December 8, 2022 • 56 mins
We’ve heard from Genevieve, now it’s time to get Aaron’s side of how things went down with them on and off Paradise.
Ben and Ashley ask the difficult questions, and Aaron sets the record straight about the rumors surrounding him and his relationships before and after his time on the sand.
You haven’t heard the whole story until you join Ben and Ashley for this exclusive conversation with Aaron Clancy.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous in Depth. Hello, everyone,
welcome to the Almost of His podcast. Today is a
very special edition because we have Aaron on Aaron Clancy
to discuss this time in Paradise and all the rumors
that are going around via reality Steve so Um, Ben,
(00:23):
would you like to do the honors of bringing Aaron
into the room. I would love to Aaron. Welcome to
the Almost Famous podcast. Thank you for having me. Aaron,
you're here today. You've been pretty quiet since Paradise. Is
this your first interview? This is yeah, this is my
(00:43):
first interview since Paradise. Well, the elephant in the room
is obviously that Genevieve was just on UM last week,
and uh, you know, our theme, especially coming off a Paradise,
there's been a lot of wild storylines, uh, coming post
Paradise ice that we didn't necessarily get to watch during
Paradise has been this Aaron. Just let you know, Ah,
(01:05):
there's always three versions of the truth. There's my truth,
there's your truth, and then there's the truth. And so
our goal, uh is just to hear your story, to
hear um and to also ask you some of the
questions that were obviously brought up during the interview with Genevieve,
and then some of the questions have been brought up
post show from Reality Steve and other UM networks. Those
(01:29):
things need to be confronted or they just sit out
there and people assume their own things. And so thanks
for joining us, Thanks for letting this be your first interview. Yeah,
of course, that's why I'm here definitely to uh to
you know, you know, share my share my truth here
for sure. Should we just start with Paradise for a sect,
I guess I, um, yeah, let's let's talk about the moment,
(01:51):
the the itch versus moments, because that was like, well,
that was a big fight that kind of led to
the end. Right, We've looked it up, Aaron and An
apparently is not pained, So so okay, yes, and I
looked it up like six months ago, right as well. Um,
(02:15):
so all the people bombarding me via social media like
I know, okay, I was wrong, I I So that's
something I learned in school. Now the thing is behind
the scenes, obviously, there's a lot of interactions people don't see. Um,
I'm allergic to bug bites, like mosquito bites. I got
bit by a spider. Um, my legs swelled up. I
(02:36):
was on antibiotics and I was also pad on paradise. Yeah,
I was. I was taking a la sick medication to
like drain my ankle. It's like a water pill. Um.
So I was seeing the doctor every day and I
was itching incredibly right, and then I just my mind
was on that because it was it was to the
point where it was so it was itching so much
(02:58):
was painful. I remembered back, Okay, now we have more context,
well my earlier days in school. Um and and uh
I brought that up seemingly super random obviously archaic research
at this point, but um, but you know that's why. Essentially,
(03:18):
so it wasn't the best mood. I was hobbling around
on a on a one good leg. But um, yeah,
I regret the whole thing. Obviously. It was just so dumb. So,
I mean, Paradise seems like the worst place for you,
and you've done it twice now, right, it does not
seem like a very good place for me now. Yeah.
But bugs everywhere, I mean, all actually talks about when
(03:39):
we get into the nitty gritty of Paradise is the
bugs flying around the creatures that exist in your bed,
you go down there allergic to this, It makes sense
now that you got what kind of bug bite was it? Dude?
So I don't know, Um they So the first bug
bite I got was on my leg and it got
so big it was like as big as a tennis
(04:01):
ball around and it was black, and then my whole
leg swung up though. Yeah, so the doctor was like,
this is a spider. And they were actually worried about
it because the center of it got really like soft
and like just disgusting. So they were like, yo, if
this was like a really dangerous spider and your flesh
is going to chrotic, you gotta, you know, leave right
(04:21):
and so um they put me on a bunch of
antibiotics kind of right away, and and and and it helps.
So that's why I didn't leave. But I grew up
in southern California. There's not a lot of bugs, so
I didn't know I was allergic till my first time
in Paradise. Man. That see, context is important here. So
you were experiencing pain from a bite. It just isn't
(04:44):
necessarily defined by the itching is pain. But you were
experiencing pain from a bite from an itch. Yeah, well
like like thirteen bites at that point. Yeah, because I
have Type O positive blood and like I run super
hot at night, so apparently I was just you could
like Johnny was my bed, my bunk mate, so I
would I would absolutely cut myself in bug spright before
(05:05):
I went to sleep, plus the sweat. So I'm glucky
I didn't break out in a bunch of acting. But yeah,
I was disgusting just every once in a while when
I hear these stories, I'm like, I was so glad
that they asked me to lead this show for a season,
so I never well, I guess that doesn't always discount
somebody from going on, but I'm just glad that that
(05:26):
never existed for me because I would not have done well. Yeah,
and my mom's from the Caribbean too, which is uh,
turned out to Bago a bunch of bugs out there. Um,
so you wouldn't think you would think I'd be resistant
or something penetically, but but no, it's I can't handle
spicy food. I got that from my dad and apparently
allergic to mosquito bites, so not built for it. Goodness,
(05:50):
just what a start to the podcast, I mean, just
learning new things every day about you, Aaron. Um, I
mean I felt like I was maybe silly bringing up
that argument first, and we have like a lot more
serire these things. I was like, you know what, this
will be fun everything, so I have I don't react
the best. Sometimes my behavior can be up and down,
but I'm always honest, so I'll tell you what you
want to hear. Okay, well, let's talk about just your
(06:12):
relationship in general. Genevieve in Paradise was tumultuous, was always
up and down. Why did you stick it through till
the end, Because I'll just say it, when you come
out and you hear that you've had girls back at
home and then you you kind of have this up
and down, not so fun relationship with Genevieve. It looks
(06:33):
to an outsider as if maybe you were hanging around
just to the very last day so that you could
get as much screen time as possible instead of just
breaking up with her when it was bad, or you
guys breaking up in general. I guess when it's bad,
but I get how it can look like that. Like
and that's why I went on this podcast, because I
see things like that on the internet and it's just
(06:55):
simply not the case. Like realistically, Genevieve and I, you know,
we connected on a lot of levels and and I
know they show the ups and downs and and people
kind of focus on the down, but we really had, um,
this very strong connection. And and you know, if you
you kinda when we're not focusing on the fights on
the on camera, like you see little b roll clips
(07:18):
of her sitting on me, we're kissing, We're always hanging out,
like floating around the pool whatever. Um, And that's because
of those real feelings now like essentially at the end
of the day, Um, we didn't have any moral like
issues like I wasn't pro choice, she was pro life
or something. We didn't have any like, Um, there weren't
(07:40):
any fundamental issues in our person that led us to
those fights. They were always um like they were always
miscommunication or or just um, you know, the beach can
get the better sometimes, you know, and and it can
whether it's you know, for her like she she like
a you see it's hot like bug bites myself included, UM,
(08:03):
we're just more irritable in general, and so we would
I was, at least I can say I was, and
so it would let leads to um like, uh, interactions
that were just that we're dumb miscommunications and so in
my experience, the best way to get over misscommunications is
to get to know someone better, learn how to communicate
(08:24):
with them better. And for me, that's like the one
thing we don't have in Paradise, which is time. So
for me it was like, okay, it's versus pain. That's
not worth uh ending this relationship for so I want
to fix this and then spend more time with her
and try to learn how to communicate with her better.
There's some very like i'd say, simple straightforward questions. I
(08:46):
think it's the best way to get to you know,
you explaining your side of the story, or you explaining
the truth to the story, even if it's not pretty
and good. UM. I just want to take two off
the top here. One is, you know last year during Paradise,
the big thing that you confronted this year during Paradise
was that you were quick tempered, uh, that you get
(09:07):
upset easily. That was something that was brought up I
think once this year, but it was also maybe the
biggest hit on you last year that you were working through.
I'm assuming over the last twelve months before this season
of Paradise, can you walk us through that journey? And
do you still consider yourself quick tempered? Is it something
that is a weakness of yours? And then you know,
(09:29):
how are you dealing with that? Yeah? You know what?
In real life, I don't get mad very often. UM.
I'm someone that like will leave the room as opposed
to UM a confrontation. Now I don't in Paradise. You
don't really have that option. So I can get um,
(09:50):
I can't. I can't get riled up pretty pretty pretty easily. UM.
So it you know, in these circumstances with her, like
she you know, her and I both get riled up
pretty easy. And and if you watched the season back,
like there are times where she's emotionally very um like
charged and and I've calmed it down and there and
(10:14):
then there are emotionally there are times where I'm emotionally
charged and and and then she gets emotionally charged because
I'm mostly charged. But there's never really a moment where
like I was upset and she calmed me down, because
that was not really the dynamic we had and I
really needed sometimes like an emotional safe space, and like
(10:35):
what I would do in that scenario would be to
leave and and try to Um, Like, once Justin came
down and I and I got upset, I would want
to leave and kind of deal with it myself, which
which isn't the best way and in fact a bad way,
because what I would end up doing is is kind
of bottling it up. Um. And then and then I
really seen paradise one. At one point I was brought
(10:57):
to tears, um, and I was really sad, and the
very next day I was very mad, right, so the
matt the sad turned to mad really quick. I was
bottling it up, um, and I just needed to be
able to communicate in a more healthy way and not
bottle up my emotions and just be able to communicate
my concerns at the time. Yeah, So it was is all.
I mean, it was on me, like when I whenever
(11:17):
I get like upset to I can be kind of condescending.
I could be a dick, you know, And that's something
I definitely need to change for sure. Um. And that's
something you saw on screen. You said that you guys
(11:39):
didn't really have any big like value or personality differences
that made you clash. But I hear you saying this,
and I think that maybe the fact that you guys
both deal with frustration in similar ways, getting all riled up,
like you said, perhaps was a big red flag that
(11:59):
you as wouldn't be compatible long term. So why did
it take so long for you to make that decision
to split? You know what? UM, I'm honestly, I had
never thought about it that way, not even until you
just said that right now, UM, Like I had never
once thought about that. In particular, it was always, UM,
if if we learned how to communicate or speak to
(12:22):
each other and we got out of this um, these
these little little things that blew up like, we would
be better. But I never thought about it that way
until just now. So you were under the assumption that
these arguments, um, disagreements would make you stronger as a couple.
You would learn from each other from the way you reacted. Yeah,
(12:45):
I mean no, I was. I view that not the
argument itself had a beneficial but but that it could
have been avoided if we knew each other better. Essentially,
so it's like we spent some more time together, we
we understood each other's love languages. Like realistically we have
three weeks and UM worth throwing like you know how
(13:06):
how it works, like you're the producer, study curveballs as
much as many obstacles as you can as you can
have and handle, and so UM realistically like I was,
I was, I was hoping that UM, we would just
be able to communicate better and things would get better
towards the end. It's UH. Actually asked the question UM
(13:26):
a few questions ago that UM is assuming the probably
the heaviest topic thing coming off of the show for you,
which was that you were dating somebody else coming on
the show. I don't know if you've had a chance
to listen to the Genevieve interview that we did UM,
but UH, she spoke that it was actually two people
(13:47):
that you were dating. Uh. One person, UM decided to
not continue the relationship with you. The other person did
UM when you went on the show, and it was
kind of a waiting game to see how the show
went for you. You on if that relationship would continue.
With that question being asked, I think we have to
ask you were you dating somebody coming onto the show?
(14:07):
Were you dating multiple people coming onto the show? No? No,
So that so that's the main reason I went on
this podcast is to address that that's just simply not
true at all. Right, So, like I'll just walk you
through the timeline. So essentially, like I was dating this
last year. First off, I went on, I was dating
(14:28):
two separate people, right, and one person in particular, the
person that's releasing text messages are saying, um, certain things
about me that that relationship ended. Um, that ended almost
a year ago, right, Um, a little bit less. But
but then and then, and then essentially I started dating
(14:49):
someone else. Now the other person, Like I get where
the anger comes in, and we and I have text
messages and all sorts of stuff with this girl. But um,
the other person, the the next person was one of
my best friends for four years. Right, There's there's a
lot of history there. She had another boyfriend vast majority
of our relationship. Um, it became romantic at the end,
(15:09):
but we we really got along. So there was a
there was a certain element of like, we can move
quicker because we had so many so much history as friends. Right.
The relationship ended the very next month. I was dating
someone else. Right Now, that right there is a little
bit close for comfort for anyone. I get it. But
there was no cross over there now any sort of
(15:32):
and and that girl, that previous girl like that that
was upset by this me moving on so quickly. Um,
because just just for clarity's sake, Yeah, this might be disrespectful,
but I think it's just just to not use the names.
Can we say, like girl a girl? Yeah, yeah, that
makes sense. So girl A UM was upset that I
(15:53):
moved on so quickly to girl B. Right. Girl B
was in my life for four plus years. Um, great
friend mine. Right. I had a boyfriend, um, you know,
most of the relationship, but we were great friends. Now
girl A um was upset by that me moving on
so quickly, right, but she and she lashed out at
(16:14):
me over it, right. Um. And and you know this
is a little piece of anecdote evidence to what type
of person this is, because I never want to speak
ill on anyone. But I saw her at a bar
and heard her friends. Uh, she started rumored that I
was gay because I left with James, and they all
screamed homophobic slurs at me in the bar, right, Um
to bully me essentially, right, So I've moved you know, whatever,
(16:36):
move on whatever. Now this girl, um, that girl be right,
we're we're seeing each other. Um. But we're we're great friends,
but we were not really like that compatible relationship wise,
especially at that time. Um, so we we have blow out,
a couple of blowout fights. We we don't talk for
(16:57):
months right now, Girl A um thinks we're just in
a happy relationship the whole time, because she's not involved
in our in my life whatsoever, or at least she
or at least she that's what she says. So essentially,
all those texts you see are her reaching out Girl
AID to Girl B and saying that I was like
(17:18):
seeing both of them simultaneously right now. That is something
that played on girl bees in securities at the time,
like etcetera. Um, they riled each other up in a conversation.
You're seeing a little bits of that in the screenshots.
And then when I essentially talked to girl Be again,
I give her my phone. I'm like, hey, look at
(17:39):
the look at the receipts right, look at all the
text look at whatever. She sees that. Girl A is like,
I'm not over you. I wanna you know, I wanna
I want to see you, blah blah blah, and sees
that it was all kind of bullshit and the situation
was resolved right, and it was resolved months ago, and
and that was good enough for her. It should be
good enough for everyone else because at the end of
the day, there was no crossover. I was not dating
(18:00):
multiple people. I was not in a committed relationship with
like either one of them at any point. Um. And realistically,
going into Paradise with a girlfriend like that is something
that like is is I want to say, a rookie
mistake because of like the people that do it. But
this is my second time on the beach, and the
(18:21):
producers are my friends. Like they, like I told, going
into paradise, they call you, they're asking you who you've
been dating, are you single? Whatever? I listed out these
people's names. They know exactly who these people are. Um,
I'm best friends with producers as well, like they they
were they were aware of my dating history. Um, and
(18:41):
they know exactly who these people are in the timeline.
So that's why it's like not it's just it's just
not even realistic. Um. And it's and it's and it's upsetting.
So this this person, girl A who called me homophobic
slurs in the bar um took to reality Steve and
essentially uh gave him like some sort of fake story
(19:05):
to bully me online. Like the credibility of this person
is ridiculous and it's so vicious it actually makes me
sick to my stomach because like, the one thing I
do is I don't lie to people. I don't play people.
When I was younger, uh, late teens, very early twenties, like,
there was a situation where I wasn't super honest in
a relationship and I ended up hurting people I truly love,
(19:26):
and so I will never do that again. Um. And
and this situation itself is just fabricated completely, and and
it's and it's quite upsetting. A little confused about the
timeline because from what I believe, from what I've heard
from the sources and realities even all that there was
(19:48):
the friend that you had for many years, she broke
up with her boyfriend, and then there was some sort
of romance, but then there was also another girl involved
at the time, and you you just said that that
really and ship had been over. Girl A. You're saying, girl,
I think you said that girl A was it's been
over for over a year. But from what I've heard,
(20:11):
it sounded like it was just about this time last
year that you started things with girl A and then
things started to sort of cool down in April, like
a month and a half before Paradise. I get what
you're saying. So realistically, no, that timeline is shifted and
it's wrong. Um, there is blurred lines with if you
count like texting, like there was communication to its texting
(20:31):
with this person. Um. But like realistically, the relationship with
girl A started about September because she attended my birthday
see see yeah yeah, over over a year ago, right,
and then the relationship I don't remember exactly when I
have to double check, but um, around January is when?
(20:52):
Is when that when that changed? Right? Now? There was
there was texting involved right that she was communicating I
was in this girl, be I wasn't. It's not like
immediately that girl's my girlfriend now like we're we're starting
to hang out. You know that other girl screamed like
her friends bullied me in a bar, like I can't
get over that. Um, So I didn't want to see her.
(21:12):
I was quite angry, uh, and so but I would
text her back, right and I didn't feel any Um,
I didn't feel guilty about texting her while I was
seeing someone else because that to me is like I'm
not in a committed relationship, Like I can do whatever.
I'm not gonna I can do whatever I want. Like,
but I wasn't texting her in that way. Um, it
(21:35):
was more of like communicating because there were still leftover
feelings there, but there was never any there was, Like
the whole thing was I was super transparent with everyone.
So then you started with girl B. Yeah, it feels
weird to categorize them this way, but I don't even
(21:55):
know their names, so I guess it's easier for me.
But so then girl BE and you start kind of
hanging out. You were friends, you start hanging out, the
romance starts. Win, Um, it starts. So we take a
trip to to Loom. The romance was there were there
were feelings there or like like there was the potential
(22:16):
of feelings that we're always riding that line throughout our
whole friendship. So the romance like started like January. I
say that's when we really took or or or or
or one was the trip because there's pictures. One was
exactly what I'm addressing it. Um, I believe it was January.
And so then that relationship ended when Um, that dude,
(22:42):
that ended like we we had to blowout fight into loom,
like it was too much, too fast, like essentially, so
uh it was. It was. We didn't talk for a
few months, like in March April, and then I was
asked back to Paradise essentially, and then I at dinner
with her and told her I was going to Paradise
(23:03):
on in May um and she was like, I'm fine
with that. So that's the thing too. If you look
at the screenshots, which is what like, I'm so annoyed by.
But if you read them, it says I'm not dating Aaron.
We're not I'm not his girlfriend, right, that's what girl?
Where does it say that? It says in the screenshots
in the first article he posted. It literally says that.
(23:25):
And then and this is from girl a girl. But
perhaps this was after you guys started cooling down. No,
this was I mean, well this was when. So the
text messages happened when I was in Paradise, Okay, yes, yeah,
so the text message happened when I was in Paradise.
(23:45):
The girl girl A reached out and said like something
about us me seeing both of them at the same time.
I don't know. And then the girl was like, I'm
not dating him, he's not my boyfriend, right, And then
reality Steve pivoted for me having a girlfriend's meet, playing
two girls at once. I'm just a piece of right, um,
which which I get to salvage his story or whatever.
(24:06):
But regardless, not neither one of those was true. The
first one is disproven by that text messages. The second
one is disproven by the fact of everything I just
said and the list out the timelines. I have my
own receipts for everything too, and like I don't. I
don't like to share text messages without consent of both parties,
and to me, it's just like lighting more of a fire.
But realistically, neither one of those things was true. So
(24:29):
then when was the last time you saw a girl
A in person? Literally like like, um, oh, I actually
did see her at a festival. She's she's dated two
people since and she had a boyfriend and I saw
he at a festival like walked by, but that was
in um, that was after that was realist um a
few months ago. Let me like at the straight So
(25:01):
it sounds like girl A maybe wasn't in a relationship
with you while you went into Paradise, So she's not
so much annoyed at the fact that you went to
Paradise as much as it was like you were dating
somebody at the same time, and it wasn't dating someone
at the same time, but what she was. But that's
what she said. Yes, she was. She was mad because
(25:25):
she wasn't over it and I moved on and she
what she did was essentially just lash out of me.
What brought on the breakup conversation that you had with
girl A, I, Well, I said it like essentially, there
was a few things, but she's young, she's twenty three, right, Um,
and the main issue I had was when she didn't
get something she wanted or we had a disagreement. What
(25:48):
she did was she she started rumor I was gay,
and she bullied me in a in a bar like
like she was screaming like they was screaming that I
was a homophobic slayers like that's not something that's acceptable.
UM's specially because she apologized to me. I would use
a long apology text too, because it was something that
was just like literally a rumor she started because she
(26:08):
was upset with me. So you had an ending conversation, Um, yeah, yeah,
we definitely did. We. I literally have screenshots with that
as well. I have everything in my computer. You should
send us the screenshots. I don't. Yeah, I can send you. Yeah,
let's not. I don't need to get involved in. You
can send Ashley like I can send. I know, I
(26:31):
know you're you're playing Devil's Advocate a little bit here.
I can send you screenshots, but I just don't want
them like out necessarily. Well I won't. I won't put
them out there, but I would like to see for
proof for myself actually loves this. Well. Um, okay, so
the timeline makes sense to me what you're telling us.
Just to recap it for everybody listening, you were dating
(26:52):
um girl A. Uh that ended Uh let's say close
in January. You and girl B had already been friends.
You guys start romantically like being interested in each other
following that relationship with the girl A. That girl relationship
with a girl A just to confirm had been over.
(27:12):
It's done. You removed this. There was no crossover. You're
saying there was no crossover now and also, uh, like again,
no crossover just because I wanted to avoid bad negative feelings,
but realistically I wasn't we were never in a relationship
as well with anyone. I was never in a relationship
with anyone. It's it's just like, how do you define
(27:33):
a relate? How do you define a relationship? Like do
you like to have the conversation like we're girlfriend and boyfriend? Yes,
and also um, like there has to be communication about
um where we are like, so yes, I would like
to have the conversation. But also there is always a
conversation about if we're seeing other people who were like
(27:54):
communicating with etcetera. This girl a when we were seeing
each other, she went to a loom with um, a
whole group of of guys and girls. And I wasn't there.
And I wasn't even at her birthday dinner. I wasn't
invited by her friends. Like I'm we weren't We weren't
even far along at all. For like, it just doesn't
(28:14):
it just doesn't make It doesn't make sense. So Aaron
within all of this because the timeline doesn't make sense.
You guys, girl be that relationship did not last long.
It doesn't sound um at all. Well, no, girl be, no,
haven't you been seen with her recently at your birthday
party over the fall? So my birthday party was in September. Yes,
(28:38):
so I um, I coming so coming back, Like I said,
she's been my friend for four years. Um, she is
in the same friend group in a lot of respects.
Initially when I came back, she didn't want to talk
to me because, um of the text messages you all
saw when you know I happened to see her because
(29:01):
we're all in the same friend group. Let me just say,
in the text messages that are posted to Reality Steve,
she says, um, like something along the lines of like
oh I won't be talking to him when he returned
or something like that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So it was
I mean, like at the end of the day, like
it played on the insecurities that were already existing. Um,
(29:23):
so she she didn't essentially want to see me because
it was just believed blindly. Um. And and then when
I did see her, I've I realized how like what
was happening. I showed her my own receipts, and then
it fixed the situation, Like the whole thing was manipulated
to to destroy that relationship. And girl A was texting
(29:48):
me saying she's not over it, wants to see me.
Let's get coffee. And so it's like, realistically, she was
trying to destroy relationship with Girl B and then slide
in probably I don't know, but but the whole thing
is just manipulation. And and then once that was seen,
the like we were cool again, you know. So where
does the relationship exist now with girl Be? Um? So
(30:12):
that's really complicated. I'm not gonna lie. Um, and it's
something I don't necessarily want to put out there in
the public right now. Um, because there's been like she's
not on the show. I made a choice, even though
I didn't know exactly what the guy was doing, to
put myself in the public eye by going on this show. Um,
she didn't and this has been a huge violation of
(30:33):
her privacy already. UM, and I don't I don't want
to continue that. And so what we can take from
this is that, Um, Girl Be, I knew you were
going on the show. You guys had dinner. Uh, she
was okay with you going on Paradise. Um, you came
(30:54):
back from Paradise, she was really upset with you. Doesn't
want to talk to you. You guys have reconciled that,
and at least today you on speaking terms can we
say that is that fair? Yeah, I mean we're beyond
speaking terms. Where like we when we had dinner about
going to Paradise, she obviously want to hear that there
are feelings there, but we're friends and we're not. Like
there's a shelf life in this, in this whole thing.
(31:14):
And uh, they wanted me on Paradise, you know, they
try to sweeten the pot, you know, make it very
appealing for me to go. Um and and with her
like there we were barely talking for again after a
huge blowout fight for like like a couple of days.
Like that's not something like you can sacrifice the opportunity
(31:34):
for in my in my opinion, and she agreed with that. Um,
And then I went to give it a shot because
dating is very hard once you leave the show. I've found, um, like,
there's there's thousands of girls that message you or you
know that insecurity that can arise from people. You don't
ever know what people's true intentions are. So getting someone
(31:58):
in a in a relationship with someone that understands from
that unique perspective and going on the show was like
it was just so appealing to me, Like I really
really wanted to make it work with someone that was
in the same world, because I just felt like that
would be that was the answer to finding someone to
have a long term relationship with. Well, you called Genevieve
(32:19):
a friend. When you broke up with her, he said,
I see you was a really good friend and now
you're I said, well, that's not exactly what I said.
What I said was first and foremost, you're a great friend.
Because what I wanted to do was like she we
she's a she was a good girl. Like I viewed
her as a good person, and like, you can see
this girl's support people, Like, like, we didn't get along
(32:43):
that well, but from a support perspective, she's amazing. She
was helping everyone out. You know, she's a great friend
to people. And I didn't want her to I didn't
want it to be like negative, like like the bra cup.
I didn't want it to be a negative thing. I
just felt like it had gotten to the very end
(33:04):
and we still couldn't communicate, and so I wanted to
address the things that I saw in her that I
was really that that part of the reason why I
loved her so much, because it was like she is
kind and she's sweet, and she is a great friend
to people, and she supports myself included in a in
a lot of situations. So that's what I That's what
(33:27):
I was saying. I feel like maybe you use the
term friend sometimes with people who it's more than friends
with UM pretend I mean, potentially I can be guilty
of that. I'm not gonna I don't necessarily have a situation. UM.
Well that I guess that would mean like they have
another label, right, I don't know, like what you would
(33:49):
what you would use it, what you would say. Then
I guess I I use that as someone that UM
is close to me in in some sort of like connection.
I don't know. So possibly the girls did think that
you were more than friends when you were well, they
knew we were more than friends. For sure, you were
more than friends, Like we were romantic, you know, Um,
(34:10):
there was never a miscommunication there, um in terms of
where we stood. It wasn't like I was calling one
of friends. So I could like feel less guilty about
seeing someone else, like realistically we were romantic and then
we weren't at girlfriend boyfriend. We weren't committed at all.
You know. She has dated multiple people since, Like she
(34:33):
went to tuloom with the guy while we were seeing
each other that she saw afterwards. Um, so you know,
obviously I could have been something there, but that's not
something I was ever dwelling on because it was just
not where we were when you had dinner with girl,
um be talking about how you were going to paradise
and how she obviously was upset, Because yes, it does.
Even if you're not in a committed relationship. It's still
(34:54):
like hard but you're like crush you or like your
person with complicated feelings goes to paradise. I certainly had
a moment with high school girlfriends when I was the bachelor,
be like this is so odd, Like I don't think
it's like in ten years. Yeah, I totally understand that.
I'm glad we're finding some common ground. Yeah. Um, but
(35:16):
when when you had that conversation, was there like intention
to possibly rekindle things when you got back. No, No,
there wasn't like I've made up my decision, Like I
just felt just since she was so close to me, Um,
I had to keep that communication open. I just thought
it was inappropriate for her to find out with the
(35:37):
rest of America, you know, or whatever. So I wanted to.
There was no intention of rekindling. Um. There was the
intention of purely just open communication so that she wouldn't
be super upset when she saw me on the beach. Aaron,
(36:05):
there's one thing I have a massive problem with, sure,
And I just want to tell you because now, at
the time, because we're virtually talking to each other this
whole thing, right, it's impossible to um understand the emotions
and the feelings and how somebody felt about somebody and
what they were still holding onto and not holding onto. Right,
(36:27):
but giving your timeline, it makes sense to me, right
that that there laying out according to what you told us.
That makes sense on how this all existed. But then
this story gets released, UM, I don't know if you're
still paradise was airing when it gets released. It's obviously
hurtful for you, it's hurtful for the two other girls
involved them, assuming maybe not for the one that released them, Um,
(36:50):
but it's especially hurtful for Genevieve, who gave you her heart.
You know where you're going, I know where you're gone, Yeah,
go ahead. And she gave you her heart and she
believed in this. She was on the podcast there was
obviously deep feelings that she had for you, real feelings
that she had for you. She believed this was a
real thing and that she wanted it to be a
real thing, and I would argue strongly that that is
(37:14):
how she felt. Um, so this gets done. And then
she tells us you haven't even spoken to her, like
you didn't pick up the phone and or that you
didn't call her, You didn't text her, you didn't say, hey, Genevieve,
I know this stuff's out here. Can I explain myself?
Can we meet up? Can I see you? Can I
try to calm the storm, not for my own to
(37:35):
save face, but for your heart and for your mind.
And so you haven't done that, and I don't know why.
So I'll stop you right here. I did. I did
do that. Actually, I'll send you the text. I that
she's the keeper of the text. That's fair. You're saying
that you texted her after the show. No, yes, I did,
and I said I heard that you heard enough. She
(37:57):
heard nothing from you until the union read. I'll read
exactly what I wrote her, and then I won't read
exactly what she told me back, because that's just I
don't want that. Yeah, I need the date on this though,
is it so, Aaron? What Ashley saying is that she's
in an understanding this happened after the reunion show, so
(38:20):
that it didn't happen after okay. So but you didn't
talk to her for okay, you didn't talk to her
from there was there was no like we we had
left um and I didn't talk. I didn't. I wasn't
hoping to rekindle. Uh. So I didn't talk to her
until reunion, and then at reunion we were fine. Um.
(38:41):
Like the whole thing is I reached out to her
um because I wanted to I at first. So at
first what I was told was when this rumor got released,
the first thing that producers do is like they kind
of reach out, and so they reached out essentially, and
they told me she didn't care about it, So I didn't.
I didn't really care. But they did reach out after
(39:03):
the reunion, so it was kind of too late for everything, right,
I mean, I would I honestly wish this came out
before the reunion, like to certain degrees, so I could
like I have addressed it and not have have gone
through this whole process. Like the thing that like the
truth will set you free, right and and like, at
the end of the day, it's completely d s and
so I'm more than happy talking about at length with
(39:24):
anyone that wants to. Um, I do want to move
on with my life to a large extent, so I
don't want to necessarily dwell on this. I don't want
to shoot shots at anyone. Um. I get hurt people,
hurt people. So I get a lot of what like
is coming from from her targeted at me could be
just because she's upset with me, because she believes it, right,
(39:44):
I get that, And like I did want to give
her a call and talk about it one on one
versus social media or a podcast, right when she she
told me at the end of that text that she
doesn't want to listen to me on a call and
she doesn't want to talk to me. Right, unfortunate. I
did what I could. Um But so that's why I'm
(40:04):
going on this podcast to kind of set the record straight.
But um but I did one reach out to her.
But the angle but okay, but the angle there was,
you know, your upset with Genevieve for bad mouth in you.
That's fair. Like, I don't like that. I don't want
anybody bad mouthing me. Actually knows how upset I get
when people say bad things. Yeah, I get, I get distraught,
(40:24):
I lose myself. Um, But the tone of even your
message to her, I would say, if we were buddies
and we were sitting in the same room and you're like, hey,
I need a text, gene Vive, I need to explain
this to her, And I'm gonna say, Okay, what do
you want to tell her? And you're like, this is
the text I'm gonna send. I would have said no,
because that's not the purpose. The purpose is that she
(40:45):
believes this story, and so of course she's gonna be her.
Of course she's going to be upset. It's it's it's
if you want to really reach out to her. It's Genevieve,
I care about you. We broke up on a beach, um,
but I know this is real to you. I know
you leave this story. How can I like, how can
I help make sense of this for you? And not, Hey,
(41:05):
stop badmouthing me. Yeah, I mean you're super right. Like
at the end of the day, Like, I guess that
text was um A bit charged up because the reason
I like, I was just I felt a little bit
blindsided by like some tweets she sent out um and
and uh, and I got upset. I got hurt by that,
(41:27):
and because it was like I was told she didn't
necessarily care about it. To me, it was hard for
me to believe anyone actually believed it UM, because like
everyone is so into soft or hard launching relationships social media,
Like I had never had a relationship, and so I
and I thought everyone would. It was just like stupid.
(41:47):
I just thought. I was like, this is like, no,
there's no white people believe this. UM. But then when
she did that, I reached out because I was also
kind of upset because she didn't even um like like
like she knew me very well, like I'm not that guy.
So it's like it was hard for me to believe
that she wouldn't um like even even give me the
benefit of the doubt a little bit. I don't know,
(42:08):
I just got upset. Yeah, so you're upset that she
was tweeting things, and you're like, you know me, why
do you, like, why are you out here to make
this harder on me? And you de text out of
reaction and not necessarily out of like a place of
understanding the holistic side of the story. Yeah, especially because
I get kind of like a little bit weird about
(42:30):
contestants bash and contestants online because she was getting quite
a bit of hate at the beginning, and so and
I've gotten hate, and so I like, we're very familiar
with how bad that feels. So I was very like,
why would you consciously send hate towards someone knowing how
bad it feels, especially because I mean, if I deserved it,
(42:53):
like that would be one thing, it would be much
easier for me to try to like put my head down.
But like, realistically, after everything that has been and said
to me and what what has been deemed as true
by people online, I don't deserve it, and that's not true, right,
So it just pissed me off. Do you think that
maybe she was like harboring feelings of annoyance towards you
(43:14):
for a while because of the way that you broke
up with her? Was just like so like one side
of the abrupt Yeah, I think so. I mean, like
I had heard, I didn't watch the podcast uh with
her with you guys, because it's kind of difficult for
me to watch these things, uh emotionally Uh. But essentially
(43:36):
I heard that she regrets not leaving the second time,
and it was confusing for me because like, if that's
the case, if she wanted to break up with me
that day, um, like why did she Why did she
care that we were finally on the same page on
breakup day? Right? UM? I guess it was unless unless
(43:59):
her mindset completely shifted in those three days after its
versus pain um or or she wanted to do it
kind of more on her terms. I don't know why
she was so upset by it, because she she told
she told everyone she wanted to break up with me earlier. Um,
So realistically, I mean, if I was to go back,
I would I would, let you know, let her leave
(44:21):
on or let her break up with me, like I
don't know, like that the result then result was the same.
I don't understand why she was so annoyed with me
unless she wanted to do it and not me, or
she viewed it as that I was trying to kind
of list out what I had issues with in like
a in like a way that wasn't attacking, so that
(44:43):
we can create like an open dialogue, have that conversation,
leave on good terms. Um. I was I was not
trying to attack. Um, And and I know it came
off that way or the way they edited too, is
like she she didn't say anything at all, which is
she definitely said things. She said that she'd didn't say
anything on our product. Now, trust me, she definitely did.
That's not that's literally not how it went like. But regardless, um,
(45:07):
the end results Like at the end of the day,
I thought we were on the same page, and according
to the podcast she's been giving, we were. So I
don't understand really, So when you when you just when
you went down to the beach knowing a breakup was happening, Um,
did you have any idea? I mean, and and we
(45:28):
just have to take Genevieve's word for what she's telling
us and telling others and so in her mind, like
she was potentially getting engaged to you, like this was
a real thing to her. Did you have any idea
that that's how she was feeling? No? Literally none, I mean,
like a couple of days earlier, she wanted to leave,
Like I like, looking back, Um, if if I was
(45:53):
if I proposed were like, should she have said yes
if she felt like that a couple of days earlier,
like no, probably not. I was you know, I don't
want to get engaged and break up and be another
bachelor statistic, you know, Um so I I I don't know.
I just thought of the most plausible scenario that would
(46:14):
work out for us, and and like realistic, I mean, like,
obviously it would be nice to stay with her, like, um,
it would be nice if everything fixed after Paradise. I
just didn't think that would happen, and so I wanted to,
um voice my honest opinion to her. Essentially, we'll stop
grilling you soon, but I do have one more question
(46:34):
on my side. So I just want you to picture yourself.
You're Genevieve, you got broken up with in Paradise, and
then you see and you were with this person for
the majority of Paradise. You're sticking it out through a
lot of fights, but the the last day, the decision
making day, basically you are dumped. And then you see
(46:57):
months later, these exchange between two girls who basically it
looks like we're still involved with you, or at least
one was still involved with you when you went to Paradise.
So don't you think that that, like, how would you
respond to that? I mean do you Yeah, just like
what what would your actions have been? Yeah, Like it's
(47:24):
it's something that I should have empathized with more. I
can't lie. Um, like when you listed out like that,
or if if you don't even meet thinking about it
like that. Uh, it feels like if that's true, it's humiliating.
You know, it feels like it's uh, um, you know
you wasted a lot of time. Uh, you know, things
(47:47):
that are the opposite of what anyone wants to feel. Right,
You're basically like lied to the entire post. That's what
it feels like. Yeah, like it was all fake. It
was all for show, like legit a show. Yeah, and
realistically like I'm not that good of an actor. Um,
or I wouldn't have gotten fights so often. But UM,
(48:07):
like I get I can get where she's coming from completely. Um.
I just I you know, it's like it goes down to, um,
we we both kind of have this issue where we
can be a little bit reactionary. Um. And you know
I'm gonna own that first and foremost for myself and
and at the reunion, you know, when we did talk
and we did kind of um show each other in
(48:29):
that mutual respect that was she apologized for as well. Um,
so at the end of the day, this is exactly
what that is. And I wish that I guess I
wasn't so reactionary when I sent that text, you know. Um, uh,
you know, thanks for for listening that out Ben as well.
But um but uh, but like I wish she wasn't
(48:52):
so reactionary just believing it right away as well. So
because we I'm so confident, like if we were oh
been to having that conversation, this would never have been
a thing. Yeah. Well, Aaron, I know this isn't easy.
I know this isn't fun. I can imagine the last
(49:14):
few weeks or however long this has been going on. Um,
it's been exhausting. And uh, you know, like you said,
I mean, I think it's a fair wish everybody can
now move on with their lives. Um, move forward with
your life. Is there anything else that you'd want to
tell our listeners that we didn't ask, that we didn't
(49:36):
touch on, um, that you'd want them to hear and
for others to hear. Um. You know, obviously this is
going to be spread out. People will hear this, they'll
see headlines of it. Um. What would you like people
to know, um, moving forward for you, I guess, uh,
A big thing, I know, I don't, I don't know.
(49:58):
It's it's kind of hard to put in the word.
But a big thing is you know, you look at
my activity via social media, like I never tried to
spread hate or attack right anyone ever, just not something idea,
whether it's Twitter. Twitter's an evil place, you know, so
denly not Twitter or anything right, It's it's I do
want to focus on bringing positive kind of energy. And
(50:18):
I know, um it's hard sometimes, but like when when
these when these rumors or or whatever are released, um,
like they are a lot of times just rumors or
you know, there might be some truth to them. But
the things that I've have people have been said, that
have said to me, um, like the last few weeks,
(50:42):
you know. And and this even for Genevieve, is she
listening like like you know, you really don't want like
that's to be said to anyone, right And and you
know whether she's you know, someone's mad at similar or not.
Like the like sending like hate these social media or
or or or texting someone or demning someone these these
(51:05):
crazy things like has has a huge effect on someone's
mental well being and at the end of the day,
like she's a good person. Of confident that I am
as well. I'm confident that as well the things I
have done. Um, I am confident that I was a
good man before Paradise, after Paradise. When I was on Paradise, Uh,
there was miscommunications a lot of times, but I'm not
(51:27):
like this, this horrible villain, right, And it's just disturbing
when I see people, um like, not even just myself, Like,
just spread this crazy hatred um towards contestants because they
are real people, you know, and at the end of
the day and you never really know what's happening. So
just um yeah, just spread positivity. And if you don't
(51:49):
have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Right,
how would you feel if we invited Genevieve on this
podcast to talk to you m a zoom, I mean
like like I'll be yeah, I'll be down. I mean
I would rather do it in private, obviously. Um, I
definitely don't want to get yelled at on on camera.
(52:11):
You know it before you know, I know, I can
see the smiles, like you know, I'm just thinking about Paradise.
I just think about all the paradise scenes in my
yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, No, I mean like I want to.
I mean I'm super open having a conversation. I want to.
I like to deal with things in private. You know.
I'm definitely not someone that's doing everything in the forefront
(52:34):
of of of you know, the public eye, and and
posting on social media every two seconds about what I'm
doing in my life. So more private person as weird
as it is going on this show, but um, yeah,
I mean for sure, although I would rather I talk
in private and then this and then we can move
on with our lives. You know. That's that's that's that's fine.
(52:56):
Well hopefully you can feel that way after this podcast.
But I'm just you know, playing, just haven't asked some
fun with the questions. It's funny because when this was happening,
this is really my first kind of the most hate
I've felt from from the fan base. And apparently I
gave a lot of girls uh or women PTSD about
their past relationships in those arguments, So a lot of
(53:20):
projecting like run from Aaron, He's belongs in jail whatever,
um which is which is? You know, apparently they know
me completely as a human being. But uh, but I
was asking advice from other contestants, et cetera. That I've
been through. There's not not you know, no one knowing crazy.
But they were all just like, don't say anything at all.
Just like everyone almost unanimously was like, don't say anything.
(53:42):
But it got to the point where I was like, dude,
I feel like I have to say something, like like
getting repeatedly kind of bashed on social media, um by
something that's not factual, and people like might as well
take it as factual? Is is uh something it's really
hard to like, look at stomach. Yeah, both piece of
advice or good advice. You don't say anything. It always
(54:03):
sits there. You're always known for it. Now, the thing
that the benefit of that is you can just like
kind of walk off into you know, the silence and
be forgotten. And but when somebody hears your name, they're like, yeah,
Aaron's associated with this saying something. Um, You're not as
capable of walking off into the silence. But at least
now there is that, um, that team of people who
(54:26):
will be like I heard this podcast and this is
what he was saying happened, and now it's nuanced and
it's complex and I don't know maybe what to believe,
or maybe they know what to believe and they're confident
in it. Both sides work. UM, but we're glad you
came on. So thank you for coming on, Aaron, Thank you,
UM for sharing your side of this story. Um, thanks
(54:48):
for playing along again. I know it's not always fun.
I know it's not easy, and uh, I know it
would feel a lot easier just to not say anything,
but sometimes we don't have that option. And Aaron, next time,
you're always invited here and we'd love to play some
fun games with you. It's a little rapid fire something
like this, because I bet you it will never be
(55:08):
this serious again. I know I was gonna say Benna,
we haven't met in person, but Ashley, when I met her,
she was like a light on the beach. You're the sweetest.
That's what I say before every episode I introduced actually,
and I say my amazing, beautiful co host Ashley because
she's always like, oh my gosh, Ben with the compliments.
But I tell people on this podcast all the time,
(55:30):
I was like on TV, I kept saying, like this guy,
he just loves fighting, like he's like I'm being angry,
I'm angry, and then I'm like, but in person, he's
so fun to get along with and joke with, and
you got a great sense of humor. Yeah, that was
one of my favorite things you said, was like, how
I surprised you at my actual personality versus what was portrayed,
(55:52):
because yeah, I mean, I keep you not like, I'm
just like a goofy guy almost all the time. So
it's it's not always the easiest with pople think I'm
like raging, like the hulky you know. But well he
seemed to more hokey when you're on Katie season and
you've softened up through time. But I was always yeah,
you're right, but it wasn't up. They just showed more.
(56:12):
So yeah, I got it. I got it. All right. Well,
this is our sign off. I've been Ashley, I've been
been I've been Aaron. There we go Bye. Followed the
Benn and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on iHeart Radio
or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
This is Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous in Depth. Hello, everyone,
welcome to the Almost of His podcast. Today is a
very special edition because we have Aaron on Aaron Clancy
to discuss this time in Paradise and all the rumors
that are going around via reality Steve so Um, Ben,
(00:23):
would you like to do the honors of bringing Aaron
into the room. I would love to Aaron. Welcome to
the Almost Famous podcast. Thank you for having me. Aaron,
you're here today. You've been pretty quiet since Paradise. Is
this your first interview? This is yeah, this is my
(00:43):
first interview since Paradise. Well, the elephant in the room
is obviously that Genevieve was just on UM last week,
and uh, you know, our theme, especially coming off a Paradise,
there's been a lot of wild storylines, uh, coming post
Paradise ice that we didn't necessarily get to watch during
Paradise has been this Aaron. Just let you know, Ah,
(01:05):
there's always three versions of the truth. There's my truth,
there's your truth, and then there's the truth. And so
our goal, uh is just to hear your story, to
hear um and to also ask you some of the
questions that were obviously brought up during the interview with Genevieve,
and then some of the questions have been brought up
post show from Reality Steve and other UM networks. Those
(01:29):
things need to be confronted or they just sit out
there and people assume their own things. And so thanks
for joining us, Thanks for letting this be your first interview. Yeah,
of course, that's why I'm here definitely to uh to
you know, you know, share my share my truth here
for sure. Should we just start with Paradise for a sect,
I guess I, um, yeah, let's let's talk about the moment,
(01:51):
the the itch versus moments, because that was like, well,
that was a big fight that kind of led to
the end. Right, We've looked it up, Aaron and An
apparently is not pained, So so okay, yes, and I
looked it up like six months ago, right as well. Um,
(02:15):
so all the people bombarding me via social media like
I know, okay, I was wrong, I I So that's
something I learned in school. Now the thing is behind
the scenes, obviously, there's a lot of interactions people don't see. Um,
I'm allergic to bug bites, like mosquito bites. I got
bit by a spider. Um, my legs swelled up. I
(02:36):
was on antibiotics and I was also pad on paradise. Yeah,
I was. I was taking a la sick medication to
like drain my ankle. It's like a water pill. Um.
So I was seeing the doctor every day and I
was itching incredibly right, and then I just my mind
was on that because it was it was to the
point where it was so it was itching so much
(02:58):
was painful. I remembered back, Okay, now we have more context,
well my earlier days in school. Um and and uh
I brought that up seemingly super random obviously archaic research
at this point, but um, but you know that's why. Essentially,
(03:18):
so it wasn't the best mood. I was hobbling around
on a on a one good leg. But um, yeah,
I regret the whole thing. Obviously. It was just so dumb. So,
I mean, Paradise seems like the worst place for you,
and you've done it twice now, right, it does not
seem like a very good place for me now. Yeah.
But bugs everywhere, I mean, all actually talks about when
(03:39):
we get into the nitty gritty of Paradise is the
bugs flying around the creatures that exist in your bed,
you go down there allergic to this, It makes sense
now that you got what kind of bug bite was it? Dude?
So I don't know, Um they So the first bug
bite I got was on my leg and it got
so big it was like as big as a tennis
(04:01):
ball around and it was black, and then my whole
leg swung up though. Yeah, so the doctor was like,
this is a spider. And they were actually worried about
it because the center of it got really like soft
and like just disgusting. So they were like, yo, if
this was like a really dangerous spider and your flesh
is going to chrotic, you gotta, you know, leave right
(04:21):
and so um they put me on a bunch of
antibiotics kind of right away, and and and and it helps.
So that's why I didn't leave. But I grew up
in southern California. There's not a lot of bugs, so
I didn't know I was allergic till my first time
in Paradise. Man. That see, context is important here. So
you were experiencing pain from a bite. It just isn't
(04:44):
necessarily defined by the itching is pain. But you were
experiencing pain from a bite from an itch. Yeah, well
like like thirteen bites at that point. Yeah, because I
have Type O positive blood and like I run super
hot at night, so apparently I was just you could
like Johnny was my bed, my bunk mate, so I
would I would absolutely cut myself in bug spright before
(05:05):
I went to sleep, plus the sweat. So I'm glucky
I didn't break out in a bunch of acting. But yeah,
I was disgusting just every once in a while when
I hear these stories, I'm like, I was so glad
that they asked me to lead this show for a season,
so I never well, I guess that doesn't always discount
somebody from going on, but I'm just glad that that
(05:26):
never existed for me because I would not have done well. Yeah,
and my mom's from the Caribbean too, which is uh,
turned out to Bago a bunch of bugs out there. Um,
so you wouldn't think you would think I'd be resistant
or something penetically, but but no, it's I can't handle
spicy food. I got that from my dad and apparently
allergic to mosquito bites, so not built for it. Goodness,
(05:50):
just what a start to the podcast, I mean, just
learning new things every day about you, Aaron. Um, I
mean I felt like I was maybe silly bringing up
that argument first, and we have like a lot more
serire these things. I was like, you know what, this
will be fun everything, so I have I don't react
the best. Sometimes my behavior can be up and down,
but I'm always honest, so I'll tell you what you
want to hear. Okay, well, let's talk about just your
(06:12):
relationship in general. Genevieve in Paradise was tumultuous, was always
up and down. Why did you stick it through till
the end, Because I'll just say it, when you come
out and you hear that you've had girls back at
home and then you you kind of have this up
and down, not so fun relationship with Genevieve. It looks
(06:33):
to an outsider as if maybe you were hanging around
just to the very last day so that you could
get as much screen time as possible instead of just
breaking up with her when it was bad, or you
guys breaking up in general. I guess when it's bad,
but I get how it can look like that. Like
and that's why I went on this podcast, because I
see things like that on the internet and it's just
(06:55):
simply not the case. Like realistically, Genevieve and I, you know,
we connected on a lot of levels and and I
know they show the ups and downs and and people
kind of focus on the down, but we really had, um,
this very strong connection. And and you know, if you
you kinda when we're not focusing on the fights on
the on camera, like you see little b roll clips
(07:18):
of her sitting on me, we're kissing, We're always hanging out,
like floating around the pool whatever. Um, And that's because
of those real feelings now like essentially at the end
of the day, Um, we didn't have any moral like
issues like I wasn't pro choice, she was pro life
or something. We didn't have any like, Um, there weren't
(07:40):
any fundamental issues in our person that led us to
those fights. They were always um like they were always
miscommunication or or just um, you know, the beach can
get the better sometimes, you know, and and it can
whether it's you know, for her like she she like
a you see it's hot like bug bites myself included, UM,
(08:03):
we're just more irritable in general, and so we would
I was, at least I can say I was, and
so it would let leads to um like, uh, interactions
that were just that we're dumb miscommunications and so in
my experience, the best way to get over misscommunications is
to get to know someone better, learn how to communicate
(08:24):
with them better. And for me, that's like the one
thing we don't have in Paradise, which is time. So
for me it was like, okay, it's versus pain. That's
not worth uh ending this relationship for so I want
to fix this and then spend more time with her
and try to learn how to communicate with her better.
There's some very like i'd say, simple straightforward questions. I
(08:46):
think it's the best way to get to you know,
you explaining your side of the story, or you explaining
the truth to the story, even if it's not pretty
and good. UM. I just want to take two off
the top here. One is, you know last year during Paradise,
the big thing that you confronted this year during Paradise
was that you were quick tempered, uh, that you get
(09:07):
upset easily. That was something that was brought up I
think once this year, but it was also maybe the
biggest hit on you last year that you were working through.
I'm assuming over the last twelve months before this season
of Paradise, can you walk us through that journey? And
do you still consider yourself quick tempered? Is it something
that is a weakness of yours? And then you know,
(09:29):
how are you dealing with that? Yeah? You know what?
In real life, I don't get mad very often. UM.
I'm someone that like will leave the room as opposed
to UM a confrontation. Now I don't in Paradise. You
don't really have that option. So I can get um,
(09:50):
I can't. I can't get riled up pretty pretty pretty easily. UM.
So it you know, in these circumstances with her, like
she you know, her and I both get riled up
pretty easy. And and if you watched the season back,
like there are times where she's emotionally very um like
charged and and I've calmed it down and there and
(10:14):
then there are emotionally there are times where I'm emotionally
charged and and and then she gets emotionally charged because
I'm mostly charged. But there's never really a moment where
like I was upset and she calmed me down, because
that was not really the dynamic we had and I
really needed sometimes like an emotional safe space, and like
(10:35):
what I would do in that scenario would be to
leave and and try to Um, Like, once Justin came
down and I and I got upset, I would want
to leave and kind of deal with it myself, which
which isn't the best way and in fact a bad way,
because what I would end up doing is is kind
of bottling it up. Um. And then and then I
really seen paradise one. At one point I was brought
(10:57):
to tears, um, and I was really sad, and the
very next day I was very mad, right, so the
matt the sad turned to mad really quick. I was
bottling it up, um, and I just needed to be
able to communicate in a more healthy way and not
bottle up my emotions and just be able to communicate
my concerns at the time. Yeah, So it was is all.
I mean, it was on me, like when I whenever
(11:17):
I get like upset to I can be kind of condescending.
I could be a dick, you know, And that's something
I definitely need to change for sure. Um. And that's
something you saw on screen. You said that you guys
(11:39):
didn't really have any big like value or personality differences
that made you clash. But I hear you saying this,
and I think that maybe the fact that you guys
both deal with frustration in similar ways, getting all riled up,
like you said, perhaps was a big red flag that
(11:59):
you as wouldn't be compatible long term. So why did
it take so long for you to make that decision
to split? You know what? UM, I'm honestly, I had
never thought about it that way, not even until you
just said that right now, UM, Like I had never
once thought about that. In particular, it was always, UM,
if if we learned how to communicate or speak to
(12:22):
each other and we got out of this um, these
these little little things that blew up like, we would
be better. But I never thought about it that way
until just now. So you were under the assumption that
these arguments, um, disagreements would make you stronger as a couple.
You would learn from each other from the way you reacted. Yeah,
(12:45):
I mean no, I was. I view that not the
argument itself had a beneficial but but that it could
have been avoided if we knew each other better. Essentially,
so it's like we spent some more time together, we
we understood each other's love languages. Like realistically we have
three weeks and UM worth throwing like you know how
(13:06):
how it works, like you're the producer, study curveballs as
much as many obstacles as you can as you can
have and handle, and so UM realistically like I was,
I was, I was hoping that UM, we would just
be able to communicate better and things would get better
towards the end. It's UH. Actually asked the question UM
(13:26):
a few questions ago that UM is assuming the probably
the heaviest topic thing coming off of the show for you,
which was that you were dating somebody else coming on
the show. I don't know if you've had a chance
to listen to the Genevieve interview that we did UM,
but UH, she spoke that it was actually two people
(13:47):
that you were dating. Uh. One person, UM decided to
not continue the relationship with you. The other person did
UM when you went on the show, and it was
kind of a waiting game to see how the show
went for you. You on if that relationship would continue.
With that question being asked, I think we have to
ask you were you dating somebody coming onto the show?
(14:07):
Were you dating multiple people coming onto the show? No? No,
So that so that's the main reason I went on
this podcast is to address that that's just simply not
true at all. Right, So, like I'll just walk you
through the timeline. So essentially, like I was dating this
last year. First off, I went on, I was dating
(14:28):
two separate people, right, and one person in particular, the
person that's releasing text messages are saying, um, certain things
about me that that relationship ended. Um, that ended almost
a year ago, right, Um, a little bit less. But
but then and then, and then essentially I started dating
(14:49):
someone else. Now the other person, Like I get where
the anger comes in, and we and I have text
messages and all sorts of stuff with this girl. But um,
the other person, the the next person was one of
my best friends for four years. Right, There's there's a
lot of history there. She had another boyfriend vast majority
of our relationship. Um, it became romantic at the end,
(15:09):
but we we really got along. So there was a
there was a certain element of like, we can move
quicker because we had so many so much history as friends. Right.
The relationship ended the very next month. I was dating
someone else. Right Now, that right there is a little
bit close for comfort for anyone. I get it. But
there was no cross over there now any sort of
(15:32):
and and that girl, that previous girl like that that
was upset by this me moving on so quickly. Um,
because just just for clarity's sake, Yeah, this might be disrespectful,
but I think it's just just to not use the names.
Can we say, like girl a girl? Yeah, yeah, that
makes sense. So girl A UM was upset that I
(15:53):
moved on so quickly to girl B. Right. Girl B
was in my life for four plus years. Um, great
friend mine. Right. I had a boyfriend, um, you know,
most of the relationship, but we were great friends. Now
girl A um was upset by that me moving on
so quickly, right, but she and she lashed out at
(16:14):
me over it, right. Um. And and you know this
is a little piece of anecdote evidence to what type
of person this is, because I never want to speak
ill on anyone. But I saw her at a bar
and heard her friends. Uh, she started rumored that I
was gay because I left with James, and they all
screamed homophobic slurs at me in the bar, right, Um
to bully me essentially, right, So I've moved you know, whatever,
(16:36):
move on whatever. Now this girl, um, that girl be right,
we're we're seeing each other. Um. But we're we're great friends,
but we were not really like that compatible relationship wise,
especially at that time. Um, so we we have blow out,
a couple of blowout fights. We we don't talk for
(16:57):
months right now, Girl A um thinks we're just in
a happy relationship the whole time, because she's not involved
in our in my life whatsoever, or at least she
or at least she that's what she says. So essentially,
all those texts you see are her reaching out Girl
AID to Girl B and saying that I was like
(17:18):
seeing both of them simultaneously right now. That is something
that played on girl bees in securities at the time,
like etcetera. Um, they riled each other up in a conversation.
You're seeing a little bits of that in the screenshots.
And then when I essentially talked to girl Be again,
I give her my phone. I'm like, hey, look at
(17:39):
the look at the receipts right, look at all the
text look at whatever. She sees that. Girl A is like,
I'm not over you. I wanna you know, I wanna
I want to see you, blah blah blah, and sees
that it was all kind of bullshit and the situation
was resolved right, and it was resolved months ago, and
and that was good enough for her. It should be
good enough for everyone else because at the end of
the day, there was no crossover. I was not dating
(18:00):
multiple people. I was not in a committed relationship with
like either one of them at any point. Um. And realistically,
going into Paradise with a girlfriend like that is something
that like is is I want to say, a rookie
mistake because of like the people that do it. But
this is my second time on the beach, and the
(18:21):
producers are my friends. Like they, like I told, going
into paradise, they call you, they're asking you who you've
been dating, are you single? Whatever? I listed out these
people's names. They know exactly who these people are. Um,
I'm best friends with producers as well, like they they
were they were aware of my dating history. Um, and
(18:41):
they know exactly who these people are in the timeline.
So that's why it's like not it's just it's just
not even realistic. Um. And it's and it's and it's upsetting.
So this this person, girl A who called me homophobic
slurs in the bar um took to reality Steve and
essentially uh gave him like some sort of fake story
(19:05):
to bully me online. Like the credibility of this person
is ridiculous and it's so vicious it actually makes me
sick to my stomach because like, the one thing I
do is I don't lie to people. I don't play people.
When I was younger, uh, late teens, very early twenties, like,
there was a situation where I wasn't super honest in
a relationship and I ended up hurting people I truly love,
(19:26):
and so I will never do that again. Um. And
and this situation itself is just fabricated completely, and and
it's and it's quite upsetting. A little confused about the
timeline because from what I believe, from what I've heard
from the sources and realities even all that there was
(19:48):
the friend that you had for many years, she broke
up with her boyfriend, and then there was some sort
of romance, but then there was also another girl involved
at the time, and you you just said that that
really and ship had been over. Girl A. You're saying, girl,
I think you said that girl A was it's been
over for over a year. But from what I've heard,
(20:11):
it sounded like it was just about this time last
year that you started things with girl A and then
things started to sort of cool down in April, like
a month and a half before Paradise. I get what
you're saying. So realistically, no, that timeline is shifted and
it's wrong. Um, there is blurred lines with if you
count like texting, like there was communication to its texting
(20:31):
with this person. Um. But like realistically, the relationship with
girl A started about September because she attended my birthday
see see yeah yeah, over over a year ago, right,
and then the relationship I don't remember exactly when I
have to double check, but um, around January is when?
(20:52):
Is when that when that changed? Right? Now? There was
there was texting involved right that she was communicating I
was in this girl, be I wasn't. It's not like
immediately that girl's my girlfriend now like we're we're starting
to hang out. You know that other girl screamed like
her friends bullied me in a bar, like I can't
get over that. Um, So I didn't want to see her.
(21:12):
I was quite angry, uh, and so but I would
text her back, right and I didn't feel any Um,
I didn't feel guilty about texting her while I was
seeing someone else because that to me is like I'm
not in a committed relationship, Like I can do whatever.
I'm not gonna I can do whatever I want. Like,
but I wasn't texting her in that way. Um, it
(21:35):
was more of like communicating because there were still leftover
feelings there, but there was never any there was, Like
the whole thing was I was super transparent with everyone.
So then you started with girl B. Yeah, it feels
weird to categorize them this way, but I don't even
(21:55):
know their names, so I guess it's easier for me.
But so then girl BE and you start kind of
hanging out. You were friends, you start hanging out, the
romance starts. Win, Um, it starts. So we take a
trip to to Loom. The romance was there were there
were feelings there or like like there was the potential
(22:16):
of feelings that we're always riding that line throughout our
whole friendship. So the romance like started like January. I
say that's when we really took or or or or
or one was the trip because there's pictures. One was
exactly what I'm addressing it. Um, I believe it was January.
And so then that relationship ended when Um, that dude,
(22:42):
that ended like we we had to blowout fight into loom,
like it was too much, too fast, like essentially, so
uh it was. It was. We didn't talk for a
few months, like in March April, and then I was
asked back to Paradise essentially, and then I at dinner
with her and told her I was going to Paradise
(23:03):
on in May um and she was like, I'm fine
with that. So that's the thing too. If you look
at the screenshots, which is what like, I'm so annoyed by.
But if you read them, it says I'm not dating Aaron.
We're not I'm not his girlfriend, right, that's what girl?
Where does it say that? It says in the screenshots
in the first article he posted. It literally says that.
(23:25):
And then and this is from girl a girl. But
perhaps this was after you guys started cooling down. No,
this was I mean, well this was when. So the
text messages happened when I was in Paradise, Okay, yes, yeah,
so the text message happened when I was in Paradise.
(23:45):
The girl girl A reached out and said like something
about us me seeing both of them at the same time.
I don't know. And then the girl was like, I'm
not dating him, he's not my boyfriend, right, And then
reality Steve pivoted for me having a girlfriend's meet, playing
two girls at once. I'm just a piece of right, um,
which which I get to salvage his story or whatever.
(24:06):
But regardless, not neither one of those was true. The
first one is disproven by that text messages. The second
one is disproven by the fact of everything I just
said and the list out the timelines. I have my
own receipts for everything too, and like I don't. I
don't like to share text messages without consent of both parties,
and to me, it's just like lighting more of a fire.
But realistically, neither one of those things was true. So
(24:29):
then when was the last time you saw a girl
A in person? Literally like like, um, oh, I actually
did see her at a festival. She's she's dated two
people since and she had a boyfriend and I saw
he at a festival like walked by, but that was
in um, that was after that was realist um a
few months ago. Let me like at the straight So
(25:01):
it sounds like girl A maybe wasn't in a relationship
with you while you went into Paradise, So she's not
so much annoyed at the fact that you went to
Paradise as much as it was like you were dating
somebody at the same time, and it wasn't dating someone
at the same time, but what she was. But that's
what she said. Yes, she was. She was mad because
(25:25):
she wasn't over it and I moved on and she
what she did was essentially just lash out of me.
What brought on the breakup conversation that you had with
girl A, I, Well, I said it like essentially, there
was a few things, but she's young, she's twenty three, right, Um,
and the main issue I had was when she didn't
get something she wanted or we had a disagreement. What
(25:48):
she did was she she started rumor I was gay,
and she bullied me in a in a bar like
like she was screaming like they was screaming that I
was a homophobic slayers like that's not something that's acceptable.
UM's specially because she apologized to me. I would use
a long apology text too, because it was something that
was just like literally a rumor she started because she
(26:08):
was upset with me. So you had an ending conversation, Um, yeah, yeah,
we definitely did. We. I literally have screenshots with that
as well. I have everything in my computer. You should
send us the screenshots. I don't. Yeah, I can send you. Yeah,
let's not. I don't need to get involved in. You
can send Ashley like I can send. I know, I
(26:31):
know you're you're playing Devil's Advocate a little bit here.
I can send you screenshots, but I just don't want
them like out necessarily. Well I won't. I won't put
them out there, but I would like to see for
proof for myself actually loves this. Well. Um, okay, so
the timeline makes sense to me what you're telling us.
Just to recap it for everybody listening, you were dating
(26:52):
um girl A. Uh that ended Uh let's say close
in January. You and girl B had already been friends.
You guys start romantically like being interested in each other
following that relationship with the girl A. That girl relationship
with a girl A just to confirm had been over.
(27:12):
It's done. You removed this. There was no crossover. You're
saying there was no crossover now and also, uh, like again,
no crossover just because I wanted to avoid bad negative feelings,
but realistically I wasn't we were never in a relationship
as well with anyone. I was never in a relationship
with anyone. It's it's just like, how do you define
(27:33):
a relate? How do you define a relationship? Like do
you like to have the conversation like we're girlfriend and boyfriend? Yes,
and also um, like there has to be communication about
um where we are like, so yes, I would like
to have the conversation. But also there is always a
conversation about if we're seeing other people who were like
(27:54):
communicating with etcetera. This girl a when we were seeing
each other, she went to a loom with um, a
whole group of of guys and girls. And I wasn't there.
And I wasn't even at her birthday dinner. I wasn't
invited by her friends. Like I'm we weren't We weren't
even far along at all. For like, it just doesn't
(28:14):
it just doesn't make It doesn't make sense. So Aaron
within all of this because the timeline doesn't make sense.
You guys, girl be that relationship did not last long.
It doesn't sound um at all. Well, no, girl be, no,
haven't you been seen with her recently at your birthday
party over the fall? So my birthday party was in September. Yes,
(28:38):
so I um, I coming so coming back, Like I said,
she's been my friend for four years. Um, she is
in the same friend group in a lot of respects.
Initially when I came back, she didn't want to talk
to me because, um of the text messages you all
saw when you know I happened to see her because
(29:01):
we're all in the same friend group. Let me just say,
in the text messages that are posted to Reality Steve,
she says, um, like something along the lines of like
oh I won't be talking to him when he returned
or something like that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So it was
I mean, like at the end of the day, like
it played on the insecurities that were already existing. Um,
(29:23):
so she she didn't essentially want to see me because
it was just believed blindly. Um. And and then when
I did see her, I've I realized how like what
was happening. I showed her my own receipts, and then
it fixed the situation, Like the whole thing was manipulated
to to destroy that relationship. And girl A was texting
(29:48):
me saying she's not over it, wants to see me.
Let's get coffee. And so it's like, realistically, she was
trying to destroy relationship with Girl B and then slide
in probably I don't know, but but the whole thing
is just manipulation. And and then once that was seen,
the like we were cool again, you know. So where
does the relationship exist now with girl Be? Um? So
(30:12):
that's really complicated. I'm not gonna lie. Um, and it's
something I don't necessarily want to put out there in
the public right now. Um, because there's been like she's
not on the show. I made a choice, even though
I didn't know exactly what the guy was doing, to
put myself in the public eye by going on this show. Um,
she didn't and this has been a huge violation of
(30:33):
her privacy already. UM, and I don't I don't want
to continue that. And so what we can take from
this is that, Um, Girl Be, I knew you were
going on the show. You guys had dinner. Uh, she
was okay with you going on Paradise. Um, you came
(30:54):
back from Paradise, she was really upset with you. Doesn't
want to talk to you. You guys have reconciled that,
and at least today you on speaking terms can we
say that is that fair? Yeah, I mean we're beyond
speaking terms. Where like we when we had dinner about
going to Paradise, she obviously want to hear that there
are feelings there, but we're friends and we're not. Like
there's a shelf life in this, in this whole thing.
(31:14):
And uh, they wanted me on Paradise, you know, they
try to sweeten the pot, you know, make it very
appealing for me to go. Um and and with her
like there we were barely talking for again after a
huge blowout fight for like like a couple of days.
Like that's not something like you can sacrifice the opportunity
(31:34):
for in my in my opinion, and she agreed with that. Um,
And then I went to give it a shot because
dating is very hard once you leave the show. I've found, um, like,
there's there's thousands of girls that message you or you
know that insecurity that can arise from people. You don't
ever know what people's true intentions are. So getting someone
(31:58):
in a in a relationship with someone that understands from
that unique perspective and going on the show was like
it was just so appealing to me, Like I really
really wanted to make it work with someone that was
in the same world, because I just felt like that
would be that was the answer to finding someone to
have a long term relationship with. Well, you called Genevieve
(32:19):
a friend. When you broke up with her, he said,
I see you was a really good friend and now
you're I said, well, that's not exactly what I said.
What I said was first and foremost, you're a great friend.
Because what I wanted to do was like she we
she's a she was a good girl. Like I viewed
her as a good person, and like, you can see
this girl's support people, Like, like, we didn't get along
(32:43):
that well, but from a support perspective, she's amazing. She
was helping everyone out. You know, she's a great friend
to people. And I didn't want her to I didn't
want it to be like negative, like like the bra cup.
I didn't want it to be a negative thing. I
just felt like it had gotten to the very end
(33:04):
and we still couldn't communicate, and so I wanted to
address the things that I saw in her that I
was really that that part of the reason why I
loved her so much, because it was like she is
kind and she's sweet, and she is a great friend
to people, and she supports myself included in a in
a lot of situations. So that's what I That's what
(33:27):
I was saying. I feel like maybe you use the
term friend sometimes with people who it's more than friends
with UM pretend I mean, potentially I can be guilty
of that. I'm not gonna I don't necessarily have a situation. UM.
Well that I guess that would mean like they have
another label, right, I don't know, like what you would
(33:49):
what you would use it, what you would say. Then
I guess I I use that as someone that UM
is close to me in in some sort of like connection.
I don't know. So possibly the girls did think that
you were more than friends when you were well, they
knew we were more than friends. For sure, you were
more than friends, Like we were romantic, you know, Um,
(34:10):
there was never a miscommunication there, um in terms of
where we stood. It wasn't like I was calling one
of friends. So I could like feel less guilty about
seeing someone else, like realistically we were romantic and then
we weren't at girlfriend boyfriend. We weren't committed at all.
You know. She has dated multiple people since, Like she
(34:33):
went to tuloom with the guy while we were seeing
each other that she saw afterwards. Um, so you know,
obviously I could have been something there, but that's not
something I was ever dwelling on because it was just
not where we were when you had dinner with girl,
um be talking about how you were going to paradise
and how she obviously was upset, Because yes, it does.
Even if you're not in a committed relationship. It's still
(34:54):
like hard but you're like crush you or like your
person with complicated feelings goes to paradise. I certainly had
a moment with high school girlfriends when I was the bachelor,
be like this is so odd, Like I don't think
it's like in ten years. Yeah, I totally understand that.
I'm glad we're finding some common ground. Yeah. Um, but
(35:16):
when when you had that conversation, was there like intention
to possibly rekindle things when you got back. No, No,
there wasn't like I've made up my decision, Like I
just felt just since she was so close to me, Um,
I had to keep that communication open. I just thought
it was inappropriate for her to find out with the
(35:37):
rest of America, you know, or whatever. So I wanted to.
There was no intention of rekindling. Um. There was the
intention of purely just open communication so that she wouldn't
be super upset when she saw me on the beach. Aaron,
(36:05):
there's one thing I have a massive problem with, sure,
And I just want to tell you because now, at
the time, because we're virtually talking to each other this
whole thing, right, it's impossible to um understand the emotions
and the feelings and how somebody felt about somebody and
what they were still holding onto and not holding onto. Right,
(36:27):
but giving your timeline, it makes sense to me, right
that that there laying out according to what you told us.
That makes sense on how this all existed. But then
this story gets released, UM, I don't know if you're
still paradise was airing when it gets released. It's obviously
hurtful for you, it's hurtful for the two other girls
involved them, assuming maybe not for the one that released them, Um,
(36:50):
but it's especially hurtful for Genevieve, who gave you her heart.
You know where you're going, I know where you're gone, Yeah,
go ahead. And she gave you her heart and she
believed in this. She was on the podcast there was
obviously deep feelings that she had for you, real feelings
that she had for you. She believed this was a
real thing and that she wanted it to be a
real thing, and I would argue strongly that that is
(37:14):
how she felt. Um, so this gets done. And then
she tells us you haven't even spoken to her, like
you didn't pick up the phone and or that you
didn't call her, You didn't text her, you didn't say, hey, Genevieve,
I know this stuff's out here. Can I explain myself?
Can we meet up? Can I see you? Can I
try to calm the storm, not for my own to
(37:35):
save face, but for your heart and for your mind.
And so you haven't done that, and I don't know why.
So I'll stop you right here. I did. I did
do that. Actually, I'll send you the text. I that
she's the keeper of the text. That's fair. You're saying
that you texted her after the show. No, yes, I did,
and I said I heard that you heard enough. She
(37:57):
heard nothing from you until the union read. I'll read
exactly what I wrote her, and then I won't read
exactly what she told me back, because that's just I
don't want that. Yeah, I need the date on this though,
is it so, Aaron? What Ashley saying is that she's
in an understanding this happened after the reunion show, so
(38:20):
that it didn't happen after okay. So but you didn't
talk to her for okay, you didn't talk to her
from there was there was no like we we had
left um and I didn't talk. I didn't. I wasn't
hoping to rekindle. Uh. So I didn't talk to her
until reunion, and then at reunion we were fine. Um.
(38:41):
Like the whole thing is I reached out to her
um because I wanted to I at first. So at
first what I was told was when this rumor got released,
the first thing that producers do is like they kind
of reach out, and so they reached out essentially, and
they told me she didn't care about it, So I didn't.
I didn't really care. But they did reach out after
(39:03):
the reunion, so it was kind of too late for everything, right,
I mean, I would I honestly wish this came out
before the reunion, like to certain degrees, so I could
like I have addressed it and not have have gone
through this whole process. Like the thing that like the
truth will set you free, right and and like, at
the end of the day, it's completely d s and
so I'm more than happy talking about at length with
(39:24):
anyone that wants to. Um, I do want to move
on with my life to a large extent, so I
don't want to necessarily dwell on this. I don't want
to shoot shots at anyone. Um. I get hurt people,
hurt people. So I get a lot of what like
is coming from from her targeted at me could be
just because she's upset with me, because she believes it, right,
(39:44):
I get that, And like I did want to give
her a call and talk about it one on one
versus social media or a podcast, right when she she
told me at the end of that text that she
doesn't want to listen to me on a call and
she doesn't want to talk to me. Right, unfortunate. I
did what I could. Um But so that's why I'm
(40:04):
going on this podcast to kind of set the record straight.
But um but I did one reach out to her.
But the angle but okay, but the angle there was,
you know, your upset with Genevieve for bad mouth in you.
That's fair. Like, I don't like that. I don't want
anybody bad mouthing me. Actually knows how upset I get
when people say bad things. Yeah, I get, I get distraught,
(40:24):
I lose myself. Um, But the tone of even your
message to her, I would say, if we were buddies
and we were sitting in the same room and you're like, hey,
I need a text, gene Vive, I need to explain
this to her, And I'm gonna say, Okay, what do
you want to tell her? And you're like, this is
the text I'm gonna send. I would have said no,
because that's not the purpose. The purpose is that she
(40:45):
believes this story, and so of course she's gonna be her.
Of course she's going to be upset. It's it's it's
if you want to really reach out to her. It's Genevieve,
I care about you. We broke up on a beach, um,
but I know this is real to you. I know
you leave this story. How can I like, how can
I help make sense of this for you? And not, Hey,
(41:05):
stop badmouthing me. Yeah, I mean you're super right. Like
at the end of the day, Like, I guess that
text was um A bit charged up because the reason
I like, I was just I felt a little bit
blindsided by like some tweets she sent out um and
and uh, and I got upset. I got hurt by that,
(41:27):
and because it was like I was told she didn't
necessarily care about it. To me, it was hard for
me to believe anyone actually believed it UM, because like
everyone is so into soft or hard launching relationships social media,
Like I had never had a relationship, and so I
and I thought everyone would. It was just like stupid.
(41:47):
I just thought. I was like, this is like, no,
there's no white people believe this. UM. But then when
she did that, I reached out because I was also
kind of upset because she didn't even um like like
like she knew me very well, like I'm not that guy.
So it's like it was hard for me to believe
that she wouldn't um like even even give me the
benefit of the doubt a little bit. I don't know,
(42:08):
I just got upset. Yeah, so you're upset that she
was tweeting things, and you're like, you know me, why
do you, like, why are you out here to make
this harder on me? And you de text out of
reaction and not necessarily out of like a place of
understanding the holistic side of the story. Yeah, especially because
I get kind of like a little bit weird about
(42:30):
contestants bash and contestants online because she was getting quite
a bit of hate at the beginning, and so and
I've gotten hate, and so I like, we're very familiar
with how bad that feels. So I was very like,
why would you consciously send hate towards someone knowing how
bad it feels, especially because I mean, if I deserved it,
(42:53):
like that would be one thing, it would be much
easier for me to try to like put my head down.
But like, realistically, after everything that has been and said
to me and what what has been deemed as true
by people online, I don't deserve it, and that's not true, right,
So it just pissed me off. Do you think that
maybe she was like harboring feelings of annoyance towards you
(43:14):
for a while because of the way that you broke
up with her? Was just like so like one side
of the abrupt Yeah, I think so. I mean, like
I had heard, I didn't watch the podcast uh with
her with you guys, because it's kind of difficult for
me to watch these things, uh emotionally Uh. But essentially
(43:36):
I heard that she regrets not leaving the second time,
and it was confusing for me because like, if that's
the case, if she wanted to break up with me
that day, um, like why did she Why did she
care that we were finally on the same page on
breakup day? Right? UM? I guess it was unless unless
(43:59):
her mindset completely shifted in those three days after its
versus pain um or or she wanted to do it
kind of more on her terms. I don't know why
she was so upset by it, because she she told
she told everyone she wanted to break up with me earlier. Um,
So realistically, I mean, if I was to go back,
I would I would, let you know, let her leave
(44:21):
on or let her break up with me, like I
don't know, like that the result then result was the same.
I don't understand why she was so annoyed with me
unless she wanted to do it and not me, or
she viewed it as that I was trying to kind
of list out what I had issues with in like
a in like a way that wasn't attacking, so that
(44:43):
we can create like an open dialogue, have that conversation,
leave on good terms. Um. I was I was not
trying to attack. Um, And and I know it came
off that way or the way they edited too, is
like she she didn't say anything at all, which is
she definitely said things. She said that she'd didn't say
anything on our product. Now, trust me, she definitely did.
That's not that's literally not how it went like. But regardless, um,
(45:07):
the end results Like at the end of the day,
I thought we were on the same page, and according
to the podcast she's been giving, we were. So I
don't understand really, So when you when you just when
you went down to the beach knowing a breakup was happening, Um,
did you have any idea? I mean, and and we
(45:28):
just have to take Genevieve's word for what she's telling
us and telling others and so in her mind, like
she was potentially getting engaged to you, like this was
a real thing to her. Did you have any idea
that that's how she was feeling? No? Literally none, I mean,
like a couple of days earlier, she wanted to leave,
Like I like, looking back, Um, if if I was
(45:53):
if I proposed were like, should she have said yes
if she felt like that a couple of days earlier,
like no, probably not. I was you know, I don't
want to get engaged and break up and be another
bachelor statistic, you know, Um so I I I don't know.
I just thought of the most plausible scenario that would
(46:14):
work out for us, and and like realistic, I mean, like,
obviously it would be nice to stay with her, like, um,
it would be nice if everything fixed after Paradise. I
just didn't think that would happen, and so I wanted to,
um voice my honest opinion to her. Essentially, we'll stop
grilling you soon, but I do have one more question
(46:34):
on my side. So I just want you to picture yourself.
You're Genevieve, you got broken up with in Paradise, and
then you see and you were with this person for
the majority of Paradise. You're sticking it out through a
lot of fights, but the the last day, the decision
making day, basically you are dumped. And then you see
(46:57):
months later, these exchange between two girls who basically it
looks like we're still involved with you, or at least
one was still involved with you when you went to Paradise.
So don't you think that that, like, how would you
respond to that? I mean do you Yeah, just like
what what would your actions have been? Yeah, Like it's
(47:24):
it's something that I should have empathized with more. I
can't lie. Um, like when you listed out like that,
or if if you don't even meet thinking about it
like that. Uh, it feels like if that's true, it's humiliating.
You know, it feels like it's uh, um, you know
you wasted a lot of time. Uh, you know, things
(47:47):
that are the opposite of what anyone wants to feel. Right,
You're basically like lied to the entire post. That's what
it feels like. Yeah, like it was all fake. It
was all for show, like legit a show. Yeah, and
realistically like I'm not that good of an actor. Um,
or I wouldn't have gotten fights so often. But UM,
(48:07):
like I get I can get where she's coming from completely. Um.
I just I you know, it's like it goes down to, um,
we we both kind of have this issue where we
can be a little bit reactionary. Um. And you know
I'm gonna own that first and foremost for myself and
and at the reunion, you know, when we did talk
and we did kind of um show each other in
(48:29):
that mutual respect that was she apologized for as well. Um,
so at the end of the day, this is exactly
what that is. And I wish that I guess I
wasn't so reactionary when I sent that text, you know. Um, uh,
you know, thanks for for listening that out Ben as well.
But um but uh, but like I wish she wasn't
(48:52):
so reactionary just believing it right away as well. So
because we I'm so confident, like if we were oh
been to having that conversation, this would never have been
a thing. Yeah. Well, Aaron, I know this isn't easy.
I know this isn't fun. I can imagine the last
(49:14):
few weeks or however long this has been going on. Um,
it's been exhausting. And uh, you know, like you said,
I mean, I think it's a fair wish everybody can
now move on with their lives. Um, move forward with
your life. Is there anything else that you'd want to
tell our listeners that we didn't ask, that we didn't
(49:36):
touch on, um, that you'd want them to hear and
for others to hear. Um. You know, obviously this is
going to be spread out. People will hear this, they'll
see headlines of it. Um. What would you like people
to know, um, moving forward for you, I guess, uh,
A big thing, I know, I don't, I don't know.
(49:58):
It's it's kind of hard to put in the word.
But a big thing is you know, you look at
my activity via social media, like I never tried to
spread hate or attack right anyone ever, just not something idea,
whether it's Twitter. Twitter's an evil place, you know, so
denly not Twitter or anything right, It's it's I do
want to focus on bringing positive kind of energy. And
(50:18):
I know, um it's hard sometimes, but like when when
these when these rumors or or whatever are released, um,
like they are a lot of times just rumors or
you know, there might be some truth to them. But
the things that I've have people have been said, that
have said to me, um, like the last few weeks,
(50:42):
you know. And and this even for Genevieve, is she
listening like like you know, you really don't want like
that's to be said to anyone, right And and you
know whether she's you know, someone's mad at similar or not.
Like the like sending like hate these social media or
or or or texting someone or demning someone these these
(51:05):
crazy things like has has a huge effect on someone's
mental well being and at the end of the day,
like she's a good person. Of confident that I am
as well. I'm confident that as well the things I
have done. Um, I am confident that I was a
good man before Paradise, after Paradise. When I was on Paradise, Uh,
there was miscommunications a lot of times, but I'm not
(51:27):
like this, this horrible villain, right, And it's just disturbing
when I see people, um like, not even just myself, Like,
just spread this crazy hatred um towards contestants because they
are real people, you know, and at the end of
the day and you never really know what's happening. So
just um yeah, just spread positivity. And if you don't
(51:49):
have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Right,
how would you feel if we invited Genevieve on this
podcast to talk to you m a zoom, I mean
like like I'll be yeah, I'll be down. I mean
I would rather do it in private, obviously. Um, I
definitely don't want to get yelled at on on camera.
(52:11):
You know it before you know, I know, I can
see the smiles, like you know, I'm just thinking about Paradise.
I just think about all the paradise scenes in my
yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, No, I mean like I want to.
I mean I'm super open having a conversation. I want to.
I like to deal with things in private. You know.
I'm definitely not someone that's doing everything in the forefront
(52:34):
of of of you know, the public eye, and and
posting on social media every two seconds about what I'm
doing in my life. So more private person as weird
as it is going on this show, but um, yeah,
I mean for sure, although I would rather I talk
in private and then this and then we can move
on with our lives. You know. That's that's that's that's fine.
(52:56):
Well hopefully you can feel that way after this podcast.
But I'm just you know, playing, just haven't asked some
fun with the questions. It's funny because when this was happening,
this is really my first kind of the most hate
I've felt from from the fan base. And apparently I
gave a lot of girls uh or women PTSD about
their past relationships in those arguments, So a lot of
(53:20):
projecting like run from Aaron, He's belongs in jail whatever,
um which is which is? You know, apparently they know
me completely as a human being. But uh, but I
was asking advice from other contestants, et cetera. That I've
been through. There's not not you know, no one knowing crazy.
But they were all just like, don't say anything at all.
Just like everyone almost unanimously was like, don't say anything.
(53:42):
But it got to the point where I was like, dude,
I feel like I have to say something, like like
getting repeatedly kind of bashed on social media, um by
something that's not factual, and people like might as well
take it as factual? Is is uh something it's really
hard to like, look at stomach. Yeah, both piece of
advice or good advice. You don't say anything. It always
(54:03):
sits there. You're always known for it. Now, the thing
that the benefit of that is you can just like
kind of walk off into you know, the silence and
be forgotten. And but when somebody hears your name, they're like, yeah,
Aaron's associated with this saying something. Um, You're not as
capable of walking off into the silence. But at least
now there is that, um, that team of people who
(54:26):
will be like I heard this podcast and this is
what he was saying happened, and now it's nuanced and
it's complex and I don't know maybe what to believe,
or maybe they know what to believe and they're confident
in it. Both sides work. UM, but we're glad you
came on. So thank you for coming on, Aaron, Thank you,
UM for sharing your side of this story. Um, thanks
(54:48):
for playing along again. I know it's not always fun.
I know it's not easy, and uh, I know it
would feel a lot easier just to not say anything,
but sometimes we don't have that option. And Aaron, next time,
you're always invited here and we'd love to play some
fun games with you. It's a little rapid fire something
like this, because I bet you it will never be
(55:08):
this serious again. I know I was gonna say Benna,
we haven't met in person, but Ashley, when I met her,
she was like a light on the beach. You're the sweetest.
That's what I say before every episode I introduced actually,
and I say my amazing, beautiful co host Ashley because
she's always like, oh my gosh, Ben with the compliments.
But I tell people on this podcast all the time,
(55:30):
I was like on TV, I kept saying, like this guy,
he just loves fighting, like he's like I'm being angry,
I'm angry, and then I'm like, but in person, he's
so fun to get along with and joke with, and
you got a great sense of humor. Yeah, that was
one of my favorite things you said, was like, how
I surprised you at my actual personality versus what was portrayed,
(55:52):
because yeah, I mean, I keep you not like, I'm
just like a goofy guy almost all the time. So
it's it's not always the easiest with pople think I'm
like raging, like the hulky you know. But well he
seemed to more hokey when you're on Katie season and
you've softened up through time. But I was always yeah,
you're right, but it wasn't up. They just showed more.
(56:12):
So yeah, I got it. I got it. All right. Well,
this is our sign off. I've been Ashley, I've been
been I've been Aaron. There we go Bye. Followed the
Benn and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on iHeart Radio
or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.