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January 21, 2025 37 mins

It's been nearly 20 years since Lorenzo Borghese was "The Bachelor" and all this time later, it's still really hard to find a trace of his reality TV days. He spills what his fiancé can't stand about him, when his wedding will be and why his underwear was a part of his proposal!

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is that Ben and Nashley I Almost Famous Podcast
Bachelor Countdown.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hey guys, welcome to the Almost Famous podcast. Today we
are continuing our series leading up to Grand Season in
which we are interviewing a ton of former bachelors. This
is episode two with the Prince Lorenzo Burghesy. Welcome to
the show.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Thank you, Happy New Year, and thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Thank you. Okay, so Lorenzo, please tell us all how
your prince and like you come across to me very American.
I look at your Instagram, You're very entrenched in American culture.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, are you an American citizen and are you still
a prince?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Yeah? Well, I'm an American and Italian citizen. I was
born in Italy most United States when I was five,
so I am pretty much an American now because I'm
fifty two, so I've been here for forty seven years.
The prince title came back in the well. It started

(01:06):
in the sixteen hundreds. My relative was Camillo Borghesi. It
was Pope Paul the fifth. He was Pope from sixteen
oh five to sixteen twenty one, and back in the
sixteen hundreds, the pope was like a king he had
his own army. At that time, my family controlled about
let's say, a third of the land of Italy. And

(01:30):
because he had power, he also had the power to
bestow titles on different family members and heads of the family,
and my side of the family received five different titles,
everything from duke to prince. So it's trickled down from
generation to generation. I've said this and means absolutely nothing
regarding power. It's just sort of like the Colosseum is

(01:53):
there to you know, you go to the Coloseum in
Rome and there's history there, and it's just states that
I'm part of a family that helped to, you know,
build Italy and create Rome.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Without those that know Italian history, the obviously that your
family's name does carry so much influence and historical significance.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
Do you have an issue with the Medicis.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
I haven't met him. The only issue I have was
with one of my great uncles who was playing cards
and how to Medici castle and lost in a card games.
That's the only story I have my father. I go
back with my family occasionally into Rome and he gives

(02:41):
me a little history and I learned a little bit
more and more, and we were in Tuscany one day
and driving around and he stops and he showed me
this castle and he said, yeah, that used to be
it was his uncle's castle and he was and he said,
I used to go there and we lost it in
a card game.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
So no, wait for real, that's that was so good,
my gosh. Okay, So if you're a prince, you come
from this very well known Italian family, why did your
family come to America when you're five?

Speaker 3 (03:11):
I asked my father the same question because every time
I go to Rome, I mean, I love Italy and
Rome's my favorite international city. And when my father was
growing up, he tells me a story. How you know,
he grew up during World War two when he was
a little kid, and he said, at that time he
didn't realize anything about our background. But the family was

(03:33):
taken to Florence and he stayed in He and his
brother stayed in the penthouse in one of the five
star hotels in Florence while the war was going on.
So he said to him, you know, everything was great
because they played soccer with the soldiers up on the
penthouse there and he had a great time. And then
they started bombing Lawrence and taking out the bridges and

(03:56):
they would drop flyers telling everybody to get out of Florence.
And then he moved to another hotel, which was I
think a one star hotel and into the basement. And
at that point he realized that war wasn't so great.
And when the war ended, a lot of our property

(04:17):
had been damaged, a lot of the family property had
been damaged, and my grandfather at the time realized that
he had to.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
Go to work.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
That everything, as you know from the sixteen hundreds on
with the family accumulated, was ending quickly. And for example,
nineteen oh one, the Roman government took over the gallery
of the Villa Borghese, which is Gallery of Borghese now
and all the property. And the way they did that
actually was nineteen oh two, was that they nationalized it.

(04:47):
And they were able to nationalize it by taxing the
family an amount that we couldn't pay, so we had
to hand it over to the Roman municipality. So it
started in the early nineteen hundreds. But after the war
we lost a lot of property and my grandfather realized
he had to go to work. And what he did

(05:08):
before this, which is what my father told me, it
tells me is that he was a hunter and what
they would do is go hunting almost every other day.

Speaker 4 (05:16):
And the hobby.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
What's that like a hobby?

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeah, well, but that's what they did, go horseback riding
and hunting for pheasants, and it was a big thing.
It's like, you know men that play golf now and
they talk about their golf game. This is what my
grandfather grew up doing and that's all he knew. And
then when everything was essentially taken away after the war,
he's like, I need to go to work, and he
became head of Ford Motor Cars then. And then my

(05:45):
grandmother also realized that maybe it's a good thing that
she goes to work, and she had the idea of
creating lipsticks that match your wardrobe. At the time, I
think there were only three lipstick colors and she's like,
you know what, I would like different lipstick shades to
match everything. I'm worrying. So she met with Charles Revson,
who was the head of Revlan at the time, and

(06:08):
they decided to create a cosmetic line called Princess Marchella Borghese,
which she launched, and in order to do so, she
had to get permission from the pope at the time
in order to start a business, and it was really
frowned upon from what my father tells me from other
members of the family, because it was the first time
that Borgheses actually had to go to work. When my

(06:30):
father was twenty one, his first job was working for
his mother. He was working at Princess Marchella Borghese Cosmetics.
He got married shortly after that to my mother. He
met her at a wedding in Florence and they spoke.
They had maybe three sentences in three months they were married.
So now he had a family. My mom was living
in the United States. She moved to Rome with him,

(06:53):
and he realized that if he kept working with my grandmother,
his mother at the time, that he was sort of stuck.
He was, you know, the son of the founder and
he didn't want that. And at that time, believe it
or not, it was difficult as Borgesy to get a job. Okay,
you just and I don't understand the real background why,

(07:15):
but he said, listen, you know, you just can't go
into a company and ask for a job. There was
it was sort of frowned upon. So he knew that
there was another thing. At times at the time, didn't
really work very hard, and he knew that he wanted
to bring us up with a good work ethic, and
he realized that it wasn't going to happen in Italy
and to get away from Italy, and at that time

(07:37):
we decided to move the family to Paris and we
lived there for two years. And he said, you know,
the real place to live is the United States, because
that's the real place of opportunity and it sort of
leaves the family history behind and we can start from scratch.
So my father really moved us here with nothing. I mean,
he didn't have a job. He did have he did

(08:00):
go to Oxford for his underground and then he went
to UPenn for grad school. So obviously he was fluent
in English and had an American education, least in business school.
And he just my father's an incredible work ethic. And
he also doesn't like to talk about the past very often.
And I don't know why either. It's just he just

(08:21):
grew up in a different time than I did. But
I learned more and more about our history every time
I talked to him, and every time we go to
Italy together. But it's you know, some people love to
talk about everything, and he doesn't. He's more passionate about
having a family that has you know, that's that understands

(08:42):
what it is to be a family. Priority is his family, work, ethic,
and friends. And he realized that wasn't gonna happen in Italy.
And that's sort of a short story of why we
moved here.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
It's so interesting to me picking up on some of
that stuff you said, you're your grandfather realized he had
to go back to work, so he took over Ford
Motor Company. What a wild decision to go back to
work and say, hey, you know what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna take over one of the largest automobile manufacturers
in the country or in the world.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
And it was our first job. Yeah, it was. It
wasn't them. And then my grandparents and I don't know
the whole story either, but they I think got exhausted
being in Rome, and my grandma would tell me, you know,
every night they had to go out, they had to entertain.
It was really tiring, and so they decided to leave

(09:36):
and they moved to Switzerland and they ever since I
was a kid, I visit them in Switzerland, not Italy.
I would go with them in the Summertimes Italy, but
they live primarily in Switzerland and they just said they
just wanted to get away from Italy.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Well, not to make a massive turn here, but your
background now leads me to this question. You have the
prince title, as you mentioned, based on your family history.
But I'm assuming, and tell me if I'm wrong. But
I'm assuming now in your work and in your personal life,
you don't interest in You don't introduce yourself as Prince Lorenzo.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
I don't I feel you know. I I think if
you do, you're doing it for the wrong reasons, right, sure,
and it's not really genuine. But I also have to
look back. You know, there's there's blessings to it too,
because I know there's no way that I would have

(10:40):
gotten chosen for the Bachelor if I didn't have the history.
And one of the first things they asked me when
they interviewed me is like, why why don't we know
anything about you? Do you have any head shots? Et cetera.
I was like, head shots, I'm not a model. Like,
if you guys looking for a model, I'm not your guy.
I'm just a regular guy living in New York City.
That happened to have an interesting background. And when I

(11:02):
met with them, I remember, you know, we looked at
it at a map of Rome and obviously Billi Borgiaes
is a huge part of it. It's like Central Park
of Rome, and they started looking at the history and
that's when it really became exciting for them. So, you know,
I used it in that sense because I knew that
they wanted to do it, and I figure, obviously not

(11:24):
a lot of people have the background, and if I
can get an edge, and you know, because life is
very hard, I will take it. But I don't like
to do it when I'm around, you know, friends and
just meeting people, because it's just I don't feel it's
necessary and I think it's a sign of weakness when
you have to introduce yourself that way.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
But it's an incredible like you said, it's an incredible
history and it's an incredible gift, and it is a
title that is true to you. I'm wondering, though, is
there any I mean resentment on your end that the
show did use it, because now when people you know
that are fans of the show here your name, they
immediately associate it with Prince. Are you is that something

(12:06):
that you're proud of or are you kind of like
I wish that wasn't the case because I'd prefer not
to have people know me in that way.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
You know, I'm realistic about it. And again, if it
wasn't for the title and the and the family history,
I wouldn't have been picked for the show, especially because
of the family history. And you know, I'm not upset
that they did it. I think they had to do it,
and I think it's it helps ratings. I think that
if it was just Lorenzo Borghese hanging out in New

(12:36):
York City as a bachelor, I don't think the ratings
would have been, you know, up there as they were.
I understand it's a business and they use the show
as a business, and I said, you know what, why
don't I use this as a business too, And as
I said, you know, if I can, I will use
it when I think it's necessary, when there's there's an
opportunity that I don't think I can get without it.

(12:58):
That's a gift that was given to me just because
of my family history. But as a person, I don't
use it and I'm not upset when they When they
do use it because I realize it's opened a lot
of doors for me, Like you know, I have an
animal charity and I was able to start it and
really grow it because of the of the Bachelor, and
the Bachelor's opened a lot of doors for me. And again,

(13:21):
I won't have opened up those doors for me if
there wasn't that family history.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Were the casting producers on the hunt for a prince
because this was back in the day where the bachelor
wasn't necessarily from the previous season, but often just a
very wealthy uh you know, I don't know how to
else describe it, like desirable desire, like yeah, Desira, there

(13:58):
you go, Yeah, thank you man.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
So this was two thousand and six, and I think
a couple of years before they almost canceled it. The
ratings had dropped and then they picked up again. And
I believe the season before mine was in Paris, and
I think it was the first and I could be wrong,
but I think it was the first time they filmed abroad,
like a season outside of the US, and I believe
the ratings were pretty good for that season, and so

(14:23):
they were trying to, I think, look for something different,
and they were trying to find an angle, and I'm
sure they had a lot of people that they were
looking at too that had a different sort of story
to tell. And I think that they love the fact that, hey,
maybe we can get you know, like this fairy tale
prince princess wedding at the end, and you know, if

(14:46):
I had been from a different country, that wasn't as
pretty to film as you know, and like being in
Rome is a beautiful place to film, and it's obviously
very scenic, but also extremely expensive. And I think that
they told me they would never film in Italy again
because it was so expensive and every time you turn
on a light switch there you need ten ten crew
members from Italy to do it, like basically, like it

(15:10):
was like unionized everywhere. I believe they really ripped off
ABC and Warner Brothers because they knew it was it
was a TV show, but it was extremely expensive, and
you know, I don't really know what they were looking for,
but I think they were looking for something different and
that whole you know, history of the family and being

(15:32):
able to film at Villa Borgaze and being able to
film all over the Borghesy properties in Rome was something
that they were excited about.

Speaker 4 (15:41):
I was excited.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
I'm excited about it just because I love Italy. My
wife is Italian and we just went and I'm like,
this is this has to be one of the coolest
moments for everybody on the crew and cast.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
Did you go to Rome or where'd you go?

Speaker 4 (15:54):
We went to Rome and we went to Florence.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
That's why when we were prepping for this, I was
very familiar with the brig acy name and the influence,
and it was very exciting for me now to speak
with you because I think this is such an iconic
season of The Bachelor, and we've talked so much now
about your family history that I think so many people

(16:18):
are going to be intrigued by because I think, yes,
you had the prince title, but I think people have
forgotten exactly how.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
What that means to you and what that means.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
To your family, and that you're still here in the
United States and that you don't live in a castle
in Rome. I think this is going to be really helpful,
But I want to transition because you have a huge
thing happening in your life. You just got engaged, and
this engagement is something that we want to celebrate because
that's why The Bachelor exists is to help people find love.
You're fifty two years old, though, and so my question

(16:51):
before we transition into the engagement is, with everything that
we've talked about so far, and now that you're fifty
two and you just got engaged, how much of The
Bachelor is still a part of your life? Do people
still bring it up? Does it still help you get
doors open? Is it still something that you talk about,
you know, in once a week, once a day, once
a year. How much of The Bachelor still is a

(17:12):
part of your life experience right now.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
I would say maybe one percent at best. I don't
talk about it. My fiance obviously despised, not obviously, but
despises the fact that I was on the show. You know,
it was very hard for her to tell her parents
that she was, first of all, dating an older guy
and secondly that he was on the Bachelor. And I

(17:38):
can understand, you know, one day I'll be a father,
and I think I'd be pretty upsetset about it too
in a way. It but you know, for I can
always defend myself and saying, hey, listen, you know, people
don't get these opportunities often, and if you get an opportunity,
I never want to be the person that thinks of
what if, you know, I like to if I gets

(18:00):
something unique, I like to try, and if it didn't
work out, it didn't work out. But I was I
was given an opportunity that most people, the ninety nine
point nine nine percent of the population, will never get,
and so I don't regret doing it. But as part
of my life now it's it's really non existing. People

(18:20):
don't recognize me anymore. I remember it lasted for about
five years and then it started slowing down. And now
with you know, with how media has changed too. You know,
everyone's preoccupied with with their social media there through the TikTok, Netflix,
everything else is going on, and so you know, talking
about a show those in two thousand and six, you know,

(18:42):
it makes me sound ancient almost at this time. So
it's not really brought up. If I'm doing I do
a lot of charity work, and when I'm introduced, they
will they will get my history, like and they'll say
that I was the Bacheter and things like that. But
day to day it's it's not brought up. And I know,
you know, I work with a lot of people that
all of a sudden I'm known for ten years and
they'll call me like, wait a second, I know you

(19:04):
were the Bachelor. That's like, yeah, Like why don't you
tell me? I was like, why would I bring that up?
You know, it's just nothing that I would just.

Speaker 4 (19:12):
Have Prince Lorenzo former Bachelor's.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
It just doesn't come up. But what's interesting though, sort
of going back to the Bachelor and to realize that
it did have an influence on me, is that we
filmed the show primarily in a town called for Scotty
and I and you probably didn't get to see it
from you probab didn't go there from Rome, but it's
about an hour outside of Rome's. It's up on the

(19:38):
hilltop and it overlooks the city. On a bright beautiful day,
you could actually see you could see Rome in the distance.
In for Scotti, they found a billity that used to
be owned by buy my relatives, And I wrote a
book on one relative that actually lost her son there,
and that was Paulinea Bonaparte Borghese, who was Napoleon's sibling.

(20:02):
It was his sister and she was only sibling that
went to Elbow with him when he was exiled. She
married at Borghese. She married Camillo Borghese, and it wasn't
a marriage out of love, but it was a forced marriage,
an alliance with the Vatican and in Italy. And one
of the reasons why there's a Borghese area in the
Louver Museum is because Napoleon forced Camillo to ship paintings

(20:27):
from Rome to Paris. Okay, so there's he gave. He
gave Napoleon a lot of paintings. But going back from Frascatti,
it used to be called Villa Borghese, there where Paulina
Bonaparte Borghese lived for a while and her son died
there and that's where The Bachelor was filmed in this
in this villa, and there are frescoes of my family

(20:50):
painted on the wall. And I didn't even know this
villa existed until I was on The Bachelor, and it's
my whole family history is right there. And in the
same town it was ann or miss villa called Villa
Aldo Aldo Brondini. My tie is terrible, but the Aldo
Brondini family was another huge family in Italy. The pope

(21:11):
prior to Camillo Borghese was an Aldo Brundini. He is
buried in the Borghese crypt in Rome, and he's related
to us because the family had no more males left.
So another Camillo Borghese married Olympia Aldro Bondini and changed
his name to Aldre Bondini, so that family is related

(21:34):
to the Borgheses now. And I said, the pope is
there's we have two popes in our crypt ones are
borghesian Ones and alder Berndini, but they're both affiliated with
the family. And that gigantic villa is where my fiancee,
Dosh and I are getting married in June, so in
the same town that The Bachelor was filmed in and

(21:56):
in that and I used to see that villa every
day and it was enormous and it was my favor
one there besides the Borghese one. And I didn't know
the history of it until I started doing the research
for this wedding. And they don't allow a lot of
weddings there, but they do it if by, you know,
if the family says okay, and they said okay, that's well. Fortunately.

(22:17):
But it all sort of ties back to, you know,
being in FRESCOTTI doing the show, because I would have
never even known that either of these places existed.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
That's cool, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Well, I mean it's it's amazing, and I do I
want to lean into then, this beautiful love story that
is happening right now.

Speaker 4 (22:35):
You're gonna get married soon. Do you have a date
or are you sharing the date?

Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah? No, it's June fourteenth.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
June fourteenth of this year coming up. It's an exciting time.
You did get engaged in Bora, Bora. There's a ton
of fun stories to this. I want to start with
the question that seems to be out there. I don't
know where our investigative team found it, but you hit
the ring in your underwear.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Right, very princely?

Speaker 3 (23:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (23:01):
What?

Speaker 4 (23:02):
Why? And how? And did she? Did she know this
after saying yes? Or before?

Speaker 3 (23:09):
Oh? After like a couple of days after I okay,
the reason being you know you're you're married, right?

Speaker 4 (23:16):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (23:16):
Okay? So first of all, you're pretty nervous doing.

Speaker 4 (23:21):
This, right goodness gracious?

Speaker 3 (23:23):
And I had my mom bring over the ring because
I didn't want it. You know, obviously you don't want
to put it in your bag, so so you want
on your carry on. But if they go through your
carry on in front of your your future fiance, hopefully
your future fiance. You don't want them point out the ring.
So I had my mom take the ring for me.
We were celebrating her eightieth birthday. There were twenty eight

(23:45):
of us on this trip, and I'm like, including my
fiance's parents and her sister. So I was like, what
a perfect time to do it. And if I don't
do it, you'll probably break up with me as soon
as we get back, all right, it's been over two
years since I was dating her. So I have this
sunset cruise planned and I put on my jeans and

(24:06):
they're pretty tight, because I don't like to wear like
really baggy clothes unless you know, I'm in my I'm
in my place, just hanging out on the weekend. But
if I'm going to propose, I want something that looks
sort of decent on me. So I've got these tight jeans,
tight pants, and a shirt and the ring is in
a pretty big box. So I put it in my

(24:27):
pants pocket and it's bulging out, and I already thought
that she was. She suspected somebody was going on because
it's just two of us going on the sunset cruise
and Bora Bora. So I was like, you know, if
she sees a big bulge in my pocket, She's gonna
know what's happening.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
She's going to know what's a ring?

Speaker 3 (24:42):
It has to be a ring, its because I don't
know what else would look like a square in my
pocket with a big bulge like that. All right, So
and I'm like running out of the room. I'm like,
all right, where I put this? The only place I
could put it that had a little room was in
the front of my pants. And then I thought, then
her line on the boat, and I thought she was
gonna sort of she was holding my hand and like

(25:03):
her hand was on my leg. I was worried that
her hand would like sort of reach over by oxid
and feel this.

Speaker 4 (25:09):
Maybe you happy to see me? Or is that a
ring in your pocket?

Speaker 3 (25:12):
This is going to be this is going to be
a problem. So that's when I got up and I
went to the the It wasn't a very big boat,
but it had it had a downstairs area, and I
went downstairs, pulled the ring out and put it under
a pillow. And then I went back down there when
the time was right and proposed. But yeah, that's why,
that's why I had to put it in my pants.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
So you didn't propose on your season of The Bachelor.
How much flack for that did you get from producers
in the network, especially probably since they were trying to
go with their fairy tale happily ever after.

Speaker 3 (25:54):
Storyline because of NDA's.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Oh come on, they've are expired.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Oh no, no, no, that was me. You can't even
find my season? Have you tried looking up my season?

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Are you sure it's not on Apple? Because Apple seems
to have.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
All of them.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
All right, I'm gonna look it up right now as
we speak. You tell that, you tell them as much
as you can.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
I'm just saying they weren't happy.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Okay, all right, so then you don't propose. Have you
ever proposed until this point?

Speaker 3 (26:28):
Yeah? You know what's what was?

Speaker 2 (26:30):
So?

Speaker 3 (26:31):
I was the wrong person for the show for many reasons,
and one that really hit me. And you're you're gonna
think I'm an awful person. But I'll tell you why
I ended up doing this. I was engaged prior to
the show. Okay, I dated the girl was engaged to

(26:52):
for seven years. I got engaged and we went to
Rome to plan the wedding, and I broke off the engagement.
It just things just didn't feel right. And I made
the right decision because she got married shortly after, has kids,
she's happy, and I think it was, you know, it

(27:13):
was better off doing it before things got completely out
of control with the engagement. So when I was on
the show, I knew she and her friends were watching.
I knew we were in a place that we were
supposed to get married, and I knew it was like
very hurtful. And I had this in my head the
whole time, and I'm like, I can't be I can't
do it. I got them like I can't, I can't

(27:36):
go through with this. It's you know, and I'm like,
I don't even really know these girls. I was there
for two months, you know, and I'm not gonna I'm
not sharing any secrets. Everyone knows this. You know, you're
filmed essentially the entire time, so you never really get
to understand what these people are like when they're not

(27:57):
on camera. You don't really You've never fought with these people.
These girls never met my friends. I never saw these
girls with other guys. Like what happens that they have
a couple of cocktails and they're you know, they hit
on every guy at a barrow. I don't know. All
I know is that I'm the center of attention. They're
excited to see me, but I haven't experienced anything real

(28:17):
with them, and I'm about to propose and then also
really hurt the person that I was in love with,
you know, prior to this, and I couldn't do it.
I couldn't do it. And then I had another ex
girlfriend that I dated through high school, throughout my entire
college for nine years, my first like real girlfriend who

(28:39):
I was still talking to, you know, and you know,
I was still like in love with her, and I
know she like loved me, and I was like, I can't,
I can't hurt. I can't do this in front of
in front of them, you know. And I didn't know
that before I left, but you know, probably six weeks
into it, I was really you know, I couldn't sleep.

(29:02):
I just I didn't feel right. And you know, unless
I really was one hundred percent positive that this was
my true love on the show, which is very hard
to do because again, you know, they don't really know me.
They're not with me in my in my everyday work
life in New York City that you know, they've they've

(29:23):
just experienced this vacation for two months where everything's paid
for and there's there's nothing to argue about. So I
didn't think it was worth hurting the people that I
really truly cared for before the show just for a
TV show to propose when I wasn't sure.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
It seems like you never got wrapped up in the
bachelor bubble.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
I I I, you know, I didn't really. I saw
maybe two two shows, not series, but two Batchelor episodes
before saying yes. And you know, I say, everything happens
for a reason. And and it was by coincidence too.
After my breakup of my engagement, I was I always

(30:07):
had a girlfriend, like ever since high school, and I
was all of a sudden, I didn't have a girlfriend.
And I was, you know, working on my own in
New York City. I didn't have an office. I worked
out of my apartment, and I was like, I'm sort
of lonely. And I went out and I was like, oh,
just and I had two tickets. I've told this story before,
but I had two tickets to go see Billy Joel

(30:29):
at Madison Square Garden and they were like third row
center on the floor. I was like, I'm gonna go
to this party that I was invited to and I'll
find a girl on invited to go see Billy Joel.
I go to this party and ask maybe ten girls,
hey what are you doing? Like you know, I'm like,
I'm Lorenz and I to meet you. I've got an
extra going to go see Billy Joe. You want to go?
And I turned down ten times. Nobody would say yes
to me. Then I went to my friend. I'm like, hey,

(30:51):
you want to come see Billy Joel with me? He's
like you me and the piano. Man, No, man, I'm
not going with you. I was like, all right, whatever.
I went by myself and I go to mass Madison
Square Gard who was in the middle of the wintertime.
And I go to my seats and there's two chairs
and they both have these jackets on them from the
people sitting to the side of the chairs. And I've
got two beers in my hand, and the person who's

(31:14):
jackets they were takes both jackets off off the chairs.
I'm like, oh, no, you can. You can keep the
jackets on one chair, Like aren't these both your tickets?
And I said yeah, Like did you come with anybody?
And I said no, and I'm watching Billy Joel. I'm like,
I am such a loser, Like I'm at this concert
by myself, Like, how is this possible.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
I don't know how it's possible that nobody agreed to
you to go to Billy Joel. It wasn't like you
asked to go to like weird thing.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
It was a billion masterve square guard. I know you
don't know me, but come on, you don't have to
talk to me. Just watch a pano Man play, you know.
And I told myself during this concert, if anything comes
my way, I'm taking it. And sure enough, like two
weeks later, I get that call. But I forgot one
of them was important part of the stories. Prior to
that Billy Joel concert, I was dating this girl that

(32:05):
lived in my in my building. But i'd been lowly
before then when my engagement broke up, and then I
started dating this girl and it was like for a month,
and I had tickets to go see the Rolling Stones,
like really good tickets to the Rolling Stones. I go
to her apartment and she's watching The Bachelor. I'm like, oh,
this show is still on and she's like yeah, And

(32:27):
I guess it was a rerun because the show was
at eight, so she must have been she must have
recorded or something, and she goes, it's almost over. Let's
just wait till it's over. I'm like all right, So
that show ends, we go see the Rolling Stones and
she's like blowing me off the entire time, and after
the constut like, what's wrong with you? Like, we just
want to go see the Rolling Stones? You want a

(32:47):
bad mood the whole time. She goes, yeah, you know
what're you're moving? And I was moving that following week
out of the apartment into another one, and she says,
I'm Jewish, you're Catholic. I don't see this going anywhere,
so you know, and now that you're out of the building,
there's no reason to continue. I was like, all right,
you could have told me that before the concert. I

(33:08):
would have maybe brought somebody else that I would have
had fun with. You just broke up with me after
the Rolling Stones. So then I go to the Billy
Joe concert by myself. I get a call two weeks
later to be interviewed for a show that my ex
girlfriend was obsessed with. I'm like, hell, why not, right?
And I never told her that I got picked, and

(33:29):
then she found out and text me said, I just
heard your night. You're the next Bachelor's that truly? I'm like, yeah,
I hope you enjoyed my season.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Yeah, you know you're a better man than me, Lorenzo,
because when people ten women would say no to going
to the Billy Jewel concert with me, that's when I
would start introducing myself as Prince Benjamin Higgins. You should
want to hang out with me because I've got a title, Lorenzo.
As we close up here, though, I do want to

(33:59):
give you a moment to tell all of us why
your now fiance is so perfect for you after two
years of dating. As you said at your mom's eightieth
birthday celebration with twenty plus family members there, you did propose,
she did say, yes, you're getting married in June. Why

(34:22):
was she the right partner for you now for the
rest of your life.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
Well, I'll start by this. I say it's my first marriage,
and I go right to my second. I've learned a
lot in my life. I've been in many different relationships,
and you learned something from each one, and I never
regret anyone I've had a relationship with. I think it
makes you stronger. I think you learn a lot, and
most importantly, you learn what you love and what you

(34:47):
don't love of a person. And when I met Dasha,
you know, I didn't wasn't love at first sight or
anything like that. It was I think she's a very
pretty girl. But when I got to know her is
when it really app And first, first of all, she's
a huge animal lover. I'm a huge animal lover. You know,
the worse off a dog is, the more she wants it.

(35:10):
We have one dog with two legs, there's another one
with one eye and no jaw. We just took another
one in that has been in a crate for an
entire year and just goes around in circles. She's a
she's a huge dog lover and an animal lover, and
she understands me, and you know, we don't. We fight,

(35:35):
but it's it's so seldom and it's not like a
real fight, you know, like you've got those really angry fights,
and I've had a lot of them with my with
my exes where you really don't want to see him again.
Our fights are are pretty stupid and we make up
right away. But she is like the nicest person inside

(35:56):
and out that.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
You can meet That was it you mentioned early your
future kids and that she's younger than you. What's your
timeline for.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
Kids, assuming I can have them?

Speaker 4 (36:11):
Yes, yes, no, my timeline.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
Is probably you know, after get married a year forty three,
fifty four. It's a good time. I still have I
can still throw a baseball and football and run around,
and you know girls play sports too, so I figure
by the time I'm fifty five, I'll have children.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
It's an exciting chapter for you. Lorenzo. Thank you for
giving up the time.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
I know you don't do a lot today when it
comes to the Bachelor world, but we appreciate you coming
on the Almost Famous podcast during our countdown to this
next season interviewing past bachelor's. You are one of the
most recognizable seasons of all time, and we appreciate you
doing this.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
Interview with us.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
Congratulations again on the age. That's an amazing chapter and
we look forward to hopefully you sharing some photos in
June from this incredible villa in Italy where everything comes
full circle.

Speaker 3 (37:11):
Lorenzo, thank you, Thank you both, and I wish you
all of great New Year's and I will definitely be
posting some pictures from the wedding. All you guys can
save cheers.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
Have a great year, Lorenzo, you're correct, by the way,
Apple does not have your season.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
Now, there you go, there you go, right all right by,
all right, see you later.

Speaker 4 (37:33):
Follow the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on
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Hosts And Creators

Ben Higgins

Ben Higgins

Ashley Iaconetti

Ashley Iaconetti

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