May 28, 2024 • 37 mins
Today on “Bachelor Happy Hour,” the one and only Ben Higgins is here. We start off at the very beginning: How did Ben get to “The Bachelorette”? Then, we get into his Night 1 as the Bachelor and find out whose limo entrance still stands out to him.
Plus, we get the deets behind the aftermath of his season and his eventual split from Lauren. Tune in now to hear all this and more, and be sure to follow so you never miss an episode.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everyone, welcome back to Bachelor Happy Hour and I'm
Joelous and we are here with mister Ben Higgins.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Ben, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Goodness, what an honor.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah, I don't know why I called you, mister, mister
Ben Higgins.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Respect. You just see you see me in It's immediate respect,
and so you want to make sure that respect is communicated,
and I appreciate.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
It, truly, truly.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Well, I did talk about so we are we recapture
night one, and one thing I said was when I, like,
when I was going on the Bachelor, the one bachelor
like the Bachelor season that I heard of was yours
and it was I don't know if it was I
was the right age group, but everyone was talking about it.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
And it also could be You're a Midwest guy and
you were young. You were you the Were you the
youngest bachelor?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Second? Jesse Palmer was actually like two months younger than
me when he was the Bachelor. So I was the
second youngest bachelor.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Are you still the second youngest bachelor? Do you know?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah? I mean I don't know how old Joey was.
I mean I was twenty six years old, like when
you were young? Yeah, like that's really young to be
the lead of a show. So I would imagine that
will hold up because I don't think the show is
going backwards to have like a twenty four year old bachelor.
I think they kind of tried that and stopped it.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, looking back on it, now, do you think do
you think you were too young? Because I mean, there's
a lot of things I've done in my life from
like when I was I was a trader, and I
was like I was honestly, I was too I was
too young.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I don't think I was too young because I really
was excited to get married. And I do think the
reason I would say it was I was too young
to be wise and how to handle kind of the
aftermath of the show that was kind of crazy and confusing.
But as somebody from Indiana, all my friends were married
(01:55):
when I went on to The Bachelor, like I felt
like I was never going to meet somebody because that
was kind of my like world was seeing all my
friends get married, all of my kids, have all my
friends having kids, and so I was really ready to
meet somebody to settle down, to kind of get into
that season of life. And I think that's probably the
best mark for a lead is are you actually ready
for marriage or not? And for me, I really was.
(02:20):
But so I don't think I was too young for that.
I think I was too young to make good decisions always.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Yeah, that's actually interesting because yeah, we noted that you
were twenty six.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
We're like, oh wow, he's definitely one of.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
The younger leads, like both Bachelor and Bachelorette probably, but
you did really seem ready. And I think it's honestly
rare to meet like girls or guys, but a lot
of guys that are like ready to settle down at
twenty six. But I guess it it's all relative, right,
Like if you know there's people in like where is
it like Salt Lake City where everyone's getting married at
(02:51):
like twenty one years old, and like that's just like
the norm there.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Like even even in Chicago, it was if when I
was growing up, you were if you were twenty seven
and single, you were like.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Yeah, like all your friends, like a lot of your
friends married like their high school sweethearts, Like that's like
the norm, whereas like none of my friends are married yet.
Kind of think being from like Toronto, really the greater
Toronto area, so I think like that does have such
an influence on Like readiness for a marriage is like
what is normal too?
Speaker 4 (03:17):
How old were your parents when they got married?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Oh so young? My mom was twenty and my dad
was twenty four.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Oh so like I'm old, like I'm twenty.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I will tell you this when I I have a
vivid moment in my mind when I was out here
in Denver. I had moved here from my first job.
I was not dating. I really didn't have any new
friendships out here because I was working all the time.
I remember laying in the bed of the house that
I had just purchased for like nothing, like I just
(03:48):
bought a house because it was cheaper in rent and
I bought this house. I was laying in this bed
and I was like, I'm I'm okay being single forever,
Like I'm going to like I need to get okay
with the idea that I will be single forever because
I just haven't found anybody. And I was twenty like
I was probably twenty five at the time. Like it
was why I have this moment looking up at the
(04:09):
ceiling and being like I'm okay, Like I'm an only child,
so literally, my mom my, poor mother gets a phone
call from me on my way to work the next
day and being like, hey, I know you've tried to
like set me up with the dates, and I know
it's a thing that you talk about, and I know
every time I go come home from church, everybody's like,
are you dating anybody? I was like, I want you
to know that I'm okay being single and I might
(04:31):
be single for the rest of my life. And she
was like no, like grandkids, like you're the only shot
I have at this thing. And so yeah, I had
came to the conclusion that I was going to be
and then the Bachelor came up and or the Bachelorette
came up, and I was like, yeah, why not, let's
get a shot. And I still think I was cool
being single, but then you know that changed. I guess
(04:52):
over time.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
How what was the state of social media? Instagram?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
You it's so interesting, such a good question that people
don't think about. So when I was on the Bachelorette,
it was like beta phase of Instagram. You can look
up like the timeframe right, like it was a thing,
but it was never the thing that any of us
knew or talked about. It was I remember having this
conversation with the guys sitting in the living room with
a mansion, and they're like, what are we going to
(05:21):
do with this thing? Like only one of us is
going to get chosen? What are the rest of us
do with this whole thing? And I remember some of
the guys like talking about appearances, So you do those
like big club appearances, right, you get paid for that.
And then like somebody brought up The Doctors, so like
the host of the Doctors was on was a bachelor
at one point years ago, so like maybe somebody is
(05:42):
going to go off and do TV and then the
rest of us are like Paradise, Like you go on
Paradise and like maybe extend this thing a bit and
get paid for Paradise. We're all like, I think you
get paid if you go on Paradise as a So
you make some money doing that and then you go
back to work. Yeah, and then I got announced as
a bachelor. And it kind of in between that three
month frame, like Instagram really took off, kind of like
TikTok did, like here recently, like everybody started using it,
(06:06):
everybody started to get involved in it, and then that's
when like it got popular. But my first season or
my season of The Bachelor was really the first one
where Instagram or social media was a part of the show.
It was kind of tested during Caitlin's season, but it
was never like a focus point until I was the Bachelor.
(06:27):
And even then, I think, and you'd have to ask
the team. I think the Bachelor Instagram account came out
during my season, like I think they. I don't eve
think the Bachelor had like any type of like social
media account until I was on the show. That's not
because I was on the show. It's just because it
didn't exist. It wasn't a thing.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
Yeah, it was like whoever was the Bachelor at that
time that would have it would have happened. Yeah, them
deciding we're going to pivot start incorporating social media, and
that probably.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
The conversation now makes me feel so old we talk
about social media.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Yeah, but social media is still so young. H It
really is, just like TikTok wasn't even a thing yet.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
No, No, I mean Twitter. So yeah, Twitter was kind
of showing up, Instagram was shown up. Facebook obviously had
its its place as kind of the thing. We were
doing a lot of Facebook videos back then. But you
gotta think I'm thirty five now, Like it's not like
I still couldn't go on the show. Like, you know,
(07:33):
I was doing this when I was so young that
even today and I would you know, I could still
I'm still in the age group.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
It just if you were single, you could go back
on my last season of Paradise, I was thirty five.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Yeah, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I got engaged at thirty five to you. Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
We we do want to break down a little bit
of your of of that night one. But since we're
on like the social media top the aftermath of your season,
how much different was it then? Because I do feel
like there was like didn't you do like late night shows,
didn't you like didn't you have the opportunity like going
like Jimmy.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Kimmel don't do that?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, but I don't think Yeah, but I don't think
it's as much anymore.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, So like that had always been a thing. So
like Bob Guiney used to go on Oprah like weekly
as a segment, right, So Bob Guiney was doing like that,
that was the publicition.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
She was doing a segment before he was even the bachelor,
Like he was a contestant segments next.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
You so loved and so known. So I went on
Kimmel quite a bit. I went on Kimmel a few
times and just kind of like more spoofy, like funny moments.
The social media side of it was something nobody knew
what to do with. So it was a lot of
short clips, videos, pictures. It was I guess beneficial to
(08:57):
the ratings of my season because people were seeing more
of the show than ever. Yeah, but I'd say the
thing that was different with my season than maybe others
when it comes to like the aftermath and the publicity
is how ABC kind of used Lauren and I because
(09:18):
you got to remember too, you might forget this. Right
after my season got done, we started filming Ben and
Lauren happily ever after and so there's a whole spin
off show on Freeform which was which was free that
was ABC ABC Family, Yes, an ABC show right afterwards,
and so that was the big deal for us. It
was kind of the first time a couple had been
(09:40):
followed post show and they were with us for a
long time, I mean two months.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Oh wow, what was that one? Did? That was that
one season?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Because we broke up Buddy Yeah, what was Can you
talk about what?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Now?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Can you talk about what you got paid for that?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yeah? I can talk about I mean it was good.
We both got paid as individuals obviously because we weren't married,
so they had to pay as separate talent. And so
that's what I mean. Really, when it came down to it,
you're like, hey, is this a good.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
Decision to get filmed right after we just got done
with this other show and we're still trying to figure
each other out as a couple, and we live in
a seven hundred square foot house that that's the same
house I built, And they're gonna, well.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Were you accepted that you're going to be singling?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah? The one I accepted I was gonna be single
in It was a one bedroom, one bathroom house with
you know, a crew of thirty people with us every day,
all day for two straight months. Is this a good decision?
And we're like, yeah, it's a great decision. We're go
get paid and I'm making no money, Like you don't
get paid a lot?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, yeah, you don't get paid a lot. And then
like you're.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
Coming off the show, usually with either like the decision
of like am I going to go straight back into a.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Job, which is gonna be hard to do because you
now just took off four months.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah whatever you were.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Doing and you have this new relationship, like whether you
have a job waiting for you or not. Like going
back to work at that time is so hard. So
it's like you've just go off TV. What what was
the Instagram situation like at that time, Like were people
coming off the show and influencing or was it not
quite there yet?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I don't think there was paid ads or it was
like it was like new, right.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
It was new. It was new. It was it was
new but also very lucrative because brands had this massive
budget and they didn't know what to do with social
media marketing yet. And then there was all these studies
coming out that were there's.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
So few like you guys probably had like such a
monopoly on it.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Oh yeah, So like the women from the like the time,
I mean I've I've heard rumors that I would validate.
Is like some of the women from like the season
of The Bachelor I was a part of. We're making
two plus million a year influencing at the time, and.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
So they go believe it they would have been the
first cast coming off with like you know, social media
is now just blowing up there getting these followings. There's
like no one else from The Bachelor probably with followings
other than like this chunk of women, and they're like great,
like engagement high. We have way more money than we
know what to do with, Like, let's throw it at
let's throw it at them.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
I heard a rumor about you, Ben oh, I got
many roomors. I remember many rooms right, No, this I mean,
I don't know how true this was, but I remember
guys from my season talking about it that you had
you were basically you had to turn down like a
one point three million dollar radio deal after your season
(12:37):
of The Bachelor with something like that.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I did turn it down. I didn't have to. Nobody
had told me. So I did turn that down because
other things are happening at the time that I was like,
I don't know if I want to go into a
full time job where I'm on the radio five days
a week.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Right, Well, we're filming Ben and Lauren at that time.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah. I was also filming Ben and Lauren at the time. Yeah,
So I was like trying to manage and balance out,
like what was life going to actually look like for me,
and you know this person that I thought at the
time we were going to get married, So like, how
do I stay true to all of it? And is
you know that money was obviously ridiculous, but like, is
(13:19):
any amount of money worth pretty much knowing it's going
to be the cost of this relationship? And I said no,
And I think I'm glad I did. I mean, you know,
that relationship didn't work out, which was fine, but it did.
I don't know what life would look like if I
was a radio host five days a week in the morning,
(13:41):
it would be different. So yeah, I did say no
to that. And there was other things I said no to,
not necessarily that we're that lucrative and that beneficial, but
you know, you are under contract for a year, and
when you're the bachelor or the lead, you're under contract
for like a year and a half of your life. Yeah,
And that's another side of the influencing, kind of like
(14:02):
Takeoff World, where people you know right away you get
off the show, and yes, you might have some lucrative
deals and some things come through you have to say
no to them oftentimes because you're still you know, you
still have an obligation to the show that you were
a part of that kind of gave you this new platform.
And so it takes a year and so for us
to say yes to Ben and Lauren have been and
(14:23):
Lauren happily ever after question Mark question Mark it was
a pretty much a sure thing yes, because it was
one of the only things we could make money on
post show. Here's the crazy thing. I was still working
a full time job while we were filming, and so
they would come and film at my office.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Oh, when you were filming Ben and Lauren.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yeah, So I went back to my social or my
software sales job for another two years post Bachelor, just
so I could have health insurance, and because they gave
me a sabbatical to lead the leave the film. So
I went back and film work there, and then at
nights we'd film the show, and then during the day
they would do stuff with Lauren, and then on the
weekends we'd film through the weekend. And it was it
(15:08):
was a grind, but I didn't I don't know what
to do with it. You're again, twenty six years old.
I'm like, what is it? Nobody knows what this Bachelor
thing is going to do ten years from now. I
can't leave my job yet. It's only why I'm getting
health insurance. I don't have enough money to pay for
health insurance on my own. So let's film the show,
let me work my job, Let's see where this spits
us out, and then you know, the rest, you know,
(15:31):
kind of settles. But it was a weird and wild
time and maybe one if you know, as we talk
about that season, I do regret that I didn't enjoy
it more because I was so focused on not knowing what,
you know, the risks were to being on the show,
and to what money would come in, what money would
(15:52):
it come in, that I just worked all the time
and I didn't enjoy a lot of the things that
other people were enjoying. So I was so nervous.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
That makes sense, I feel like I would be exactly
the same way. I mean, it's also like you don't
want to. It's like it's like this huge opportunity, but
you just don't know what what that opportunity is and
how long and how long it's gonna last, And you
feel like you need to take advantage of of kind
of everything, But at the same time, you don't want to.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Do this because that might screw up that and then
it's a fucking headache.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
How long after the show into filming, Ben and Lauren,
were you guys like this might not be a happily
ever after situation?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Good question. Well, so they asked us to do a
televised wedding. This was on the show, So Chris Harrison
flew out to Denver. We kind of did this this
moment where he sat down. I said, you guys want
to have your budding televised on national television. Obviously there's
a good paycheck associated with that, so you're like kinda
(16:53):
if we're going to get married. And we had already
been struggling for about a month, so we're in couples counseling.
We were really trying to make it work, but we
were not doing it. I mean, we were button heads,
and so we showed up to win the surprise when
he asked us. Already kind of not talking and we
were kind of more work associates, like we were living
(17:15):
in the same house. We weren't really speaking to each
other off camera because the cameras would leave a nine
o'clock we'd be exhausted. I might be having to go
to work the next day. She would be doing her
thing with her job, and so she was still flying
as a flight attendant a little bit and we'd just
be like, dead tired, we want to talk to each other.
We hadn't talked to each other really truly in weeks,
(17:38):
and so when they asked, we both went, I remember
the car right home. We were like, are we going
to do this? Because if we're gonna get married, we
better do it on national television, Like no question right, yeah,
And we were both like, I don't think we're gonna
get married. And that's when kind and that was kind
of one of the final episodes, and so they were
kind of done filming maybe a week later. We kind
(17:58):
of tried to make it work a little bit longer,
and then finally it was over. So I would say
if they filmed for two months. About a month and
a half into it, we were kind of calling it rough. Man.
It was a weird It was a weird time. It
(18:19):
was a weird time because here's how it happened. So
as soon as the cameras dropped the next day, I
flew to Chicago for a business meeting. Sitting in a
hotel in Chicago, and I remember talking to her on
the phone and she we were kind of talking. We're like,
this is done, like we know this is done like that,
We're not We're not going to make this work. It's
(18:40):
not healthy on either of us. We should just try
to move on. And I said, here's the deal. I'm
gone for a week for work. When I come back,
you know, it would be really great, is if like
you were gone, because I don't think I can see
you in person, Like it's going to hurt too much,
Like we both cared that much still, And she's like,
I agree. So her mom flew out to Denver kind
(19:01):
of packed up her stuff. I went to New York
City four days later on on a more work trip.
We hadn't talked in those four days, and I look
across the street and there she is on the street
corner in New York City, randomly with Amanda Stanton from
my season. They were doing event in New York. And
you know what I did, bolted, took off there, took
(19:29):
off the opposite direction. You're like, hood up, yeah, gone.
She was literally across the street in New York And
and then I got back to Denver and her stuff
was packed up, and she got so mad at me.
About this at the time. I think she could laugh
about it today, but a lot of this stuff was her.
She had done this deal with like People magazine or
something and got like all the furniture in our house
(19:51):
and it was really beautiful. And I showed up and
all the furniture is gone. And so I showed up
to this little house that's empty with no furniture, and
I still had this lawn chair in the back. So
I took my lawn chair and I sat in my
living room. The TV was left turned on the TV,
grabbed the bottle of bourbon set on the floor next
(20:12):
to me. I was like, this is actually a funny picture.
Let me take a picture of this. So I took
a picture of it, talked about it on Almost Famous,
and because Almost Famous launch the week we broke up,
so I had to talk about their breakup on Almost Famous.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
That was your like opening episode.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Opening up, and that was not played. That was literally
just some brilliance from above saying this is a good idea.
And so I took a picture and it's the saddest
picture in the world. And she got mad, which she
should have at the time. That was a dumb thing,
because she's like you've made it look like I took everything.
I'm like, well, it makes sense. You owned everything. It
was yours, it was not mine.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
It was your right, but she had every right to
take everything. That was like, you're making me look bad, Like, honestly.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
It does make you look terrible.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
It makes you look so bad again, but no context
it does.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
It was context a full makes sense.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
And context it makes sense. I was like, I mostly
did it because it's like it's a great picture of
my life. So it's just like one chair and a
bottle of bourbon and a pint of ice cream.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
The funny thing is like you were twenty six in
your house before you're going on The Bachelor, telling yourself
you're gonna be single forever. Ever, a year later after
the Bachelor, you're sitting in your house in a chair,
drinking a bottle bourbon and saying, I'm gonna be single.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I'm right back where I started. I'm not getting any better.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, but you're still but you're still so young, which
is which is crazy.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
When we cut to night one, we watched all like
the Limo entrances. Who do you? Who would do you remember?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Being like your top It's called it like your top
three or top four that night.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Uh, Olivia. I think Laurence stood out to me mostly
because she was like one of the only blondes I
think in the whole show.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Yeah, she was. Did you like Brenas Did you tell
them that?
Speaker 3 (22:07):
No? I don't think I told him that. I think
it was just the way things worked out. Yeah, And
so Lauren Olivia, and I was super curious about jin
Saviano on that she was like very just like like
very curious about me. And I remember her being like
(22:28):
one of the only women that asked me really like
normal questions on night one. I would also throw Kayla
quint into that. Jojo was a sneaky one for me.
Jojo didn't happen for a few weeks, mostly because I
couldn't see her face on night one because she were
like a horsehead or something. But yeah, those were the
(22:48):
ones that really stood out.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Okay, Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Yeah, it was interesting watching back because you know, we
searched up just provide ourselves who your final four was,
and we were like, I feel like these girls actually
did it get that much screen time on night one,
which is like not always the case, Like it really
was Olivia had a lot of airtime.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Who I believe that ended up taking a left turn?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Was she like the villain in a way? Those girls
there wasn't really a villain. She kind of like fell
on the sword that season.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
She was.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
She was vocal, and she had the first rose, and
so she was very confident. I would say Olivia was
not a villain to anybody, but the one thing that
she did have was over confidence, and she kind of
like spoke to that and that might have been the
downfall and kind of what rubbed women the wrong way, right,
These women never like fight like they're not fighting at all.
(23:49):
And I was proud of that. That was one of
the things that I wanted. So, you know, on night one,
you get to write your own speech. I guess you
really always get to write your own toast. And my
toast was kind of coming off of my experience. Was
I hope everybody leaves here at least happy they did it?
Uh not? Ever, all you know, one of you maybe
is gonna get chosen, and that I hope you're happy
(24:10):
you did it. If you got chosen, I can't promise
that either. Obviously she wasn't, but I was like, I
just hope you leave here happy you did it. And
one of the ways that you can make sure you
do that is by trying to have the best experience
here in the house with these other women as you
do when we're together. So I was proud that they
(24:31):
weren't fighting. I think the show is like, we have nothing.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
We just well, it looks like your toast got cut off.
I don't even know if we saw that part of
your toast or not, but someone like pulled you in
the middle of your toast, or at least that's what
made it look like do you remember this?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
They probably did. I don't remember it.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Okay, there was a girl who like dressed up as
the first Impression Rose, who like cut you off and
was like, oh you now, and you were like, O yeah, uh.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
There's many of those moments. I don't remember that specifically,
which is wild to think. I don't remember that. I
haven't watched my season and well since it aired, But
there's those moments where you're like, goodness, like those are
always kind of the red flags to me, is you know,
knowing enough of the show. The dental hygienist who cleaned
(25:21):
my teeth on night one, which is the most vulnerable, like.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Crazy thing like leg on her lap with your mouth open.
I was like, this is so vulnerable.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
It's so vulnerable. I mean there's those those are always
the red flags on like who is going to be
around longest? Is once you kind of see them play
into the characters that you've seen in the past, like
who pulls you first, who disrupts your conversations the most,
who wants to talk to you four times in one night?
And so I bet when she did that, because I
think Mandy went home pretty quickly, I was like, probably
(25:56):
not for me.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
Yeah, Lace was Lace was kind of the star of
your Night one, aside from you obviously, it was very
much Olivia and Lace were kind of the two big personalities.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Yeah, so Lace was a big story on Night one. Lace,
you know, people don't believe me. I was super curious
about Lace. Lace's things seems like beautiful.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
When we watch it, it seems like like we're watching
it as viewers, thinking like, oh, she's spiraling, Like no way,
ben Le likes her.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
But you can kind of tell that you're, yeah, you're
somewhat in She.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Is beautiful too, like she looks amazing night one, and
she's kind of got like a quirky personality where you're
kind of like, what is well it about this girl?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
And you appreciate I think on the show, you appreciate complexity,
and she was complex. She had a lot of emotions.
And the one thing I refused to do was send
anybody home because it was an overwhelming environment for them.
It's like, of course it's going to be overwhelming if
you're like super normal here on night one, I have
more questions than answers, and so those that are like
(27:00):
kind of hesitant, and the ones that are having a
hard time dealing with the cameras and conversations and all that,
it's like, this is not a marker for me to
send you home right now. If anything, this is a
marker for me to try to get to know you better,
because of what I would hate to do is send
you home just because you're nervous. And nerves are fine,
I don't you know, I get it. And and then
over time it became very clear that it was overwhelming
(27:22):
to her for other reasons, and so she wasn't in
a healthy place to do the show. And that's when
it was like, you know, you need to get out
of here, like yeah, this is not going to get
any better. You need to go home. But yeah, she
lives in Denver, and so even afterwards, like my care
and like love for her, like I felt for her,
(27:43):
and what you watch on TV is very accurate, I think,
at least in my experience to what happened there in
real time, I've never you know, I think Olivia got
the raw in the deal for sure, But I think
we are so quick to like judge these contents Heston's
based on like them being different or them being like
(28:04):
not in their comfort zone. And it's like, you can't
give Lace the villain mantra just because she wasn't in
a healthy place. If anything, we need to be like, yeah,
she is all of us, and so yeah she she
She was very curious to me until it became very
clear that she was unhealthy, and then it was like
you need to go home and get like the support
(28:25):
you're asking.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
For, right, Yeah, yeah, Well we saw Lace on two
seasons of Paradise after your season, so and honestly, at
the end of the day, she is a very entertaining
personality in her like it might not have been the
right time for her, but I can understand how she
ended up on the show.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Yeah, we got to know more of her, and now
I get it when she's like all over the place,
She's like, No, that's lace like she is. She's you know,
going psycho, you know, crazy like thinking about everything, and
she's very concerned about things, and she's very attuned to things,
and she plays stories in her head that are not
necessarily true, and you're like, that's just who she is.
You love her for it, but it's not a great
(29:05):
place for the bachelor. That's not a great headspace when
you're also trying to figure out this weird puzzle of
dating on nationale television with thirty other women.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Yeah, do you remember where your headspace was once the
first episode aired and you had just done it all
and you were sitting back, did you even watch?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Did you watch? I'm assuming you did.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I did watch. My head space was in a few places.
One being very nervous about Lauren and how she was
going to respond to things. Yeah, right, And that ended
up being fine until it gets a little bit more intimate. Uh,
And like you're a couple of weeks, and she was
good with the first couple of weeks, And I remember
kind of always every week, taking a deep breath, being like, Okay,
we made another week. She's not super mad me yet.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
Yeah, but you know it's coming. At some point, there's going.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
To be a I told true women I love them,
and that was never going to go overwhelm.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
I also remember being very nervous. It is kind of funny,
and I kind of forgot about this until you guys
started talking. So I was nervous about my look. And
here's the reason.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Your physical appearance.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Physical appearance.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
I always worried about that too.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
I was like, how am I going to look on
national television? And the reason I was so nervous about
it is because the show was not nice to me
and they made me feel terrible going in the night
one because the night before, the day before, you know
you're out there for a week with Press. I was
in Honduras for a wedding the week before that, flew
back to LA started to like kind of press and
(30:36):
the filming of stuff, I had a stomach bug and.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
So I have I remember you telling me this.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yeah. Yeah, the whole time I was on the show,
I lost thirty pounds from start to finish, Like couldn't
get off the toilet, so talk about like having fun
on a date and being like, hey, I'm sorry, I
gotta go. You know I'm not good. You don't feel
very confident in yourself. All the women ended up knowing
that I was sick, and then I needed a haircut
(31:03):
because I was gone for two weeks. So I was like,
I need I really like a haircut. And they're like, Okay,
here's this barber at the hotel that you're staying at.
I said, cool, just go down and he cuts my
sides of my head, Like, really, you.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Had a fathe you. I noticed your fade. I saw
the man chat. I was like, that's an interesting look
for Ben. But you, I mean you pull it look good.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
Yeah, And I saw your haircut. I mean your whole
look is obviously different. Now it's been like ten years,
but I always just assume, like whatever. It is, like
they're managing every single thing, like the fact that they
sent you to a barber with like no one to
go with you to like, for all they know, you.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Could be like buzz it like yours.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Like they're very particular about like the look of their lead.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
I can't believe they just had you some random hairdresser.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Some random hairdresser, and he shaved it. So if you
look at the man chat and you're like, okay, that's
a hard fade, and you look at night one, it
looks like I grew so much hair on the sides
of my head in one evening. What they did was
as they took and they painted this, they painted my
head black on the sides. So they took this like
like powdered spray and sprayed it all around the side
(32:09):
of my head for night one.
Speaker 5 (32:11):
So you're already like you're probably not feeling your best.
I a parasite.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Yeah, you're saying, I don't look good now, I can
get off the toilet. I'm sweating, I'm nervous. I'm the bachelor.
And so I was very just like more nervous about
like my physical appearance. But like, is it as bad
as what they told me it was?
Speaker 4 (32:31):
And I can't believe they were telling you it was bad,
Like I did lie to like lie to me.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
I have to go out there no matter how I
look right now, like at least let me believe I look.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Okay, Yeah, tell me I'm a stud please, Yeah, Like
you've never looked better.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
Oh my god, the spray paint on beside your head.
One more person I feel like we got to cover
quickly is Becca Tilly. She was a late entrance, came
off of crystals this season. She we haven't seen it
in a while. I feel like someone come back. This
(33:04):
is something I feel like that used to happen quite
a bit. Would be like someone would from a past
season would show up and be like, hey, like it
happened on my season, not my season, but like the
season of The Bachelor I was on. It happened like
way like Heather Martin showed up like week nine, I think,
But what was that like? Like you had two women
show up from a past season?
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yeah, I U.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
The first thing you go is are there more coming?
And they're like, we don't know, there's only two of
us for now.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Yeah. It was super sweet. I actually took it as
a massive compliment, and so I remember feeling really like
good about the two of them showing up because it
did give me some confidence that I did I did
really meet. I went into a feeling very non confident.
I'm confident in my ability to you know.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Beat up, but yeah, but don't you I feel like
you were the like the guy that like was like
unanimous like for Bachelor.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
So I never believed I was going to be the Bachelor.
And I also didn't know I wanted to be the
Bachelor because again I had to get I took a
sabbatical from work. My work had to approve me going
again for three more months and doing this show. And
I was going to say no to it if they
didn't approve it, because I didn't want to risk whatever
(34:22):
it was affecting my ability to put food on my table.
You asked about Beca, so that gave me confidence. Becka
and I had talked before. I didn't know she was
coming on the season, but I had her I still
have it in my phone, so she and we connected somehow.
We were texting and in my phone her name's Virginia.
(34:44):
I don't know why it was Virginia, but she's still
Virginia in my phone. We were texting back and forth
and the idea was, Hey, if I'm not the Bachelor,
let's date, let's go on a date, let's hang out. Yeah,
And then when I was announcing in the Bachelor, we
were still talking and I said, she said, should I
come on the show? And I said, if you want to,
(35:08):
If you think it's a possibility you should come on
the show. I said, I'm not. There's no favoritism here,
but obviously I'm interested in you and I would love
if we would give it a shot, if you would
come on. And then I didn't know, and so she
never told me she was or wasn't. I never knew
anything more about it. I said, it's in your the
balls in your court. If you want to come on
(35:29):
the show, come on the show and we'll try to
make it work. And then she did, and so we did.
We gave it a shot, and then she went home
in Worse Indiana, and I remember after the cameras went down,
We're sitting on the park bench when I sent her home,
and I remember she just looked at me. The last
thing she said to me was you told me you
weren't going to do it this way. And I was like,
I did. I run a stir money. And I told
(35:52):
her when we were talking, if she comes on the show,
I was like, I'll make sure that you get you know,
a proper like et sit or you know we're together
in the end, Like you've done this before, I know
it's a big deal to do it again. I'll give
you that proper exit and then it never worked out
that it could and she was right, you told me
you wouldn't do it this way. And then she just
stormed off and I was like, no, she's the nicest
(36:13):
girl in the world, Like.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
But like you made a promise that, like you didn't
have all the information when you made that promision. Yeah,
They're like, You're like, so I have to give her
a proper exit, and they're like, actually, that's not how
this works at all.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
Like there's a roasting tomorrow and shall we go hang
home at that?
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah, to give her a proper exit, and all the
execs are laughing.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Does this kid think he is?
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Well?
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Ben?
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Thank you, thank you very much for coming on our
podcast and chatting with us. And we enjoyed rewatching your
night one and hanging out with you at Nick's wedding
and hopefully we see you again.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
So yeah, we'll be seeing each other soon. It was great,
Thanks for having me on. It's funny. I was actually
nervous to come on here, not not for any other
reason other than like, I don't remember so much of it.
It's wild how much you forget, And so I was
gonna I was gonna tell you. Before we started recording,
I was like, don't put me on the spot to
telling to uh for anybody's names because I won't remember them.
(37:17):
It's it's in the past. But I really appreciate it
and it was a lot of fun. The show's been
so good to me, and you guys are doing a
great job, so keep it up cool.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Thanks buying to all our listeners. Thank you guys for
tuning in, and make sure you subscribe to Better Happy Hours.
Speaker 5 (37:32):
We have lots more fun, exciting episodes coming out, exclusive interviews,
and more.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
So don't subscribe. Bye bye.
Hey, everyone, welcome back to Bachelor Happy Hour and I'm
Joelous and we are here with mister Ben Higgins.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Ben, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Goodness, what an honor.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah, I don't know why I called you, mister, mister
Ben Higgins.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Respect. You just see you see me in It's immediate respect,
and so you want to make sure that respect is communicated,
and I appreciate.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
It, truly, truly.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Well, I did talk about so we are we recapture
night one, and one thing I said was when I, like,
when I was going on the Bachelor, the one bachelor
like the Bachelor season that I heard of was yours
and it was I don't know if it was I
was the right age group, but everyone was talking about it.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
And it also could be You're a Midwest guy and
you were young. You were you the Were you the
youngest bachelor?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Second? Jesse Palmer was actually like two months younger than
me when he was the Bachelor. So I was the
second youngest bachelor.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Are you still the second youngest bachelor? Do you know?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah? I mean I don't know how old Joey was.
I mean I was twenty six years old, like when
you were young? Yeah, like that's really young to be
the lead of a show. So I would imagine that
will hold up because I don't think the show is
going backwards to have like a twenty four year old bachelor.
I think they kind of tried that and stopped it.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, looking back on it, now, do you think do
you think you were too young? Because I mean, there's
a lot of things I've done in my life from
like when I was I was a trader, and I
was like I was honestly, I was too I was
too young.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I don't think I was too young because I really
was excited to get married. And I do think the
reason I would say it was I was too young
to be wise and how to handle kind of the
aftermath of the show that was kind of crazy and confusing.
But as somebody from Indiana, all my friends were married
(01:55):
when I went on to The Bachelor, like I felt
like I was never going to meet somebody because that
was kind of my like world was seeing all my
friends get married, all of my kids, have all my
friends having kids, and so I was really ready to
meet somebody to settle down, to kind of get into
that season of life. And I think that's probably the
best mark for a lead is are you actually ready
for marriage or not? And for me, I really was.
(02:20):
But so I don't think I was too young for that.
I think I was too young to make good decisions always.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Yeah, that's actually interesting because yeah, we noted that you
were twenty six.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
We're like, oh wow, he's definitely one of.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
The younger leads, like both Bachelor and Bachelorette probably, but
you did really seem ready. And I think it's honestly
rare to meet like girls or guys, but a lot
of guys that are like ready to settle down at
twenty six. But I guess it it's all relative, right,
Like if you know there's people in like where is
it like Salt Lake City where everyone's getting married at
(02:51):
like twenty one years old, and like that's just like
the norm there.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Like even even in Chicago, it was if when I
was growing up, you were if you were twenty seven
and single, you were like.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Yeah, like all your friends, like a lot of your
friends married like their high school sweethearts, Like that's like
the norm, whereas like none of my friends are married yet.
Kind of think being from like Toronto, really the greater
Toronto area, so I think like that does have such
an influence on Like readiness for a marriage is like
what is normal too?
Speaker 4 (03:17):
How old were your parents when they got married?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Oh so young? My mom was twenty and my dad
was twenty four.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Oh so like I'm old, like I'm twenty.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I will tell you this when I I have a
vivid moment in my mind when I was out here
in Denver. I had moved here from my first job.
I was not dating. I really didn't have any new
friendships out here because I was working all the time.
I remember laying in the bed of the house that
I had just purchased for like nothing, like I just
(03:48):
bought a house because it was cheaper in rent and
I bought this house. I was laying in this bed
and I was like, I'm I'm okay being single forever,
Like I'm going to like I need to get okay
with the idea that I will be single forever because
I just haven't found anybody. And I was twenty like
I was probably twenty five at the time. Like it
was why I have this moment looking up at the
(04:09):
ceiling and being like I'm okay, Like I'm an only child,
so literally, my mom my, poor mother gets a phone
call from me on my way to work the next
day and being like, hey, I know you've tried to
like set me up with the dates, and I know
it's a thing that you talk about, and I know
every time I go come home from church, everybody's like,
are you dating anybody? I was like, I want you
to know that I'm okay being single and I might
(04:31):
be single for the rest of my life. And she
was like no, like grandkids, like you're the only shot
I have at this thing. And so yeah, I had
came to the conclusion that I was going to be
and then the Bachelor came up and or the Bachelorette
came up, and I was like, yeah, why not, let's
get a shot. And I still think I was cool
being single, but then you know that changed. I guess
(04:52):
over time.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
How what was the state of social media? Instagram?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
You it's so interesting, such a good question that people
don't think about. So when I was on the Bachelorette,
it was like beta phase of Instagram. You can look
up like the timeframe right, like it was a thing,
but it was never the thing that any of us
knew or talked about. It was I remember having this
conversation with the guys sitting in the living room with
a mansion, and they're like, what are we going to
(05:21):
do with this thing? Like only one of us is
going to get chosen? What are the rest of us
do with this whole thing? And I remember some of
the guys like talking about appearances, So you do those
like big club appearances, right, you get paid for that.
And then like somebody brought up The Doctors, so like
the host of the Doctors was on was a bachelor
at one point years ago, so like maybe somebody is
(05:42):
going to go off and do TV and then the
rest of us are like Paradise, Like you go on
Paradise and like maybe extend this thing a bit and
get paid for Paradise. We're all like, I think you
get paid if you go on Paradise as a So
you make some money doing that and then you go
back to work. Yeah, and then I got announced as
a bachelor. And it kind of in between that three
month frame, like Instagram really took off, kind of like
TikTok did, like here recently, like everybody started using it,
(06:06):
everybody started to get involved in it, and then that's
when like it got popular. But my first season or
my season of The Bachelor was really the first one
where Instagram or social media was a part of the show.
It was kind of tested during Caitlin's season, but it
was never like a focus point until I was the Bachelor.
(06:27):
And even then, I think, and you'd have to ask
the team. I think the Bachelor Instagram account came out
during my season, like I think they. I don't eve
think the Bachelor had like any type of like social
media account until I was on the show. That's not
because I was on the show. It's just because it
didn't exist. It wasn't a thing.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
Yeah, it was like whoever was the Bachelor at that
time that would have it would have happened. Yeah, them
deciding we're going to pivot start incorporating social media, and
that probably.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
The conversation now makes me feel so old we talk
about social media.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Yeah, but social media is still so young. H It
really is, just like TikTok wasn't even a thing yet.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
No, No, I mean Twitter. So yeah, Twitter was kind
of showing up, Instagram was shown up. Facebook obviously had
its its place as kind of the thing. We were
doing a lot of Facebook videos back then. But you
gotta think I'm thirty five now, Like it's not like
I still couldn't go on the show. Like, you know,
(07:33):
I was doing this when I was so young that
even today and I would you know, I could still
I'm still in the age group.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
It just if you were single, you could go back
on my last season of Paradise, I was thirty five.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Yeah, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I got engaged at thirty five to you. Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
We we do want to break down a little bit
of your of of that night one. But since we're
on like the social media top the aftermath of your season,
how much different was it then? Because I do feel
like there was like didn't you do like late night shows,
didn't you like didn't you have the opportunity like going
like Jimmy.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Kimmel don't do that?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, but I don't think Yeah, but I don't think
it's as much anymore.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, So like that had always been a thing. So
like Bob Guiney used to go on Oprah like weekly
as a segment, right, So Bob Guiney was doing like that,
that was the publicition.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
She was doing a segment before he was even the bachelor,
Like he was a contestant segments next.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
You so loved and so known. So I went on
Kimmel quite a bit. I went on Kimmel a few
times and just kind of like more spoofy, like funny moments.
The social media side of it was something nobody knew
what to do with. So it was a lot of
short clips, videos, pictures. It was I guess beneficial to
(08:57):
the ratings of my season because people were seeing more
of the show than ever. Yeah, but I'd say the
thing that was different with my season than maybe others
when it comes to like the aftermath and the publicity
is how ABC kind of used Lauren and I because
(09:18):
you got to remember too, you might forget this. Right
after my season got done, we started filming Ben and
Lauren happily ever after and so there's a whole spin
off show on Freeform which was which was free that
was ABC ABC Family, Yes, an ABC show right afterwards,
and so that was the big deal for us. It
was kind of the first time a couple had been
(09:40):
followed post show and they were with us for a
long time, I mean two months.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Oh wow, what was that one? Did? That was that
one season?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Because we broke up Buddy Yeah, what was Can you
talk about what?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Now?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Can you talk about what you got paid for that?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yeah? I can talk about I mean it was good.
We both got paid as individuals obviously because we weren't married,
so they had to pay as separate talent. And so
that's what I mean. Really, when it came down to it,
you're like, hey, is this a good.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
Decision to get filmed right after we just got done
with this other show and we're still trying to figure
each other out as a couple, and we live in
a seven hundred square foot house that that's the same
house I built, And they're gonna, well.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Were you accepted that you're going to be singling?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah? The one I accepted I was gonna be single
in It was a one bedroom, one bathroom house with
you know, a crew of thirty people with us every day,
all day for two straight months. Is this a good decision?
And we're like, yeah, it's a great decision. We're go
get paid and I'm making no money, Like you don't
get paid a lot?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, yeah, you don't get paid a lot. And then
like you're.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
Coming off the show, usually with either like the decision
of like am I going to go straight back into a.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Job, which is gonna be hard to do because you
now just took off four months.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah whatever you were.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Doing and you have this new relationship, like whether you
have a job waiting for you or not. Like going
back to work at that time is so hard. So
it's like you've just go off TV. What what was
the Instagram situation like at that time, Like were people
coming off the show and influencing or was it not
quite there yet?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I don't think there was paid ads or it was
like it was like new, right.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
It was new. It was new. It was it was
new but also very lucrative because brands had this massive
budget and they didn't know what to do with social
media marketing yet. And then there was all these studies
coming out that were there's.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
So few like you guys probably had like such a
monopoly on it.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Oh yeah, So like the women from the like the time,
I mean I've I've heard rumors that I would validate.
Is like some of the women from like the season
of The Bachelor I was a part of. We're making
two plus million a year influencing at the time, and.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
So they go believe it they would have been the
first cast coming off with like you know, social media
is now just blowing up there getting these followings. There's
like no one else from The Bachelor probably with followings
other than like this chunk of women, and they're like great,
like engagement high. We have way more money than we
know what to do with, Like, let's throw it at
let's throw it at them.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
I heard a rumor about you, Ben oh, I got
many roomors. I remember many rooms right, No, this I mean,
I don't know how true this was, but I remember
guys from my season talking about it that you had
you were basically you had to turn down like a
one point three million dollar radio deal after your season
(12:37):
of The Bachelor with something like that.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I did turn it down. I didn't have to. Nobody
had told me. So I did turn that down because
other things are happening at the time that I was like,
I don't know if I want to go into a
full time job where I'm on the radio five days
a week.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Right, Well, we're filming Ben and Lauren at that time.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah. I was also filming Ben and Lauren at the time. Yeah,
So I was like trying to manage and balance out,
like what was life going to actually look like for me,
and you know this person that I thought at the
time we were going to get married, So like, how
do I stay true to all of it? And is
you know that money was obviously ridiculous, but like, is
(13:19):
any amount of money worth pretty much knowing it's going
to be the cost of this relationship? And I said no,
And I think I'm glad I did. I mean, you know,
that relationship didn't work out, which was fine, but it did.
I don't know what life would look like if I
was a radio host five days a week in the morning,
(13:41):
it would be different. So yeah, I did say no
to that. And there was other things I said no to,
not necessarily that we're that lucrative and that beneficial, but
you know, you are under contract for a year, and
when you're the bachelor or the lead, you're under contract
for like a year and a half of your life. Yeah,
And that's another side of the influencing, kind of like
(14:02):
Takeoff World, where people you know right away you get
off the show, and yes, you might have some lucrative
deals and some things come through you have to say
no to them oftentimes because you're still you know, you
still have an obligation to the show that you were
a part of that kind of gave you this new platform.
And so it takes a year and so for us
to say yes to Ben and Lauren have been and
(14:23):
Lauren happily ever after question Mark question Mark it was
a pretty much a sure thing yes, because it was
one of the only things we could make money on
post show. Here's the crazy thing. I was still working
a full time job while we were filming, and so
they would come and film at my office.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Oh, when you were filming Ben and Lauren.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yeah, So I went back to my social or my
software sales job for another two years post Bachelor, just
so I could have health insurance, and because they gave
me a sabbatical to lead the leave the film. So
I went back and film work there, and then at
nights we'd film the show, and then during the day
they would do stuff with Lauren, and then on the
weekends we'd film through the weekend. And it was it
(15:08):
was a grind, but I didn't I don't know what
to do with it. You're again, twenty six years old.
I'm like, what is it? Nobody knows what this Bachelor
thing is going to do ten years from now. I
can't leave my job yet. It's only why I'm getting
health insurance. I don't have enough money to pay for
health insurance on my own. So let's film the show,
let me work my job, Let's see where this spits
us out, and then you know, the rest, you know,
(15:31):
kind of settles. But it was a weird and wild
time and maybe one if you know, as we talk
about that season, I do regret that I didn't enjoy
it more because I was so focused on not knowing what,
you know, the risks were to being on the show,
and to what money would come in, what money would
(15:52):
it come in, that I just worked all the time
and I didn't enjoy a lot of the things that
other people were enjoying. So I was so nervous.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
That makes sense, I feel like I would be exactly
the same way. I mean, it's also like you don't
want to. It's like it's like this huge opportunity, but
you just don't know what what that opportunity is and
how long and how long it's gonna last, And you
feel like you need to take advantage of of kind
of everything, But at the same time, you don't want to.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Do this because that might screw up that and then
it's a fucking headache.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
How long after the show into filming, Ben and Lauren,
were you guys like this might not be a happily
ever after situation?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Good question. Well, so they asked us to do a
televised wedding. This was on the show, So Chris Harrison
flew out to Denver. We kind of did this this
moment where he sat down. I said, you guys want
to have your budding televised on national television. Obviously there's
a good paycheck associated with that, so you're like kinda
(16:53):
if we're going to get married. And we had already
been struggling for about a month, so we're in couples counseling.
We were really trying to make it work, but we
were not doing it. I mean, we were button heads,
and so we showed up to win the surprise when
he asked us. Already kind of not talking and we
were kind of more work associates, like we were living
(17:15):
in the same house. We weren't really speaking to each
other off camera because the cameras would leave a nine
o'clock we'd be exhausted. I might be having to go
to work the next day. She would be doing her
thing with her job, and so she was still flying
as a flight attendant a little bit and we'd just
be like, dead tired, we want to talk to each other.
We hadn't talked to each other really truly in weeks,
(17:38):
and so when they asked, we both went, I remember
the car right home. We were like, are we going
to do this? Because if we're gonna get married, we
better do it on national television, Like no question right, yeah,
And we were both like, I don't think we're gonna
get married. And that's when kind and that was kind
of one of the final episodes, and so they were
kind of done filming maybe a week later. We kind
(17:58):
of tried to make it work a little bit longer,
and then finally it was over. So I would say
if they filmed for two months. About a month and
a half into it, we were kind of calling it rough. Man.
It was a weird It was a weird time. It
(18:19):
was a weird time because here's how it happened. So
as soon as the cameras dropped the next day, I
flew to Chicago for a business meeting. Sitting in a
hotel in Chicago, and I remember talking to her on
the phone and she we were kind of talking. We're like,
this is done, like we know this is done like that,
We're not We're not going to make this work. It's
(18:40):
not healthy on either of us. We should just try
to move on. And I said, here's the deal. I'm
gone for a week for work. When I come back,
you know, it would be really great, is if like
you were gone, because I don't think I can see
you in person, Like it's going to hurt too much,
Like we both cared that much still, And she's like,
I agree. So her mom flew out to Denver kind
(19:01):
of packed up her stuff. I went to New York
City four days later on on a more work trip.
We hadn't talked in those four days, and I look
across the street and there she is on the street
corner in New York City, randomly with Amanda Stanton from
my season. They were doing event in New York. And
you know what I did, bolted, took off there, took
(19:29):
off the opposite direction. You're like, hood up, yeah, gone.
She was literally across the street in New York And
and then I got back to Denver and her stuff
was packed up, and she got so mad at me.
About this at the time. I think she could laugh
about it today, but a lot of this stuff was her.
She had done this deal with like People magazine or
something and got like all the furniture in our house
(19:51):
and it was really beautiful. And I showed up and
all the furniture is gone. And so I showed up
to this little house that's empty with no furniture, and
I still had this lawn chair in the back. So
I took my lawn chair and I sat in my
living room. The TV was left turned on the TV,
grabbed the bottle of bourbon set on the floor next
(20:12):
to me. I was like, this is actually a funny picture.
Let me take a picture of this. So I took
a picture of it, talked about it on Almost Famous,
and because Almost Famous launch the week we broke up,
so I had to talk about their breakup on Almost Famous.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
That was your like opening episode.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Opening up, and that was not played. That was literally
just some brilliance from above saying this is a good idea.
And so I took a picture and it's the saddest
picture in the world. And she got mad, which she
should have at the time. That was a dumb thing,
because she's like you've made it look like I took everything.
I'm like, well, it makes sense. You owned everything. It
was yours, it was not mine.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
It was your right, but she had every right to
take everything. That was like, you're making me look bad, Like, honestly.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
It does make you look terrible.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
It makes you look so bad again, but no context
it does.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
It was context a full makes sense.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
And context it makes sense. I was like, I mostly
did it because it's like it's a great picture of
my life. So it's just like one chair and a
bottle of bourbon and a pint of ice cream.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
The funny thing is like you were twenty six in
your house before you're going on The Bachelor, telling yourself
you're gonna be single forever. Ever, a year later after
the Bachelor, you're sitting in your house in a chair,
drinking a bottle bourbon and saying, I'm gonna be single.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I'm right back where I started. I'm not getting any better.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, but you're still but you're still so young, which
is which is crazy.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
When we cut to night one, we watched all like
the Limo entrances. Who do you? Who would do you remember?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Being like your top It's called it like your top
three or top four that night.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Uh, Olivia. I think Laurence stood out to me mostly
because she was like one of the only blondes I
think in the whole show.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Yeah, she was. Did you like Brenas Did you tell
them that?
Speaker 3 (22:07):
No? I don't think I told him that. I think
it was just the way things worked out. Yeah, And
so Lauren Olivia, and I was super curious about jin
Saviano on that she was like very just like like
very curious about me. And I remember her being like
(22:28):
one of the only women that asked me really like
normal questions on night one. I would also throw Kayla
quint into that. Jojo was a sneaky one for me.
Jojo didn't happen for a few weeks, mostly because I
couldn't see her face on night one because she were
like a horsehead or something. But yeah, those were the
(22:48):
ones that really stood out.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Okay, Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Yeah, it was interesting watching back because you know, we
searched up just provide ourselves who your final four was,
and we were like, I feel like these girls actually
did it get that much screen time on night one,
which is like not always the case, Like it really
was Olivia had a lot of airtime.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Who I believe that ended up taking a left turn?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Was she like the villain in a way? Those girls
there wasn't really a villain. She kind of like fell
on the sword that season.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
She was.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
She was vocal, and she had the first rose, and
so she was very confident. I would say Olivia was
not a villain to anybody, but the one thing that
she did have was over confidence, and she kind of
like spoke to that and that might have been the
downfall and kind of what rubbed women the wrong way, right,
These women never like fight like they're not fighting at all.
(23:49):
And I was proud of that. That was one of
the things that I wanted. So, you know, on night one,
you get to write your own speech. I guess you
really always get to write your own toast. And my
toast was kind of coming off of my experience. Was
I hope everybody leaves here at least happy they did it?
Uh not? Ever, all you know, one of you maybe
is gonna get chosen, and that I hope you're happy
(24:10):
you did it. If you got chosen, I can't promise
that either. Obviously she wasn't, but I was like, I
just hope you leave here happy you did it. And
one of the ways that you can make sure you
do that is by trying to have the best experience
here in the house with these other women as you
do when we're together. So I was proud that they
(24:31):
weren't fighting. I think the show is like, we have nothing.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
We just well, it looks like your toast got cut off.
I don't even know if we saw that part of
your toast or not, but someone like pulled you in
the middle of your toast, or at least that's what
made it look like do you remember this?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
They probably did. I don't remember it.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Okay, there was a girl who like dressed up as
the first Impression Rose, who like cut you off and
was like, oh you now, and you were like, O yeah, uh.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
There's many of those moments. I don't remember that specifically,
which is wild to think. I don't remember that. I
haven't watched my season and well since it aired, But
there's those moments where you're like, goodness, like those are
always kind of the red flags to me, is you know,
knowing enough of the show. The dental hygienist who cleaned
(25:21):
my teeth on night one, which is the most vulnerable, like.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Crazy thing like leg on her lap with your mouth open.
I was like, this is so vulnerable.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
It's so vulnerable. I mean there's those those are always
the red flags on like who is going to be
around longest? Is once you kind of see them play
into the characters that you've seen in the past, like
who pulls you first, who disrupts your conversations the most,
who wants to talk to you four times in one night?
And so I bet when she did that, because I
think Mandy went home pretty quickly, I was like, probably
(25:56):
not for me.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
Yeah, Lace was Lace was kind of the star of
your Night one, aside from you obviously, it was very
much Olivia and Lace were kind of the two big personalities.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Yeah, so Lace was a big story on Night one. Lace,
you know, people don't believe me. I was super curious
about Lace. Lace's things seems like beautiful.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
When we watch it, it seems like like we're watching
it as viewers, thinking like, oh, she's spiraling, Like no way,
ben Le likes her.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
But you can kind of tell that you're, yeah, you're
somewhat in She.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Is beautiful too, like she looks amazing night one, and
she's kind of got like a quirky personality where you're
kind of like, what is well it about this girl?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
And you appreciate I think on the show, you appreciate complexity,
and she was complex. She had a lot of emotions.
And the one thing I refused to do was send
anybody home because it was an overwhelming environment for them.
It's like, of course it's going to be overwhelming if
you're like super normal here on night one, I have
more questions than answers, and so those that are like
(27:00):
kind of hesitant, and the ones that are having a
hard time dealing with the cameras and conversations and all that,
it's like, this is not a marker for me to
send you home right now. If anything, this is a
marker for me to try to get to know you better,
because of what I would hate to do is send
you home just because you're nervous. And nerves are fine,
I don't you know, I get it. And and then
over time it became very clear that it was overwhelming
(27:22):
to her for other reasons, and so she wasn't in
a healthy place to do the show. And that's when
it was like, you know, you need to get out
of here, like yeah, this is not going to get
any better. You need to go home. But yeah, she
lives in Denver, and so even afterwards, like my care
and like love for her, like I felt for her,
(27:43):
and what you watch on TV is very accurate, I think,
at least in my experience to what happened there in
real time, I've never you know, I think Olivia got
the raw in the deal for sure, But I think
we are so quick to like judge these contents Heston's
based on like them being different or them being like
(28:04):
not in their comfort zone. And it's like, you can't
give Lace the villain mantra just because she wasn't in
a healthy place. If anything, we need to be like, yeah,
she is all of us, and so yeah she she
She was very curious to me until it became very
clear that she was unhealthy, and then it was like
you need to go home and get like the support
(28:25):
you're asking.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
For, right, Yeah, yeah, Well we saw Lace on two
seasons of Paradise after your season, so and honestly, at
the end of the day, she is a very entertaining
personality in her like it might not have been the
right time for her, but I can understand how she
ended up on the show.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Yeah, we got to know more of her, and now
I get it when she's like all over the place,
She's like, No, that's lace like she is. She's you know,
going psycho, you know, crazy like thinking about everything, and
she's very concerned about things, and she's very attuned to things,
and she plays stories in her head that are not
necessarily true, and you're like, that's just who she is.
You love her for it, but it's not a great
(29:05):
place for the bachelor. That's not a great headspace when
you're also trying to figure out this weird puzzle of
dating on nationale television with thirty other women.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Yeah, do you remember where your headspace was once the
first episode aired and you had just done it all
and you were sitting back, did you even watch?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Did you watch? I'm assuming you did.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I did watch. My head space was in a few places.
One being very nervous about Lauren and how she was
going to respond to things. Yeah, right, And that ended
up being fine until it gets a little bit more intimate. Uh,
And like you're a couple of weeks, and she was
good with the first couple of weeks, And I remember
kind of always every week, taking a deep breath, being like, Okay,
we made another week. She's not super mad me yet.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
Yeah, but you know it's coming. At some point, there's going.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
To be a I told true women I love them,
and that was never going to go overwhelm.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
I also remember being very nervous. It is kind of funny,
and I kind of forgot about this until you guys
started talking. So I was nervous about my look. And
here's the reason.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Your physical appearance.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Physical appearance.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
I always worried about that too.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
I was like, how am I going to look on
national television? And the reason I was so nervous about
it is because the show was not nice to me
and they made me feel terrible going in the night
one because the night before, the day before, you know
you're out there for a week with Press. I was
in Honduras for a wedding the week before that, flew
back to LA started to like kind of press and
(30:36):
the filming of stuff, I had a stomach bug and.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
So I have I remember you telling me this.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yeah. Yeah, the whole time I was on the show,
I lost thirty pounds from start to finish, Like couldn't
get off the toilet, so talk about like having fun
on a date and being like, hey, I'm sorry, I
gotta go. You know I'm not good. You don't feel
very confident in yourself. All the women ended up knowing
that I was sick, and then I needed a haircut
(31:03):
because I was gone for two weeks. So I was like,
I need I really like a haircut. And they're like, Okay,
here's this barber at the hotel that you're staying at.
I said, cool, just go down and he cuts my
sides of my head, Like, really, you.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Had a fathe you. I noticed your fade. I saw
the man chat. I was like, that's an interesting look
for Ben. But you, I mean you pull it look good.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
Yeah, And I saw your haircut. I mean your whole
look is obviously different. Now it's been like ten years,
but I always just assume, like whatever. It is, like
they're managing every single thing, like the fact that they
sent you to a barber with like no one to
go with you to like, for all they know, you.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Could be like buzz it like yours.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Like they're very particular about like the look of their lead.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
I can't believe they just had you some random hairdresser.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Some random hairdresser, and he shaved it. So if you
look at the man chat and you're like, okay, that's
a hard fade, and you look at night one, it
looks like I grew so much hair on the sides
of my head in one evening. What they did was
as they took and they painted this, they painted my
head black on the sides. So they took this like
like powdered spray and sprayed it all around the side
(32:09):
of my head for night one.
Speaker 5 (32:11):
So you're already like you're probably not feeling your best.
I a parasite.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Yeah, you're saying, I don't look good now, I can
get off the toilet. I'm sweating, I'm nervous. I'm the bachelor.
And so I was very just like more nervous about
like my physical appearance. But like, is it as bad
as what they told me it was?
Speaker 4 (32:31):
And I can't believe they were telling you it was bad,
Like I did lie to like lie to me.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
I have to go out there no matter how I
look right now, like at least let me believe I look.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Okay, Yeah, tell me I'm a stud please, Yeah, Like
you've never looked better.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
Oh my god, the spray paint on beside your head.
One more person I feel like we got to cover
quickly is Becca Tilly. She was a late entrance, came
off of crystals this season. She we haven't seen it
in a while. I feel like someone come back. This
(33:04):
is something I feel like that used to happen quite
a bit. Would be like someone would from a past
season would show up and be like, hey, like it
happened on my season, not my season, but like the
season of The Bachelor I was on. It happened like
way like Heather Martin showed up like week nine, I think,
But what was that like? Like you had two women
show up from a past season?
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yeah, I U.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
The first thing you go is are there more coming?
And they're like, we don't know, there's only two of
us for now.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Yeah. It was super sweet. I actually took it as
a massive compliment, and so I remember feeling really like
good about the two of them showing up because it
did give me some confidence that I did I did
really meet. I went into a feeling very non confident.
I'm confident in my ability to you know.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Beat up, but yeah, but don't you I feel like
you were the like the guy that like was like
unanimous like for Bachelor.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
So I never believed I was going to be the Bachelor.
And I also didn't know I wanted to be the
Bachelor because again I had to get I took a
sabbatical from work. My work had to approve me going
again for three more months and doing this show. And
I was going to say no to it if they
didn't approve it, because I didn't want to risk whatever
(34:22):
it was affecting my ability to put food on my table.
You asked about Beca, so that gave me confidence. Becka
and I had talked before. I didn't know she was
coming on the season, but I had her I still
have it in my phone, so she and we connected somehow.
We were texting and in my phone her name's Virginia.
(34:44):
I don't know why it was Virginia, but she's still
Virginia in my phone. We were texting back and forth
and the idea was, Hey, if I'm not the Bachelor,
let's date, let's go on a date, let's hang out. Yeah,
And then when I was announcing in the Bachelor, we
were still talking and I said, she said, should I
come on the show? And I said, if you want to,
(35:08):
If you think it's a possibility you should come on
the show. I said, I'm not. There's no favoritism here,
but obviously I'm interested in you and I would love
if we would give it a shot, if you would
come on. And then I didn't know, and so she
never told me she was or wasn't. I never knew
anything more about it. I said, it's in your the
balls in your court. If you want to come on
(35:29):
the show, come on the show and we'll try to
make it work. And then she did, and so we did.
We gave it a shot, and then she went home
in Worse Indiana, and I remember after the cameras went down,
We're sitting on the park bench when I sent her home,
and I remember she just looked at me. The last
thing she said to me was you told me you
weren't going to do it this way. And I was like,
I did. I run a stir money. And I told
(35:52):
her when we were talking, if she comes on the show,
I was like, I'll make sure that you get you know,
a proper like et sit or you know we're together
in the end, Like you've done this before, I know
it's a big deal to do it again. I'll give
you that proper exit and then it never worked out
that it could and she was right, you told me
you wouldn't do it this way. And then she just
stormed off and I was like, no, she's the nicest
(36:13):
girl in the world, Like.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
But like you made a promise that, like you didn't
have all the information when you made that promision. Yeah,
They're like, You're like, so I have to give her
a proper exit, and they're like, actually, that's not how
this works at all.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
Like there's a roasting tomorrow and shall we go hang
home at that?
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah, to give her a proper exit, and all the
execs are laughing.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Does this kid think he is?
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Well?
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Ben?
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Thank you, thank you very much for coming on our
podcast and chatting with us. And we enjoyed rewatching your
night one and hanging out with you at Nick's wedding
and hopefully we see you again.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
So yeah, we'll be seeing each other soon. It was great,
Thanks for having me on. It's funny. I was actually
nervous to come on here, not not for any other
reason other than like, I don't remember so much of it.
It's wild how much you forget, And so I was
gonna I was gonna tell you. Before we started recording,
I was like, don't put me on the spot to
telling to uh for anybody's names because I won't remember them.
(37:17):
It's it's in the past. But I really appreciate it
and it was a lot of fun. The show's been
so good to me, and you guys are doing a
great job, so keep it up cool.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Thanks buying to all our listeners. Thank you guys for
tuning in, and make sure you subscribe to Better Happy Hours.
Speaker 5 (37:32):
We have lots more fun, exciting episodes coming out, exclusive interviews,
and more.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
So don't subscribe. Bye bye.
Hosts And Creators
Joe Amabile
Susan Noles
Serena Pitt
Kathy Swarts
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