Bachelors & Tiaras

Did you catch Ashley on this week’s episode of The Bachelor?? She’s ready to tell ALL about the drama you DIDN’T see that might completely change how you look at one of Matt’s contestants. 

Find out all the juicy behind the scenes gossip from Ashley’s trip inside the Bachelor bubble and hear who Ashley thinks is the frontrunner now that she’s been up close and personal with the girls. 

Plus, we talk to the original Bachelor Princess Erica Rose about her honest thoughts on “Queen” Victoria.

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Benn and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast
with i R Radio. We're back for another week of
the Almost Famous podcast, and yes we're breaking down Matt
James season of The Bachelor, but for one week and
one week only, Matt James shared the screen with her
very own Ashley. I con Eddie and she's here live
to talk about everything behind the scenes. Ashley, what up?

(00:23):
Oh Hey, what's up? Yes? It was an honor. And
now finally I can tell everybody where I actually met Matt,
because you and I have been alluding to talking to
Matt previously and people are like, in the covid age,
how that act? Did you actually meet this guy? Well,
I hosted a date and I have a lot of
things to say about how kind he is and the

(00:44):
connections that I saw forming. But first we want to
tell you a little bit about our live event that's
coming up. It's right around the corner. It's Thursday, February eleven.
It's at five pm Pacific time. We're giving away one
hundred tickets the event for four All our listeners have
to do is go to looped live dot com slash

(01:05):
almost Famous. That is l o o p e D
Live dot com slash almost famous and enter with the
code famous. Now, Ben, isn't that right around the release
of your book? Is around the release of the book,
So we're gonna be talking about the book a lot
and hopefully answering some questions if anybody wants to send
them in the first two hundred that enter the code

(01:25):
famous gets access to the event. It's a meet and
greet package will also be available, which will also include
a copy of my book. This is gonna be really fun.
I hope that we can talk about the book. February
two is the official launch date, so this will just
be a few days after the book launches, and uh,
it's going to be something special. I'm really pumped to
be doing this, Ben, How do you feel about your

(01:48):
book coming out in mere weeks My honest opinion or
my really nice like, no, I want your honest opinion.
Of course, I know that your your pr opinion is
going to be like I'm so excited blah blah blah.
But like I know that it's got to be nerve
racking and that you have expectations for yourself. Yeah, I'm
I'm pretty incredibly anxious, um and like not super looking

(02:09):
forward to it mostly because it is like it's a
it's a personal memoire and it includes a lot of
my friends and a lot of stuff that like I wrote,
wrote about and if if the book doesn't do well,
I I just know myself and I know my ego,
and I feel like I'll take it as a personal
like hit, um more than other stuff. And so like
I'm I'm anxious because this is really this is the

(02:32):
biggest thing I've ever done. I've wrote it, produced it,
marketed it, talked about it, and uh, we're getting close.
So yeah, I'm not like I'm not, I'm not in
great spirits. I'm excited about it. I believe in it.
I'm I'm happy and proud of the book, and I'm
really glad with what came out of it. Um, I'm
just now now is the part where like that part's
done and now it's just the sales, And that part

(02:53):
just gets a little bit intimidating. Is there like a
certain number you're hoping for or are you hoping that
it just kind of strike it's a certain audience. Well,
how are you going to judge success in your own mind? Well,
it's interesting because I was talking to a few friends
of a couple of months ago, and I was telling
them how like anxious I was getting and how nervous
I really am like for this, and they said something

(03:15):
really intriguing to me and said, well, you can be nervous,
but you've got to work on getting your mind right.
I was like, what does that mean. They're like, well,
you wrote this book, it's done, it's out there, um,
and you believe in it, and so you've got to
get to the place where if you believe And this
sounds super corny and like, oh, you know, fluffy, but
it's it's true. I have to get to a place
and I'm starting to where if one person's life is

(03:36):
better or they feel less alone by reading the book,
then it's worth it. Like then I'm happy with it.
So like that's where I'm sitting. I don't have a
number of like like books I want to sell necessarily
as much as like now, it's just like, hey, I'm
happy I did it, and I have to be happy
I did it, and if not, like it's all gonna
be worth it worthless. I think that your criteria for

(03:57):
judging its success is the perfect mental That is the
most important thing that it affects somebody out there. And
just just to reiterate, guys, if you want to be
one of those people talking about Ben's book February looped
live dot com slash almost famous and to the code
almost Famous, And unlike other live podcasts we do, this

(04:20):
one's going to be free. The first one people that
enter that code are going to get access to the event.
So put on your calendars. Well, actually, in addition to this,
uh you know, we will start. We're gonna bring air
Carros on here in just a second. But before we do,
we also have a line at my fan threads dot
com backslash almost famous that people should out and check out.
It's a line of apparel, bags, shirts, hats, etcetera. So

(04:43):
go to my fan threads dot com check that out. Um, yes,
bring your questions to the event. I want to answer this.
I wanted to be a good time for all of
us to talk and chat. Hey, let's take a break here.
When we come back, we're gonna recap this episode of
Matt James season of the Bachelor, and who better to
do it than somebody that was on the show, like
in real person, Ashley I CONNETI will be back with

(05:05):
the almost famous podcasts. Okay, guys, what I've been waiting
for for the past week is to talk about what
you didn't see on my date. Let's start in chronological order,

(05:27):
as we always do. We left off last week with
a rose ceremony. We saw Sarah faint and we all wondered,
of all people to faint during a rose ceremony, why Sarah,
who was one of the three women who had a rose.
Of course, there's rumblings that Sarah's doing it for attention,
that she just wants to have extra time with Matt.

(05:48):
I don't believe that at all, Um, but you know,
the girls had their thoughts. So this rose ceremony, like
in most rose ceremony number two whos we see a
lot of girls whose names we don't really know get eliminated,
But the name that we know that gets eliminated and

(06:09):
that we're all feeling really really bad for is um
is Maryland. Last week we talked so much about Maryland,
and you know, Ben and I were talking about how
based on the you know, the scenes from the next episode,
it looked like Marylyn was gonna get cut, and she did.
But what was weird about this was that they didn't

(06:30):
really focus on her departure once that night was over,
Like we didn't go back to the house and have
this big pow wow, like, holy crap, I can't believe
that Victoria stayed in Maryland left. No, the drama was
no longer about Victoria. It started to become about Sarah.

(06:51):
Uh so some then, didn't you think that was like bizarre? Yeah,
I mean there's so much bizarreness to this episode, right, Um,
but again and and like let's be clear, okay before
we kind of dive too far in, Like you and
I wanted to give Sarah the benefit of the doubt
initially too, We're like, hey, nobody like wants to I mean,

(07:13):
I don't think people want to fake pass out, Like
you stand up there for a long time, then you
get pushed into this in air, Like there is a
lot of nerves, there's a lot of anxieties. But I
think I watched a lot of this episode, um, and
it you know what, maybe this is like maybe this
is going to really show my true colors. It moved
too fast for me at times, like I couldn't keep

(07:33):
up with all the stuff going on, and like how
everybody was feeling about Sarah and who was like breaking
in like it's just too much. Yeah, well now everybody
thinks that Victoria's funny and Sarah is the is the
villain now this episode? Yeah, I sit right because I
think we know as viewers what she's going through with
her dad at home, and we know it wasn't an

(07:56):
easy decision for her to go. And I can't imagine
like how she's feeling every day because as like she
even says, this is so so sad, but like her
dad may not even have months that we're talking about,
like he may have weeks, like he may have days,
and she's here away from him, not being able to
communicate with him, and that's a lot to deal with
already on top of a very emotional experience that is

(08:19):
The Bachelor. But but hold up and like there is
something here and it's it is skipping ahead a bit um,
But there's a comment made and I just want to
get your clarity on this because it would really First off,
I don't love the fact that Sarah's being viewed as
a villain. I think there's a lot going on right
now in her life and I think she's processing it
and trying to keep up with it, and I think, like,

(08:40):
is she processing it well? Is she keeping is she
taking an account everybody's emotions that she do it? No,
but like right now her situation is not like trivial.
It's a big deal that she's there. And so she
makes a comment later on in the episode that her
dad only has maybe a few weeks left. Now did
you catch that? Yeah, So that's what I'm saying. It's

(09:01):
so like if that's the case, like no wonder things
are heated. Like there's no way she can be the villain,
no way people can be angry at her. These girls
have to understand that, like she has something in front
of her that is pressing well, so that that's the
thing she didn't tell the other girls. The only person
she tells in this whole episode is Katie. And because

(09:23):
Katie was the person you know that she interrupted that
she really maybe directly stole time from. And Katie was
I mean, yeah, we are jumping ahead a little bit,
but so sweet and receptive, specifically because you know, Katie's
dad had passed away in two thousand and twelves, so
she's been there, and she said that she wasn't there

(09:44):
when her dad passed away, and that's that's something that
she didn't want Sarah to have to you know, live with,
and she encouraged her to leave, but she just had
like a greater sense of empathy for and I'm just
glad that they had that pow wow. What I was
worried about was that Sarah was going to say, you
know what, I made the decision to leave. I didn't

(10:07):
tell you, but like my dad has a l S
and this is just like not what I need to
be going through right now. I thought she was going
to go back to Matt's place and then come back
again and say, you know what, he convinced me to stay.
And that would have been a really bad look. That
would have been really, really bad. So I'm glad that

(10:28):
didn't happen, even though I felt the narrative leading that way. Yeah,
I'm with you. I'm glad it didn't happen either. Um,
but not because I'm glad to see Sarah go. I
just I mean, this is a big like I think
we should all just take a deep breath and recognize
like how this whole episode plays out and what we
find out in the end, like what we've known the

(10:48):
whole time, right as viewers, is that Sarah has something
going on at home that is is very important and
very serious, and like, yes, there's like moments in this
episode where you're annoyed or you're frustrated to you know,
but let's take a breath and recognize it. Like her
going home takes a lot of courage in itself. Her
being there took a lot of courage in itself. Um

(11:08):
And I hope she goes home, and I hope people
celebrate her for just trying to go on the show
and doing what she did, you know, when she did it. Yeah,
I think the audience is going to have probably had
a much different reaction than the girls in the house
just knowing about her dad and the fact that the
other girls didn't know. Um and I understand why she

(11:29):
would be more insecure and needing more comfort from that,
because if she didn't like know exactly where he stood,
which honestly was pretty obvious. You know, they had a
great date last week. It was maybe a little bit
ridiculous for her to have all these insecurities about their relationship,
like their status, when it's pretty obvious that she is

(11:52):
ahead of the game right now. But that aside, I
understand her needing to know more frequently where they stand,
just because she's like, is this worth it? Is this
with my time? Is this worth me not being with
my dad? So it makes sense to me, It makes sense,
And I don't think that anybody should hold anything again, sir,
like you said, like celebrate both of her decisions. Yeah,

(12:13):
I don't remember. I don't remember in recent history, at
least a storyline like Sarah's on the show. I know
we have really hard storylines like right, but like the
the idea that your family member is at home that
time is running short. Um, Like I I just don't
remember that, and it gets gave me. It gives me, uh,

(12:33):
like a lot of like like I just couldn't be there.
I put myself back in those shoes. And you know,
I went on the show a month after my dad
had a triple bypass and um, actually three weeks after
he had triple bypass. And I remember just the anxiety
that was like looming over me at that time. Completely
different scenario. Right, he was fine, he was healthy. Um,
But like I just I have a lot of a

(12:55):
lot of feels, I think, is what the kids are
saying these days. For Sarah throughout this experience. Absolutely. Okay,
So now that we have fully covered Sarah, let's talk
a little bit about how Victoria just wasn't really villainized
in this episode anymore. She kind of made a transition

(13:18):
into like a Karen like character where the girls were
kind of laughing with her, and they're like kind of
bitching with her too, because they all found somebody else
to get annoyed by, which was Sarah. So they're all like, okay,
like we're bonded together against Sara now instead of bonded
together against Victoria. Then she kind of became the spokesperson

(13:39):
from them for them in ways. I hope this isn't
a theme that continues. I'll say that now. I hope
that this. I just hope that the drama doesn't continue
to be laughed about and accepted. Yeah. Yeah, And I
don't know, like, is Victoria just gonna stay around for laughs? Now?
Are people are gonna think that she's funny? I guess, like, well,
we will only know until next week. But I will

(14:02):
say that the group date that I was on was
really that transition period where people just started kind of
laughing at Victoria, and it's because her erotica story was
the most erotic, the most rated. Access I said, uh,

(14:22):
you guys have no idea what it was about. You
have no idea. The entire thing was bleeped out. And
I don't even think I can discuss it here because
this is kind of a PGPG thirteen program. But let's
just say that she was referring to a fetish that
she has, and I'll let you in on what went
on behind the scenes which you didn't get to see.

(14:44):
So the first person that I sit down with to
kind of like go over, not really coach, but like
listen to their stories, see if we had to make
any tweaks, um, see if they were in line with
something that Matt would be interest. I sit down with
Victoria and immediately I'm like, oh, this this girl is

(15:06):
a little bit of an oddball, you know, but like
I didn't know what I know now of her. I
was like, this interesting outfit. Um, you know, her outfit
kind of like reflected her personality a little bit. And
what was she wearing wearing She basically had her whole
broxpose through like a tight like it was shirt. It

(15:28):
was like a see through transparent shirt. Um. Anyway, um,
so I sit down and she's just telling me all
about this fetish and my little innocent ears as she
actually called me out on were I was taken aback
only because I was like, this girl has known him

(15:48):
for seven days now. It was seven days. And I
know this because I was quarantined starting on their night
one and I shot on night seven, day seven, And
she would going in depth about what she likes to
physically happen to her during sex, and I was just like, Okay,

(16:10):
do you want to tell Matt this right now, like
in front of the audience. Um, do you think that
this is gonna be like something that Matt is going
to be into hearing right now? Because I like got
a kind of a gauge on on Matt when I
got to meet him backstage a little bit, and he
seems so much more innocent and sweet than I imagined.

(16:31):
And you know, I thought he was going to have
like a little bit more like hefty swag if that,
if you know what I mean, But like he actually
has like an air of innocence and he's just it
was so sweet. We we've seen him like have religious
moments and stuff, and I was just like, are you
sure that this is something that you want to do,
like right now, seven days into knowing somebody, um in

(16:52):
front of an audience. And she was like, yeah, okay, cool, alright,
do your thing girl. As I said in the episode,
this is gonna be bold. And then a couple of
minutes later, after I sit down with a couple other
girls and go over their stories, she she goes up
to me and she says, um, can I can I

(17:15):
steal you for a second? And I was like my
heart dropped. I'm like I'm back on the show. Oh
my god, this is scary. What does she have to
talk to me about? And she was like, I think
you're kind of rude and like kind of judging me
for wanting to talk about my fetish. Um. You know,
maybe she didn't say the word fetish, but she's like about,
you know, fill in the blank. And I said and

(17:39):
I was like, no, not at all of that's like
what you're into, Like you should be into it. I
just meant like, are you sure like this is the
right timing for it, and like Matt's going to be
somebody who's interested in hearing it right now. And she
was like, well, I have to figure out whether he's
into it, because if he's not into it, then I
may not want to be with him. And I was like, okay, fair,

(18:00):
and that was the end of our our little pow wow.
I was a little scared and uh. And then when
I sat down to listen to her story with the crowd,
she said, plug your plug your virgin ears Ashley. I
was like, excuse me, I'm married. But that was my

(18:22):
little drama with the drama queen herself Victoria. Now, Ashley,
there's so much breakdown here. First of sorry, that was
like a monologue at your moment, you take it um.
But now, obviously if there's a period of time where
Victoria felt like you were sex shaming her. The part

(18:43):
about this that people listen to the podcast now or
people that know you know because there was no sex
shaming there. In fact, you you probably were like intrigued
and interested and supportive. Yet like this isn't like something
that you like speak of often, and there's no more
like awkward person when it comes to like talking about

(19:03):
intimcy before you're you're married, then you because you get giddy,
you with giggle, like it's just it's like it's not
something that you like love diving into like you're you know,
you're you aren't at awkward, You're already gonna be awkward
at the point. Yeah, you're already going to be awkward.
And so there was no section in there, but like

(19:25):
it is still shocking, like you have to you're you're
you're into it, you're invested, you're listening, and it's shocking
to hear this now. It's so shocking that you called me, I,
you know, you called me afterwards on the phone and
you said, Ben, I just got off the show. I said, Okay,
how did it go? And you said, I don't think
it went well. It's like, what do you mean it

(19:46):
didn't go well? You're hosting the day? How can that
not go well? You said, because I just got like
how okay? So we gotta ask you here knowing that
you weren't sex shaming tow she can do what she
wants to do, knowing that this is going to be
an awkward date no matter what. It's set up to
be awkward and funny? Uh, how did it feel when

(20:11):
you like suddenly found yourself in the midst of the
drama of the show again, Like that has to be
so scary. It was terrifying my heart. I'm telling you,
like dropped and I felt like I was back on
I felt like I was back on the show. I
was like, oh my god, a cast member again. I
did not sign up for this to be a cast member.
I am scared. I don't remember how to deal with drama.

(20:31):
I can't believe I used to at one point be
like okay with this. I used to call people out sometimes,
and now I feel like I'm like totally blank minded
when somebody comes up to me, it wants to have
a you know, have a steal you for a second word. Yeah,
it was. It was awkward, but ello things that were awkward.

(20:53):
I'll tell you. I was reading that passage from Chris
from Chris Harrison's book. I could not believe how many
passages were just straight up erotica in that book. Because
we we went through a few, I had to read
a couple of different ones, and then of course they
selected a few lines to air, which I told my
mom was like, Mom, whatever you do, do not watch

(21:14):
the first like minute of me on screen. Turn it
on mute. Nobody needs to hear this. For all of
you out there listening who have watched the episode. I'm
so sorry you had to listen to me read that stuff.
Great novel by Chris Harrison, but holy, Ashley, like and
Eddie should not be the narrator for it, Isn't it hilarious?
So that that is Chris Harrison's book, Like, I mean

(21:37):
his brain, like when he put this on paper, his
brain was and not a place I've ever known him
like I've never seen I've never known him to be
that Like that's Hey, that's intense, it's intimate. It's lovely, Okay, Ashley,
before we move on to the rest of the episode,
because yes, this part was super fun for me to watch,
and I think fun for many people to watch. Was

(21:59):
there anything going on behind the scenes when it came
to like Matt's connections or how people were interacting with
each other, anything that we didn't show get to see
on the show that we should highlight here on the podcast. Totally.
So you guys know that I've been a fan of
Rachel's from the beginning, and that's because I did have
such a good first impression of her. From that date.

(22:21):
You felt his connection. The way he looked at her
was different than the other girls he was I feel
like touching her more. You even see when they exit
the room that he kind of like has his hand
on her lower back. And he was like, so, who
do you what do you think of the girls? And
I was like, I was like, Rachel is your girl
in the sponge for sure. And you can just kind

(22:41):
of tell that he knew that as well. And what
was so sweet was her erotica or whatever you want
to call it was so narrative. It just felt like
a romance novel. It felt like a Nicholas Sparks book
with like that single sensual scene at the end or
something like that. It wasn't like as explicit as the

(23:03):
other girls. It was a romance novel. But what did
you say she was? What do you say? She was
probably the most um well, okay, I guess when you're
there in person. Was she the one that was kind
of most reserved going into this? Yes? And that's why
I liked her story because it wasn't like she was
doing it for shock value and for laughs. She was

(23:25):
doing like she was being herself in this story. She
was telling a story that she felt it was just
true to her. And that's why she said, like, as
you guys see as you guys like saw she was like, Okay,
I'm getting to it. It's coming now. It's because she
read for a solid three minutes before she got to
like the sex scene of her of her writing. It

(23:48):
was just like more subduedent. I liked it for I
liked it for Matt. There are a couple other notable things.
Katie's was so explicit it that they didn't show any
of it. Like if you notice, if you go back
and watch with Katie's reading, they showed the audience faces

(24:11):
a lot instead of her actually on stage. And that's
because I'm not even joking you. She was like dry
humping Matt on that couchy thing. She was all up
in his grill. It was hilarious to watch, but yeah,
definitely not ABC eight o'clock television programming. And then the

(24:32):
other notable thing is, if you guys remember when Matt's
reading his story, a lot of the girls were like, oh,
and like none of what they aired was really like aweworthy. Well,
he had a great zinger at the end of his story.
The two like the parents like, okay, so him and

(24:54):
whoever his wife is like, have this sexy scene in
the kitchen. But then he was like, and then we
had to like quickly break away from each other as
we heard the pitter patter of like two sets of
feet run down the stairs. So he was alluding to
his future kids. And that's what was so cute, so sweet, unbelievable.

(25:18):
Now it's it's it was. I thought it was a
super fun day to watch. I mean, yes, I think
it was hilarious that they had you host it. And
so that's the final question then before we move on
to the rest of the episode, is why you actually, like,
out of anybody in the Bachelor world, why were you
the one that got the host or whereas asked to
host this day in particular? Well, they want, you know,

(25:41):
as somebody who was so openly a virgin for so
long on the show, I had to come out of
my comfort zone to talk about that stuff. I needed
to be vulnerable and grow in that department, and I
did so on the show, and they thought that it
would be a good parallel for me to have Matt

(26:04):
and his girls open up about that department. There you go,
Well that makes sense now. I watched and I was like,
this is the best thing I've ever seen, Ashley. I
can Eddie up in front of these girls and then
Victoria just goes at her and I was like, I
love ash but I want to see how this one
plays out. All right, hey, Ashley, let's take a break here.
When we come back, we're going to continue with the
rest of the episode. Okay, sounds good. And before we

(26:26):
do that, can I just say that I also felt
like he he did have a pretty solid connection with
Bree and Lauren. Those are the other two. I think
Lauren really stood out to me that day as well. Okay,
now we can take a break, let's do it. Well,

(26:50):
the episode picks back up again and it's Serena's day, Yes,
Serena's day, and they go horse back riding, which I
think is always a special date and good no matter
where you're at in life. You can do that when
you're married, when you're dating, or when you're on a show.
Well here's the part that you always have one or
two or multiple of them. But Serena usually likes to

(27:12):
take saying slow and that becomes very obvious to us.
But the Bachelor doesn't allow for that. And so these
are always the girls that either surprise you because of
how quickly they come out of their shell or they
stay reserved. They ended up going home. This was kind
of my clue to say, I'm excited about how this
date plays out, because is she gonna be able to
pick up the steam and pick up the speed at

(27:33):
which the bachelor needs her to be? Well, she made
quite a point of saying, I'm not falling in love,
but I am falling in like with Matt. And she
probably doesn't even really fall in like very fast, so
she is going to the speed of the Bachelor. She's
adapting pretty well. What I thought was super weird about
the first part of their date was that they were

(27:54):
like going to make a charcuterie board, but they didn't.
They didn't have a board. They had like a place
Matt and they're just like putting the meat and cheese
is on this map. I'm like, come on, this is
the Bachelor. Why don't we have a pretty board here?
Good point. Yeah, it's like where the our department. Our
department had a lot of work to do. Actually this season,
I mean they were bringing everything in and out of

(28:15):
this resort. Uh the whole time. There was no like
stage setting. So let's give him a break here, Okay,
all right, Well then She talks about how her dad
was not supportive of her going on the Bachelor, that
he had a linear life, which she kind of makes
sound like not her style. Uh, went to school, got married, career,

(28:40):
you know, kids, all that, and she wants to be
a little bit more adventurous and true to herself. How
did your parents react when you were going to go
on the Bachelor at Like? Were they gun ho? Because
my dad was not My mom was so into it.

(29:01):
I mean I remember them both being confused. I think
that's probably the best ways, like what and I don't
get it? And what is this gonna do? And like
do you have to leave your job? And how much
is this going to set you back? Like those are
the questions. I think a lot of it was more
like nobody nobody knew what it was going to include.
So nobody knew like that, I was it end up

(29:24):
going to be six months in my life? If not?
I mean a lot more now I'm still talking about
it five years later. But they weren't not supportive. I
think they were supported. They were just like more blase
about it. Yeah, So my dad wasn't against it, but
he just thought it wasn't going to be like the
best career move. He you know, he thought like you're

(29:45):
gonna go on you what if you look bad? And
then like you can't get a job and blah blah blah,
and I'm like, Dad, just trust me. I have a
good feeling about this. I'm pretty sure it's gonna work
out for me. And it did. Um, But let's get
back to Serena. So Serena has her first kiss with Matt,
interrupted by a donkey, which I thought was pretty cool

(30:07):
because the donkeys are really cute and it's a fun little,
uh you know, bluebird like moment. Matt talks about how
he had a pet when he was growing up, but
his pet was a turtle, and I was like, I
don't know, you really have a do you really have
like an emotional connection to a turtle? I kind of
felt Serena on that. I was like, somebody, get this
man a dog. He needs to feel what it is

(30:29):
to have a real pet, you know what. I agree,
and Jessica would agree to. She needs to get herself
a dog. She's been asking me about that. Yeah, do it,
do it, do it. It's time for Ben to have
another dog, because you guys, Ben was so attached to
his dog as a kid that when it passed away,
he just couldn't ever, I still don't know exactly. Yeah,

(30:50):
well a little side check, but yeah, I can cannot
other other people relate with that. You have a dog
you love so much that when she the dog passes,
you just can't imagine get another one. And I haven't
because it hurt so bad. But anyways, yeah, get the
guy dog. Yeah. Okay. So then they go to date
night and this is where she says to him, you know,
like I'm falling in like with you. She talks about

(31:11):
how her past break up, her one only serious relationship,
was really really painful for her. Um, she imagined that
she was going to marry him. Um, she says. You know,
they talk about how he dates to marry and Um,
she just said that looking back, she knows that she
was in love. Um. But he says that looking back

(31:32):
on his ex he doesn't think that he's in love
like he was in love with her like he did
at the time, but then looking back on it, he
doesn't think that he was actually in love with Actually,
this is where I need your hope. Now the kids
these days are saying this, I'm falling in like with
you now. I don't know what that means, because when

(31:53):
I'm dating, or when I was dating, I would like
like them pretty much right away or not like them
right like. There's no falling in like, like does that
mean like right now? I don't even know if I
like you, like I'm into this, Like, what does it
mean to be falling into like? Don't I mean if
you're there and you're kissing him and you're like going on, like,
aren't you already liking him? Yes, you're liking him, you're

(32:14):
looking him. It's a cute way of saying I'm not
ready to say I love you. Yeah, but falling in
like I think it's just like a cute play on
the whole situation. All right, But you're right, it's definitely
just like I like you, because there's obviously feelings they're
falling in like would be crushing. I think that's just

(32:35):
like the verb yeah, I'm crushing on you hard well. Actually,
obviously this was Serena's day. Did you like this day?
To move on? Then to the final part of the episode, Okay,
it was fine. I agree that this was fine. I
thought that the last two days, the one on ones
that we saw last week, there was a lot more
chemistry and this one just felt fine to me. Well,

(32:58):
the the end of the episode then, is when we
talked about at the beginning, and we'll close with it.
Here is Sarah's final goodbyes. This was an emotional thing.
This was tough. Uh. This was you know, one of
the first like really important moments for Matt as the bachelor. Uh,
how did he handle it? And then also like how

(33:20):
did how did you feel like the girls handled this
situation and what can we expect moving forward? Well, I
feel like the girls definitely felt like a little bit
bad for the way that they acted, for her interrupting previously,
or her being antisocial because I found out that like

(33:40):
her dad, you know about her dad. But I feel
like Matt could not have handled the situation any better.
Why is he so good at what he does? He
seriously is so amazing at this. He says that he's
going to keep thinking about her, keep praying for her. Um,
you know, he's obviously sad that she's not going to
be around, but you know knows that she's doing this

(34:05):
for a very important reason. Um, you know, he just
could It's such such a gentleman, and and that the
guy that she marries, he says, will be extremely lucky.
And it's just so sweet, so sweet. It makes me

(34:25):
feel like, hey, at the end of this, if he
doesn't end up with somebody, or he does and it
doesn't work out, he should revisit things. To Sarah. I
think that he was kind of thinking that in that moment. Well,
Matt handles himself great. Sarah's exit is one that pulled
on all of our heart strings and uh, we wish
her the best as she steps away from the show

(34:46):
and into her life that she had before. Another great episode, Ashley.
As we do every week to close out the thought,
your top three contestants at this point, and you're rating
A to F for this episode, I'm going to keep
my top three the same um, which is Abigail, Rachel,

(35:09):
and Brie. I cannot believe that next week there will
be five new girls entering. This is insanity. This is
actually what I've always wanted. I think that I suggested
this to the producers when I was there. I was like,
you know, it would be really fun if like a

(35:30):
day or two into this, a whole bunch of other
girls come in. That's great for me as I view
are horrible for the girls that are already in there.
We thought that we were only going to see Heather
and maybe one of Matt's x is joined. But it
looks like a whole bunch of new girls come and
Anna is saying that somebody might be an escort. Anna

(35:52):
is so funny. She's just a little annoying, but like
Anna is the girl that One she talks like Megan
Fox does in the Olsen Twin movie. And two she
um just is obsessed with drama, like she is there
to just bitch about people. Well, it's gonna be a
wild week. Yes, we have some new guests coming on.

(36:14):
Matt has had to learn a lot of people's names
at this point. I know his Night one felt like
there was a ton of people. Just wait till five
new girls come on, including Head there. My top three, Uh, well,
you didn't give the A to F for the episode.
Oh um, it gets a B plus for sure. It's like,
you know, yeah, it wasn't like the juiciest. Next week
might be the juiciest. So my top three, I'm gonna

(36:37):
put Katie in this week. I know it was a
tough go for a bit on Katie and I know
she she didn't know the whole story, but I really
appreciated the way, uh, this kind of played out with
her on this episode. I was like Abigail and I
like Rachel. I think Abigail and Rachel are far and beyond,
and I think Bree uh is up there as well,
maybe tied for third at this point. Um, Ashley, I

(36:58):
take it back. This episod gets an A because I
wasn't it and how could I not give something that
I was in? And A there you go, ash Well,
I'll give it an eight to just for you. Hey,
let's take a break. When we come back, we're gonna
go break down Bachelor headlines from this week. Uh, and
then we're gonna close with an interview from Erica Rose. Yes,

(37:19):
Erica Rose from Bachelor season nine. If you don't remember,
she was on Lorenzo season of The Bachelor. She's gonna
talk about what it means to be a queen of princess,
whatever the heck is going on. Hey, we'll be back
with the almost famous podcasts. Alright, we're back with Bachelor headlines.

(37:43):
The very first headlines Matt James contestant Sarah Trott, who
we just spoke about who left this week from the show.
Spotted leaving club with g Easy. This was pre Bachelor,
but a big story, big story. Yeah. Back in March
early Sarah was seeing with g Easy at a nightclub.
It's called Delilah's, right right around the corner from my

(38:06):
apartment in West Hollywood, and she seems to have been
there for a friend's birthday party. Uh, no other info
except for the fact that they looked like they were
like maybe leaving together. Yeah, paparazzi shots. It's a paparazzi shot.
So uh, just so interesting to me how people still

(38:27):
find that stuff, Like how do you go back and
look at pictures and go, oh, it's Sarah trot from
the back. I just don't. It's so much work to do. Hey,
we talked about it last week. It's something funny that
Matt James does. He kisses with his eyes open, not
just like one or two times, like pretty commonly. Uh,
And people started to talk about it last week on
the episode. Well, Matt James had a great response to

(38:49):
his friend Tyler Cameron, who was trolling him for kissing
with his eyes open. So Tyler tweeted him ao Matt James,
what we got going on over here with a pick
sure of him with his eyes open, and then Matt
responds by saying, got to make sure no one is
sneaking up on us. When your eyes are closed, anything

(39:09):
can happen. It's for both of our protection. Is a
great response, super funny, And of course I had to
watch this episode with his open eyed kisses in mind,
and I did notice that most of them again in
this episode, we're open eyed. Now. I gotta say that,
like they're like they're like I would say a quarter open, right,

(39:32):
Like they're pretty closed, but so maybe he can see
like a little bit, he could see a little lip
the opens open. You can't say if they're open, they're open.
It doesn't matter if they're half open or or like
four open. If you're if you're if they're open, they're open. Yeah.
But I don't think like he's looking at anything, you know,
Like I'm doing it right now as we speak, Like
I got my eyes like a fourth open. It's like

(39:54):
all I see are kind of like my bottom lid,
Like I don't really see much else. So it's still
something to say. Staring at the girl and I don't
know Hey, uh, move on to a story about Claire Crawley. Um,
obviously there's rumors um going around this week that think
that Claire Crawley and Dale Moss have split. Now we

(40:16):
just want to pause here and see we have had
nothing confirmed and so we can't confirm from it here
or deny it. We just haven't heard. But that's beside
the point, because this headline reads, Claire Crawley reunites with mom,
who battles Alzheimer's after being a part amid COVID. Time
is precious, Claire says, So there's a picture that you

(40:37):
posted on Instagram of her holding her mom's hand, um,
and I think it was her left hand, and yet
that ring part of the left hand is covered by
her mom's hand, And that's what people are really over analyzing.
The day that she posted this Instagram, she also um
Dale also posted a Bible passage both of them kind

(41:01):
of referring to hard days. And I guess they haven't
posted anything together or about each other since these posts
went up mid last week, so people are really speculating.
But it is really sad that it seems like Claire
hasn't been able to touch her mom like be in
the same room as her mom since the beginning of

(41:21):
COVID with her mom's Alzheimer's and in the nursing home
that she's in the care facility. So I'm really glad
that Claire got to see her mom like that. Has
got to be so emotional. I feel so bad for
what she's going through. Um, and I really hope that
she's not going through any sort of break up at
the moment either. Yeah. Well, again, we don't know anything
about it. We've tried, but then again, how you can't

(41:44):
really dig to find out what's going on if nobody's Yeah,
but we'll keep you updated if we hear anything good
or sad. But we do know one couple that is
thriving right now, Tassia and Zach and Tassia Adams is
keeping zach Clark close to her heart. This according to
e News Ashley, how is she doing that? Oh, she's

(42:05):
doing it with a necklace. So she had her a
T initial on a charm necklace and then she added
a Z for Zach or as she likes to say, Zachary.
They also spent his twenty thirty seventh birthday with a
road trip to upstate New York this weekend. So the
two are cute and cozy and and enjoying that East

(42:27):
Coast life together. The Bachelor That's Mike Johnson to host
new food focused digital short series That Looks Good. This
according to People, Yeah, the show is called That Looks
Good and it's supposed to celebrate select culinary holidays with
viewers by sharing the history of the food and some
fun facts, all while eating great meals. It is. It's

(42:50):
holiday inspired, like I said, and um, it'll be five
episodes dropping monthly, and the first is Mike's and he's
going to be selling writing National Bagel Day. So when
we talk about holidays, we're not talking Christmas, Thanksgiving. We're
talking about those silly days that you get pop pop
on your calendar and on your Twitter that says like

(43:10):
today's National Donut Day or today's National ice Cream Cone Day.
So look out for Mike's That Looks Good on National
Bagel Day coming up. So good. Hey. A couple other
headlines here. Ashley our friend Crystal Nielsen and boyfriend Miles
Bowls move in together. This according to US magazine. Yeah, Um,

(43:33):
not much more to that, but they moved into her
San Diego beach house and the house looks freaking gorgeous.
So lucky him, and I'm glad that they're you know,
their their relationship is progressing as her pregnancy is progressing
even more. I can't believe she's in her third trimester already.
That's mind blowing. It's crazy, but hey, we're wishing her

(43:56):
the best. Carly Wadell plans to give wedding ring to
daughter Bella after Evan bas split. I don't need it anymore,
and she quotes she said, I got a ring when
I got this dress. Well, actually I got a different
ring because if you guys know that they switched rings.
She didn't love the ring that she got on Bachelor
in Paradise, so they like switched it a couple of

(44:18):
months in and she said, but you're gonna get it
one day. I'm going to give that ring to you.
Isn't that cool? I don't need it anymore. That's what
she said in one of her YouTube videos that she
was going through Bachelor in Paradise outfits with with Bella
and she was like rating them. I don't know, I

(44:39):
saw this and like telling her that to her daughter
felt weird to me, like right, like you're telling your
daughter like I don't need it anymore like that just
it feels heavy, Yeah, especially since like that's her dad,
it's like anymore. Yeah. I mean maybe it's not the
best word choice. Uh just hard. I guess the best

(45:01):
way to say is it's hard, but it's hard no
matter what. Um. Hey, Matt James has been getting some
criticism this week. Uh for how can you criticize Matt James. Well,
he's getting criticism from somebody, uh for not dating black women,
and he says, I've dated across the board. Dis according
to people. Oh so this was actually brought up on

(45:25):
Mike Johnson and Brian Abslo's new podcast it's called Talk
Me It Out. And Matt says, people, for some reason,
think I don't like black women. The last few women
that he dated have all been black. So he says,
I don't understand why it's so hard for people to understand.

(45:45):
People should want you to be happy, regardless if they're white,
they're black, they're Asian or whatever. He says, I've dated
across the board. My dating life looks like what we
saw on night one of the show Spanish women, White women,
Asian women, black women, everything that I've ever dated, and
what I'm not into isn't race specific. When you're looking

(46:06):
for things that aren't race specific, you have to have
a broadcast of characters to fill out all those things.
And thank goodness they had it because it allowed me
to enjoy the process the way that it did well. Obviously,
I mean, criticism is gonna come, right. It was my
advice to mas like it's gonna happen no matter what. Well,

(46:27):
that's been all of the headlines for this week. Ashley, Uh,
great episode so far, but we still have Erica Rose
to come on, which I'm really excited to talk to about.
Let's take a break here. When we come back, Erica
Rose will be joining us on the Almost fame As podcast. Okay, guys,

(46:51):
we've got Erica Rose on the phone. If you guys
don't remember her, she was a contestant on the ninth
season The Bachelor of Lorenzo's. She was eliminated in week three,
but so memorable that who the heck would have thought
that she was a limited week three. She returned to
the second season of Bachelor Pad and she was limited
week five there, and then she returned again for Bachelor

(47:14):
Pad season three. And she was eliminated in week five. Uh.
And if you guys don't remember Bachelor Pad, you should
probably go back and watch because it was like the
original Bachelor in Paradise. But most importantly, Erica Rose, the
original queen of this franchise, is on the line with us.
Hey Erica, Hey, guys. It's good to see you, guys,

(47:37):
and hear from you again. Good to hear from you. Um.
So have you been keeping up this season? Um? I
have been keeping up a little bit. I'm not watching
it super thoroughly, but of course I've heard about it, um,
and I like man is the Bachelor, And of course
I've heard all about Victoria and the fact that she's
learning tres. So you the first person on the should

(48:01):
ever wear Tierra? As far as I know, I think
I'm the first person on the Bachelor franchise to wear one.
And I feel it's important to add that I wore
it because Lorenzo was a prince, so it made sense
for me to wear it. It wasn't just like a
thing that I did for fun or before going on
the show, so to me, it was in context. It's uh, okay,

(48:22):
So let's start here though, Uh, you had a reason
to wear this obviously, like being the queen or the princess.
Uh is something that kind of matched your season. But
if you could put your like self in Victoria's shoes
right now, what is the reason for calling yourself a queen? Like?
What what would be the hope that you get out

(48:45):
of that? So I have no idea. My mom thinks
that she's doing it because her name is Victoria and
there was a famous queen Victoria. I never thought of that. Possibly.
I started following her on Instagram after hearing about her,
and I don't see a lot of pictures on her
Instagram in her crowns or trs, So I'm not sure

(49:07):
if she's doing it to get attention or if it's
just something that she's doing to feel empowered. When you
were on the show and you hammed up the whole
like princess thing, you kind of were playing like into
a character. Did you feel like you were like were
you doing it intentionally? Do you feel like characters like

(49:28):
that on the show usually do it intentionally or do
you feel like she's just this is her real self? Um?
So I think that I was doing it intentionally because
I wore it to not even the first, you know,
casting thing that I went to, but then they did
a callback or because I knew that it was Prince
Lorenzo and he was a prince, and of course the

(49:49):
producers wanted me to wear it, and I was actually
embarrassed to wear it on the first night, so I
wore an understated one because I didn't want to make
a thing about it, like I didn't want to stand
out much honestly, So I felt a little bit uncomfortable
about it. But I was encouraged to keep wearing it,
and so then it became kind of a thing, and
I felt like I might as well just own it.

(50:10):
But I will say when I came back for Bachelor Pad,
like when I first three, but when I came back
and I was already in law school at twenty eight,
I didn't want to wear the tiara anymore. It felt
kind of awkward to me, um and it felt like
outdated and very juvenile. And so I just feel like
there's certain things you can get away with in your
early twenties. Yeah, So yeah, I'm not sure if she's
being encouraged to wear it. I hope she's not, because

(50:32):
that just makes me feel like they're encouraged. If the
producers are encouraging it, then I do like it's kind
of copying me, and I don't like that. If it's
just something that she genuinely does on her own, you know,
then I can't hate on that. It's it's always intriguing
to me. And we talked about it a lot, but
and you kind of mentioned it like when you're in
your early twenties, you can get away with a little bit.
You can be a little funny, silly, goofy whatever, right,

(50:55):
but it's always interesting and quite frankly, if I'm honest,
like I don't get this part of the show is
when contestants go on, they've probably seen the show before,
they've watched it. They know that the characters never really
come off well, right, Like it's always like anybody that's
like a little bit more like villainous seems to always

(51:16):
have their stick. And so when you kind of like
own a stick and you can it's very clear that
like this is not going well for you. What do
you think the mindset is for people? Help me understand
this to continue to go go with this? Like why
do they continue down this path? So I was actually
really um I hadn't really watched a lot of the
show when I went on it, to be honest, so

(51:37):
I actually don't know that, um. And so I was
just doing it, you know, like I said, because I
wanted to do what they wanted me to do. But
also I thought it was all in good fun and
I was lucky that Lorenzo thought it was funny as well,
and we became good friends. It was even at our wedding.
We stayed close friends. So I guess I was lucky
that way. But I feel like with her, probably it's

(51:57):
a similar situation where she feels like she is giving
people what they want and she's like enraptured in that character.
But it can definitely be really really hard. Um it
was for me. After the show, I thought people were
just gonna laugh and think it was funny. And I
literally got hate mail because this was back when people
still sit mail and my mom asking how could you

(52:18):
raise your daughter, you know, to be so spoiled and entitled?
And my mom is literally like crying and heartboken over it.
So you know, people can just be really mean. So
I hope people don't take her too seriously. You know,
she wants them to but it is. I mean, she
seems to really be into this character, but it's hard
to know what her motivation is unless she's just trying

(52:39):
to get it and she's obviously not really thinking that
she's going to be the one to end up with
Matt either. Yeah, Erica, before we let you go, UM,
can you give us a little update on how your
life is these days? Because you're kind of like l
Wood's come to life right now. She's got her platinum
blonde hair, she's got a pink wall with all her
law degrees behind hinder. It's pretty cool. So you're a lawyer,

(53:01):
you work with your husband. Yes, I'm a real lawyer.
We have a real law firm. I actually started it
before he joined me um and so then we merged it.
So it's called Rose Sanders. We're in Houston. We do
I have my specialty entertainment media lab, but we really
deal a lot of family labs and also personal injury,

(53:22):
and we actually really go to court. We're gonna be
in court tomorrow. And I do think of Leglibland sometimes
when her friends show up and they're like, you're like
a real lawyer, because we really are, you know, I
really am a real lawyer. And we have two daughters,
Holland and asked in there four and a half and
two and a half. So it is super busy and
I don't really sit around and think about, you know,

(53:43):
the fact that I was on the Bachelor, But of
course it comes up sometimes even in court, you know me,
and it's fun, but it's not a huge part of
my everyday life, and I don't really think most of them.
I never assume that my clients know about it unless
they bring it up themselves. Honestly. Yeah, well, I mean
it's gonna follow, It's gonna follow everybody around. And uh, somehow,

(54:06):
some way, we really appreciate you coming on Erica and
uh and sharing some insight into Victoria. We you said
it best so and I think it's something I have
to remember, like you don't want to see anybody get
hated on. But it's just confusing. I think we watched
this and I think my mindset is like I'm just
confused at what's happening and where this is gonna go
and how this can be good. Um, and so hearing
from you really helps, and Hey, come back on soon,

(54:27):
best luck and everything. Tell your husband hello, thanks for
having me, Ashley, it was a pleasure seeing you on
this week's episode. I hope we can see you again
on more episodes. I know that Chris Harrison stood up
for you this week a little bit and said that
you did not beg to go back onto this episode.
In fact, I can't see you begging to go on
to an episode like this and and host a date

(54:49):
like this. I thoroughly enjoy seeing you, and if you
out there enjoy seeing Ashley as well, please message your
comment on something make sure she hears from you. The
girl deserves some love this week. But it was a
great episode, Ashley. We'll be back next week, right with
another episode of the Almost Famous podcast. All right, well yeah,

(55:10):
I'm excited about next week's episode. I just can't believe
there's five more women coming in. This is gonna be
so good for us at home um and so confusing
for Matt. But until then we will sign off the
way we always do. This has been the almost Famous podcast.
Thank you so much for listening right as a little review,

(55:31):
if you love listening, yeah that sounds nice. Yeah, we
we love you and we love hearing from you and
signing off. I've been Ashley and I've been been make
sure once again. Final thing of the podcast. Please go
join us at this virtual event. I mean it's it's
pretty much free, unless you want to copy of my book,

(55:52):
which you'd be awesome too. Again, that's at looped live
dot com, slash almost Famous inter code famous at checkout.
Hey you're the best. I been, Ben, we'll talk soon.
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