Ben and Ashley have some BREAKING Bachelor news! Could we be experiencing a lead switch in the next season?? We take you through all the facts and try to figure out who might be the replacement!
Ben has a brutally honest take about Devin and his 13 minute “apology”.
And a recent Bachelorette is officially engaged!!!
This is the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast with iHeartRadio.
It's time for Bachelor headlines.
Goodness, gracious, Ashley, I think this headlines episode might have some of the juiciest and most action packed headlines that.
We've ever had.
Well one of them, for sure, I can. I will agree with you.
On I think in general, just we have a lot of headlines here that are newsworthy and that our listeners will be excited.
To hear about.
Okay, let's go for it.
We're gonna start with this one because I just don't think it's true, but it is a rumor and if you follow any Bachelor adjacent social media platform or website, it's gonna be brought up and talked about. And I want to bring it up here and talk about it with all of you so you hear our thoughts on the matter. The headline is this Grant is no longer the Bachelor. This has been a rumor being spread now over the last three days. Ashley, what do we know?
Okay? So when I saw this rumor, I texted our group and I was like, Okay, well we have to do a breaking news podcast on this. It was like why and so interesting I thought like, oh, okay, so maybe something came out about his past and they can't get over it. That's what the rumor's saying. There's something, some information has come up to production and they won't be able to go forward with him because of that. And I was like, all right, all right, that's not too far fetched. And then I was also thinking, oh, or is it because they're obsessed with how much attention Jonathan's getting and they're just going to move Jonathan to the lead. They're going to pretend as if like something came up, but really it's because they wanted a new lead based on the amount of attention Jonathan's been getting on social media with all of his appearances with jen in La because they're really playing though would they are they or are they not game? And then I woke up to something this morning and I was like, oh, okay, now that I like am bummed that it seems to be totally false, you know that I think it's I think that Grant seems like lovely, but he's just not a very exciting choice for Bachelor anyway. Bachelor Data did a video today about the sourcing of this rumor. The rumor is like in certain locations that seem like kind of like legit publications, but then they keep re routing people to this like they'll highlight it, you know, they'll link it. Be like this website is reporting, and then when you go to the crux of the rumor and the original article or the started it's like the least reliable source. Ever. It's basically an ad site like this. This website has nothing but like scammy ads, like scammy like sex ads and stuff, so it looks like it's not true. So guys, Grant is still your bad. There are comments that are interesting underneath some of the rumor posts, like we have Zachary Reality posting his own you know TikTok about the rumor, and here are some quotes from underneath his posts and from Reddit. I have it on good authority this could be satire. I have it on good authority that Jesse and the producers are in talks with Tommy DeVito. You'd be the backup quarterback for the Giants for his own season. His mom's chicken cut, Let's deserve a hometown episode. Maybe that's why Grant is on pause. Listen, this would be a dream. I love this as a Giants fan and they're just floundering year after year. This would bring light to my life. I don't think it's true. Then somebody else said, I'm skeptical when it's Zachary Reality. He's been writing about a few things. But maybe, yeah, this doesn't seem right. And that's what Bachelor Data said. She was like, listen, if it's somebody like Reality Steve, who's had it right in the past, that would be there'd be more smoke to this story.
It's always interesting to see these rumors spread. Now, yes, I don't think it's true. I think it's a spam. However, the you know those weird magazines that you see at grocery stores that always have the rumors that seem outrageous and untrue and no way believable.
Ninety right, you said fifty.
Percent of the time those rumors end up coming true. Fifty percent they don't. However, I do think that in this case, where there's smoke, there's fire. I do too, and I'm not saying I don't think it's at any level true. However, I would not be shocked, not be shocked at all, if at least at some point somebody in the know has had a conversation going, Hey, was this the best choice or is there another way to do this? I do think Grant, if they stick with Grant, will be a great bachelor. He's gotten a lot of love. I just don't think we know him. So I'm wondering if the show is going, if if we have the opportunity to get somebody that the audience would maybe be more knowledgeable of, is this our time to do it?
Exactly what I was thinking, Like, there might be a little something out there that is not like the best, because they want their bachelor to basically be like you Ben, totally like a pristine background check, and if there's like a story or two circulating around him, they may think of it, or at least one person, and that higher ups might be like, oh, this could be our out.
I still stop sign once he's stole a stuff.
You Also, you know we always talk about how Booby's and cocaine or whatever.
Yeah, I did find a bunch of cocaine on the beach ones, but that actually like helps my background.
You were actually like you turned it in.
Yeah. I didn't even try to take advantage of that one.
Hey, way, Ben Ben about Grant for one more second. Okay, do you want to talk about how you feel his job is a little interesting because he's a day trader.
He's kind of confronted that, and I think, okay, he did it on a social media a little while back, talking through some of his strategies.
He is a day trader.
So like in your opinion, you think it's like kind of like a professional gambler. It really it's risky.
It's risky and without the right backing, without any type of middle and back office checking you and making sure that you're compliant, making sure also maybe he does I have no clue that he has the capital to you know, hedge and to trade on margins. It's a really risky business. His strategies were even like very just they weren't like a very like.
Financial aiser, like an actual.
Yeah, like he was just kind of you know, trading some options and showing his options progress.
And isn't that okay if you're just doing it for yourself?
Oh, none of it's. None of it's not okay. Yeah, Like, none of it's not okay.
It's not like he's dealing with other people's finesses.
Without right Well, he couldn't like he couldn't you have to have licensing to deal with somebody else's or to even give any advice. It's not not okay, I'm not saying that at all. It's just a very risky thing to say that you're doing for a living. Now, some people make it, and I'm assuming he is because he he seems to be a very like, you know, just well off person right now.
But you don't know.
You don't know until you kind of dig deep. I will just say I was working in finance for six years. I never I've never yet met a day trader that does it for a hobby, that makes a living on it.
It is really hard.
Yeah, I know somebody who makes a very good living off of it, Well, good for them. But this person also has like the best luck I've ever seen in my life.
So it's just innarest thing. I was curious when he originally announced his job. I was like, I just want to know more about it. He did confront on Instagram and I go, Okay, he's doing it. I mean, that's cool.
I got it. He knows what he's doing and I'm.
Happy for him, and I hope it's so it's super successful. The next headline is another big one this week. Devin continues just to take a shovel and not even slowly. He like intentionally digs bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger holes, and he just kind of likes to bury himself in him. It feels like his strategy is to how often can I hit rock bottom? And then how much farther can I push to make rock Bottom look a little different than it did before?
And let me just keep doing it until.
Everybody just kind of has low expectations of what's going to happen and they stop worrying about it.
He's trying to, I don't know, clean his name up. It just ain't working.
He really doesn't get it, Like he does not get how to work an audience. Like I'm just I'm thinking about this from a PR's a PR reps point of view when I say this, like if he really like he obviously didn't didn't work out with Jen right, but there were so many ways that he could have made it seem so much more pleasant on after the Final Rose in so many ways, and then this move I need to know who we talk about Ashley Oh, the move in which he released a thirteen minute video to Instagram and TikTok explaining why or giving some addition little reasoning behind their breakup, including you know, like all like the texts and call receipts. He was trying to make it seem like there was so much more that you guys didn't see after the final rose and I wasn't as bad to her, you know, in lacking of communication as she made it seem.
Yeah, within that thirteen minute video he explained himself. He also revealed some very personal text messages.
The craziest part about the video to me is this one like slide show in which he basically screenshoted every single text that they've ever had, and he put them in like rapid order. It was like half I wouldn't even say, I don't even know it was okay, maybe half a second there was a screenshot, and there must have been like thirty screenshot and they went by really really fast. There was one text that made it into a screenshot that was kind of sexual, and so therefore he thought, oh, that part I need to edit out. Of course, I mean like yeah, yes, but the humor in this is that he just thought that that was the one part he needed to edit and it wasn't just the whole thirteen second video, so deleted it thirty minutes. Sorry, he deleted it, and he re uploaded it without that screenshot in it, but that, you know, but still thought after releasing the video and getting probably some feedback, enough feedback for the people watched that screenshot slide show in detail enough that they caught that, and then he was like, yeah, I'm gonna upload that video all over again.
There's this level I think now we've spent a few times in Bachelor Nation where people upload personal conversations text messages to the.
Public, most notably Blank and Kalin.
Sure, yeah, and I think you know, I see this, and I understand why they're being I understand why they're being posted because it does feel like the receipts, it does feel like your truth. It does feel like it's what you have to prove that, Hey, the story that you're hearing isn't maybe the full story. I understand the urge and the desire to post those. However, I do believe those are private conversations. I do not think they should be posted to the public. However, they are used in the court of law. So if you know for whatever reason. If we have a scenario where somebody has to go to trial, typically phone email, all those records are presented, and so I know why people are doing it. In this case specifically, it was inappropriate. There was no reasoning for it, and the text messages didn't prove anything. In fact, I'm still confused after watching this thirteen minute video on what Devin is exactly trying to prove. I don't know what his I think he's trying to prove that he wasn't as bad as what it seemed on national television. However, most of the things said during the final episode were proven to be true based on these text messages. Yes there was a ghosting, Yes there was a lack of communication. Yes there was kind of a giving up. It felt like sentiment from this video all I want. And really, Devin didn't have to apologize or come public with any of this, and I know he wanted to to clear his name and try to get back in the good graces, even though I think that was probably impossible at this point. I want when somebody tries to do this Sidney, for example, Devin here as of recent I just want authenticity. I don't want you to throw anybody else under the bus. I don't want you to try to pit it me versus. Then I don't want this tongue in cheek. Hey, I'm not trying to hurt jin here, I'm just trying to get you know, my words out.
I don't want any of that.
I want the ownership and what and what you had to do with the failure of this relationship. I also want the authenticity of saying I am sorry for how this went down. I could have done better, and then we all say, hey, I've been there too, I get it.
We move on.
But this new kind of trend of when you get you know, when something bad happens to you in the public and your only way out is to blame somebody else or to try to bring them back into the controversy.
One.
It's not right, it's not healthy, and it typically leads to really destructive behavior, which this thirteen minute video was. It did nothing to help him. There is no there, there's nothing about this. I'm sure there's a fut rolls on Instagram that are like, I get it, Devin, I'm on your time. For the most part, this did nothing to help him. I just think it could have been done so much better. I'm wondering where ABC's at and all this. I'm hoping ABC is sitting there saying as a publicity team saying, hey, Devin, uh, let's sit down and talk like you want.
To get your story out.
Can't stop you from doing that. However, here's some ways that we would advise you to do that in a healthy way to not hurt you Jin or anybody else. But it seems like he had nobody he was talking to and it has.
Nothing to do with the show. So I don't even think he would need to get approval. Obviously, he didn't need to get approval to pose that because it's all about what happened in the summer. It's just I I need to know what was going through his head and who he showed. Did he show anyone that video beforehand? Because that had some editing that needed to be done. That is that is a video that like, I'm sure he put it together himself, But I also wouldn't have been surprised if he had like some friends around him being like, yeah, yeah, this is a good move, like somebody had to encourage it. I just can't imagine him in his own power. Yeah, he's like, I'm going to post this thirteen minute video without telling anybody else.
He needs like a group of advisors now around him, Like he needs two or three of his close friends that I hope he has, Yeah, that I hope he has, being like, Hey, here's what I'm thinking, What do you guys think of this decision? And for them to not just think of what Devin wants to hear, but what he needs to hear, which is, hey, don't do it, like stay, don't do that, be authentic, be genuine, and that's about as far as you should go, Like that's it. Don't try to bring Jim back into it. Don't definitely don't show private conversations for of the two of you. That's not going to help anything. That actually is just like wrong, especially at this point. And just try to keep moving forward and become a little better man and learn from this. There's a lot of learning that can be done from this, but it right now that learning doesn't seem to be taking place.
Has posting receipts ever worked out in the favor of the person posting the receipts or people always just think like, oh that was Cura Quinn. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, but no, because he called her bad things in there, and then he his winning was winning the paternity test. But I think him posting the receipts and the text messages never helped. It made him just look She may have looked pretty pretty crazy, but that was also in the long run, and we were proven that she well was crazy because she made up the fact that she was pregnant. But he didn't look good in those texts and it had nothing to do with him being proven innocent at all.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't have many examples, but I don't also know many people doing this, so there's only a select few.
Did Blake look better or posting those texts between him and Kaylin after that paradise?
I don't think it helped him hundred percent. People don't like it, and it just feels invasive. It is invasive. I shouldn't be reading what the two of you have said to each other like I should not be, especially when it comes.
To a romantic relationship.
Yeah, I should not be.
I should not be reading that like you guys should keep those between you and you can tell me, hey, you know, it felt like in our relationship we went through seasons of excitement, and then we went through really bad season, and then we went through a season where I didn't feel like we could talk anymore because our communication is off. I just don't I don't need to read your conversation on how you got there. Yeah, half the time text messages don't make sense to me anyways. I'm not good at that.
I just will never understand what he was thinking and doing that.
No, I can't either, but I do.
I do understand the internal frustration that you go through with like a storyline on TV doesn't come across the way that you feel like you lived it and that you like think that you have proof that it was otherwise. So like the desire to put it out there, I do understand the desire, but like you need to let your pr brain just win out in that situation.
Well, I think the pr brain or just there's a lack of maturity. This is an immature act. This is something that like him at thirty whatever and a middle schooler at thirteen are are doing the same thing. Like this is this is an act that was immature. It should be you should take two steps up and say, as an adult, I refuse to do this no matter what it will look like or no matter what kind of heat. Right, you and I have both sat in seasons within this whole show where we're like, you know, it would be so much better if everybody just knew the actual truth and we could. You know, you like, I have the truth, but you have to take a step back and you have to say no. But this is like that doesn't matter to me. The winning here isn't a thing. I just have to move forward and take a little bit of the heat, get kicked a little bit, maybe that person gets kicked around a little bit, but we'll all move forward and it's gonna be okay.
Yeah, and the audience will forget in that moment. It's just like your whole life.
I think the audience had already forgotten and she brought it right back up again. I think the audience were like, I'm just excited to watch Joan and now all of a sudden, Devn's back in the headlines.
Hey, you know, you probably think differently than me. You probably think like, no, you go back to your regular life and you do whatever you were doing. Your job seem to be working for you. But if I just think that if you really wanted you just go on paradise, dude, and then you make sure that you're not done again.
Yeah.
And you know what, people also love to hate a villain, so like you'll get your working either way.
We love a comeback story on to better stories. We were with this person this last week. We knew about this actually before it got announced publicly. I would like to make a public statement to Katie to say, Hey, I just want you to recognize that Ashley and myself both respected your request to keep.
This private.
Even though I wanted to share it so bad because it is so exciting and we are excited for her former bachelor at Katie Thurston is engaged to Jeff Arcurry after less than one year of dating. She explained this a little bit to us in person. It's just the right person for her to kind of close out the headline Ashley. I started following her now fiance on Instagram yesterday.
He has one point five million.
She's hilarious.
Yeah, I will say his His Instagram is hilarious. It is a good follow his act is awesome, his way of communicating with the audience is brilliant.
Uh.
I've loved just kind of scrolling through his videos after the last day. So I'm excited for Katie and Jeff. She's been on I'll say this, she's been on a wild dating journey on the show and after the show. Yeah, and it's cool to see her now coming out, not coming out of it, but coming through it into a place where she seems so happy.
It's so crazy, how like, Yeah, it's been eight months, but I feel like we were just speculating about her and Blake possibly getting together like yesterday, remember, because they've been seen at events and stuff. Sure, and they had that whole Bachelor in Paradise thing last year and then she had f Boy Island. Look at her dating, her dating history and just to pass the year.
Wow.
So yeah, she was so cute at Alan's wedding. We were, you know, in our was like saying they're hello. She's like, Hi, I'm good, I'm engaged. Like she was showing her finger to everybody. She's like, it happened a couple of days ago in Hawaii. It happened on a secret beach in Kawaii, Hawaii, on August twenty sixth, And they have been having a long distance relationship, but that will be coming to an end soon because she's going to be moving to New York City in early twenty twenty five. And she confirmed the She confirmed their relationship actually just recently is in May. But yeah, when you know, you know, and they're so excited to spend forever together. And this is like kind of cool because this is one of those stories that if it weren't for the Bachelorette, who knows if this would have happened, because she got into comedy to start doing stand up because of her bachelorette notoriety, and now she found her her boo through the comedy circuit.
It's really exciting, really happy for Katie and if, yeah, if you're kind of bored today and you want to get laugh go follow her fiance on social media. Carly Wadell opens up about undiagnosed health issues. She finally said this, I finally have answers.
So she has been dealing with something that's even affecting her voice. And if you've been following Carly at all in the past year or so, she's really been focusing on music. She was opening up for Nick Carter on tour, which is really cool. But she said she finally went to the e andt ear nos and throat doctor, after over twenty years of having episodes where my throat seems to completely close up for a good thirty seconds. That is so scary And why did it take you twenty years to do that, Carly? She said, it used to happen only a few times a year, but in the past few years has happened as much as three times a day. Scary not only for me, but anyone around me when this happens, because it seems like, because it looks like I should be doing somebody should be doing the Heimel like maneuver on me while tears stream down my face and I am gasping to breathe. She has spasms in her throat that bring her to like these undiagnosed asthma, seasonal allergies, and even acid reflux. That's what this. These spasms are brought on by asthma, allergies and reflux, and they also happen to women more than men, sometimes more often with the women that have anxiety because they tend to be hidden the kidd in a way. So yeah, that's what she's going through. That's really scary. That's really really scary.
I didn't know she was opening up for Nick Carter on tour.
Oh yeah, is that cool?
That is cool? Good for her? Uh the U I think I saw this week? Ashley. Tell me if I'm wrong, her former her.
Ex, Evan has a new girlfriend.
Has a new girlfriend, right, yeah, yeah.
I don't really know why I Evan even make it. That's pretty crazy that Evan would make a headline. But I saw that as well. We feel I'm not trying to be shady, but.
Well, I think you know, there's some shade there. But it feels like Carl has a lot to talk about right now. I wonder if she'd be willing to come on and talk about obviously this new diagnosis along with a really exciting conversation of what is going on with Evan. And then Carly has a boyfriend.
Oh yeah, Carly did talk to us about her well, she teased that she had a boyfriend last time she was on Okay, and they've been together for I want to say a little bit over a year now. I think it's serious. I think they're going to get engaged. We will see, Yeah, we can. We should talk to her about this this health issues. Evan has had other girlfriends in the past couple of years.
You just jumped from health issues to Evan again. You can't get en off your mind.
Good I don't know if he was dating like someone relatively like like Insta war, you know, like if he was dating like an influencer or like somebody who is famous. I could see it making headlines. But Van Bass's new girlfriend, I don't know. He's definitely dated since they broke up.
Oh goodness, Well, that's all the headlines for you today. Again, I said it. I thought you guys some big headlines. Obviously, we just talked about Carly the Devin thirteen minute wild video, along with Katie Thurston getting engaged. There's just a lot of a lot of headlines here to run through and a lot of things to talk about. I want to make it clear. I think Grant is our next bachelor, and until I improven otherwise, I'm going to believe that, and I think it's gonna be a great bachelor. I think, though, these rumors are always worth bringing up because how embarrassing would it be if we never talked about it, We never even brought it up, and then all of a sudden, this little weird rumor becomes true, would be so embarrassing for.
Us, so embarrassing to not be on top of things. Also, his seasons like set to start within the next week, so it would be a really last minute change. And happy tenth anniversary to me being part of the Bachelor franchise because it's this week, should have been ten years ago that it all started, that I pulled up in that limo. That is the most handsome man I've ever seen.
Yeah, just to be clear, Chris Soles was her Bachelor, not me. Hey, until next time, I've been Then I've been.
Actually Sea followed the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcasts on iHeartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.