virginia in my phone. We were texting back and forth
Speaker 3: and the idea was, Hey, if I'm not the Bachelor,
Speaker 3: let's date, let's go on a date, let's hang out. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And then when I was announcing in the Bachelor, we
Speaker 3: were still talking and I said, she said, should I
Speaker 3: come on the show? And I said, if you want to,
Speaker 3: If you think it's a possibility you should come on
Speaker 3: the show. I said, I'm not. There's no favoritism here,
Speaker 3: but obviously I'm interested in you and I would love
Speaker 3: if we would give it a shot, if you would
Speaker 3: come on. And then I didn't know, and so she
Speaker 3: never told me she was or wasn't. I never knew
Speaker 3: anything more about it. I said, it's in your the
Speaker 3: balls in your court. If you want to come on
Speaker 3: the show, come on the show and we'll try to
Speaker 3: make it work. And then she did, and so we did.
Speaker 3: We gave it a shot, and then she went home
Speaker 3: in Worse Indiana, and I remember after the cameras went down,
Speaker 3: We're sitting on the park bench when I sent her home,
Speaker 3: and I remember she just looked at me. The last
Speaker 3: thing she said to me was you told me you
Speaker 3: weren't going to do it this way. And I was like,
Speaker 3: I did. I run a stir money. And I told
Speaker 3: her when we were talking, if she comes on the show,
Speaker 3: I was like, I'll make sure that you get you know,
Speaker 3: a proper like et sit or you know we're together
Speaker 3: in the end, Like you've done this before, I know
Speaker 3: it's a big deal to do it again. I'll give
Speaker 3: you that proper exit and then it never worked out
Speaker 3: that it could and she was right, you told me
Speaker 3: you wouldn't do it this way. And then she just
Speaker 3: stormed off and I was like, no, she's the nicest
Speaker 3: girl in the world, Like.
Speaker 5: But like you made a promise that, like you didn't
Speaker 5: have all the information when you made that promision. Yeah,
Speaker 5: They're like, You're like, so I have to give her
Speaker 5: a proper exit, and they're like, actually, that's not how
Speaker 5: this works at all.
Speaker 4: Like there's a roasting tomorrow and shall we go hang
Speaker 4: home at that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, to give her a proper exit, and all the
Speaker 2: execs are laughing.
Speaker 3: Does this kid think he is?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: Ben?
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you very much for coming on our
Speaker 1: podcast and chatting with us. And we enjoyed rewatching your
Speaker 1: night one and hanging out with you at Nick's wedding
Speaker 1: and hopefully we see you again.
Speaker 3: So yeah, we'll be seeing each other soon. It was great,
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me on. It's funny. I was actually
Speaker 3: nervous to come on here, not not for any other
Speaker 3: reason other than like, I don't remember so much of it.
Speaker 3: It's wild how much you forget, And so I was
Speaker 3: gonna I was gonna tell you. Before we started recording,
Speaker 3: I was like, don't put me on the spot to
Speaker 3: telling to uh for anybody's names because I won't remember them.
Speaker 3: It's it's in the past. But I really appreciate it
Speaker 3: and it was a lot of fun. The show's been
Speaker 3: so good to me, and you guys are doing a
Speaker 3: great job, so keep it up cool.
Speaker 2: Thanks buying to all our listeners. Thank you guys for
Speaker 2: tuning in, and make sure you subscribe to Better Happy Hours.
Speaker 5: We have lots more fun, exciting episodes coming out, exclusive interviews,
Speaker 5: and more.
Speaker 4: So don't subscribe. Bye bye.