Bachelor Happy HourToday 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.
Hey, everyone, welcome back to Bachelor Happy Hour and I'm Joelous and we are here with mister Ben Higgins.
Ben, welcome to the podcast.
Goodness, what an honor.
Yeah, I don't know why I called you, mister, mister Ben Higgins.
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.
It, truly, truly.
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.
And it also could be You're a Midwest guy and you were young. You were you the Were you the youngest bachelor?
Second? Jesse Palmer was actually like two months younger than me when he was the Bachelor. So I was the second youngest bachelor.
Are you still the second youngest bachelor? Do you know?
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.
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.
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 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. But so I don't think I was too young for that. I think I was too young to make good decisions always.
Yeah, that's actually interesting because yeah, we noted that you were twenty six.
We're like, oh wow, he's definitely one of.
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 like twenty one years old, and like that's just like the norm there.
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.
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?
How old were your parents when they got married?
Oh so young? My mom was twenty and my dad was twenty four.
Oh so like I'm old, like I'm twenty.
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 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 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 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 over time.
How what was the state of social media? Instagram?
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 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 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, 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. 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.
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.
The conversation now makes me feel so old we talk about social media.
Yeah, but social media is still so young. H It really is, just like TikTok wasn't even a thing yet.
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, 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.
It just if you were single, you could go back on my last season of Paradise, I was thirty five.
Yeah, yeah, there you go.
I got engaged at thirty five to you. Yeah. Wow.
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.
Kimmel don't do that?
Yeah, but I don't think Yeah, but I don't think it's as much anymore.
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.
She was doing a segment before he was even the bachelor, Like he was a contestant segments next.
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 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 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 followed post show and they were with us for a long time, I mean two months.
Oh wow, what was that one? Did? That was that one season?
Yeah?
Because we broke up Buddy Yeah, what was Can you talk about what?
Now?
Can you talk about what you got paid for that?
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.
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.
Were you accepted that you're going to be singling?
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?
Yeah, yeah, you don't get paid a lot. And then like you're.
Coming off the show, usually with either like the decision of like am I going to go straight back into a.
Job, which is gonna be hard to do because you now just took off four months.
Yeah whatever you were.
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?
I don't think there was paid ads or it was like it was like new, right.
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.
So few like you guys probably had like such a monopoly on it.
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.
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.
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 of The Bachelor with something like that.
Is that true?
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.
Right, Well, we're filming Ben and Lauren at that time.
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 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, 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 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 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.
Oh, when you were filming Ben and Lauren.
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 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, 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 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.
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.
Do this because that might screw up that and then it's a fucking headache.
How long after the show into filming, Ben and Lauren, were you guys like this might not be a happily ever after situation?
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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
That was your like opening episode.
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.
It was your right, but she had every right to take everything. That was like, you're making me look bad, Like, honestly.
It does make you look terrible.
It makes you look so bad again, but no context it does.
It was context a full makes sense.
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.
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.
I'm right back where I started. I'm not getting any better.
Yeah, but you're still but you're still so young, which is which is crazy.
Yeah.
When we cut to night one, we watched all like the Limo entrances. Who do you? Who would do you remember?
Being like your top It's called it like your top three or top four that night.
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.
Yeah, she was. Did you like Brenas Did you tell them that?
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 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 ones that really stood out.
Okay, Okay, that makes sense.
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.
Who I believe that ended up taking a left turn?
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.
She was.
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. 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 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 weren't fighting. I think the show is like, we have nothing.
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?
They probably did. I don't remember it.
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.
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 my teeth on night one, which is the most vulnerable, like.
Crazy thing like leg on her lap with your mouth open. I was like, this is so vulnerable.
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 not for me.
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.
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.
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.
But you can kind of tell that you're, yeah, you're somewhat in She.
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?
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 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 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, 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 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 you're asking.
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.
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 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.
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?
Did you watch? I'm assuming you did.
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.
Yeah, but you know it's coming. At some point, there's going.
To be a I told true women I love them, and that was never going to go overwhelm.
Yeah.
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.
Your physical appearance.
Physical appearance.
I always worried about that too.
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 the filming of stuff, I had a stomach bug and.
So I have I remember you telling me this.
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 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.
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.
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.
Could be like buzz it like yours.
Like they're very particular about like the look of their lead.
I can't believe they just had you some random hairdresser.
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 of my head for night one.
So you're already like you're probably not feeling your best. I a parasite.
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?
And I can't believe they were telling you it was bad, Like I did lie to like lie to me.
I have to go out there no matter how I look right now, like at least let me believe I look.
Okay, Yeah, tell me I'm a stud please, Yeah, Like you've never looked better.
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 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?
Yeah, I U.
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.
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.
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.
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 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. 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, 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 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 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 girl in the world, Like.
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.
Like there's a roasting tomorrow and shall we go hang home at that?
Yeah, to give her a proper exit, and all the execs are laughing.
Does this kid think he is?
Well?
Ben?
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.
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. 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.
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