A (Bachelor) House Divided

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Benn and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast
with our radio. It is a week of the Almost
Famous podcast. We're breaking down Matt's latest episode this season. Ashley.
We're not going to break it down quite yet because
obviously we have a long podcast to do. We have
some very special guests coming up. We also have some
headlines and everything like that. However, to start out this thing,

(00:24):
I want to hear what you think. I'm gonna say
this is the best episode of Matt season, and I
think that is one that I am most passionate to
break down. What do you think? Really, I'm actually mind
boggled by that. Um, I did not feel the same.
I felt like it was sort of a continuation of
last week. I think his best episode so far was

(00:44):
probably episode two when Bree had her date. Yeah, that's
so funny, but that's great, Like, I love that that
way we are not on the same page and it
makes for a more interesting conversation. Yeah, unlike most weeks, actually,
I haven't been able to really like catch up obviously. Uh,
it's the launch of my book Alone in Plain Site
this week, which is a big deal, and so I've

(01:05):
been busy. Actuley has been really busy as well, and
so we haven't got to talk about our opinions at
which kind of makes this podcast fun because we probably
it sounds like we'll come from this from two different angles. Actually.
To get us started, I want to just let everybody
know once again that about our live virtual event. Uh.
The hundred promo codes the event have been used, but

(01:25):
stay tuned for more info. I think we're gonna make
something else happen here. There's still meet and greet packages available,
which will include a copy of my book Alone in
plain site, which comes out February second, which is probably
the day that you're listening to this podcast. Uh. You
can visit events dot looped live, dot com, slash almost
famous that will be in the show notes as well,

(01:45):
Uh to get a ticket. A portion of the proceeds
from the live event will go to save our stages.
This is a big deal for us for me really personally.
My friends like Ashley are being kind enough to give
up some time to help talk about the book, to
help bring in uh some friends of ours talking about
the book and talk about life. Uh. We like doing

(02:06):
virtual events. This isn't something that's like uncommon to us,
but this is a big deal for me, So Ashley,
thanks for agreeing to do it. Yeah, and if you
guys want to know what Save the Stages are UM
the foundation. It goes to helping all the places that
have been closed for like a year now because we
can't have big theater performances and stuff. And federal aid
is on the way, but as it comes, UM a

(02:29):
lot of neighborhood independent venues are still at risk for
closing forever. So UM you can find out more information
on how to save local music that whole scene UM
at save our Stages dot com. Yeah, it's a big deal.
I mean, I know there's a lot of things lost
right now, but I was just talking to a friend
of mine who was doing The Bachelor live on stage,

(02:51):
you know, kind of planning and paying for it. I
know the theater industry they're nervous. I would say nervous
is an understatement, like there is a lot of unknowns
uh left out there for live theater, for musical events, etcetera.
Even you know right now as uh you know, hopefully
in the next year we'll be without COVID. Uh. There's
still a lot of questions on will they be able

(03:13):
to get back, So it's important for us. All the
arts are really important, so make sure to go to
events dot looped live dot com slash almost famous. Again,
it's events dot looped live dot com slash almost famous
for tickets. Hey, ash Uh, let's take a break here.
When we come back, we're gonna recap the episode. We're
gonna have Natasha Parker on the episode. Natasha Parker has

(03:36):
blown up recently. She's everywhere. She's doing great things. She's
a co host of the Clickbait uh podcast and also
was a contestant on The Bachelor Peter Webber's season. Uh.
Then we're gonna go through Bachelor headlines. Uh, it's gonna
be a great episode. But we'll be back with the
almost Famous podcast. Ashley. I mentioned my take on this episode.

(04:06):
I think was Matt James best showing all. I'm gonna
explain why in just a bit. I also think it
was the most enjoyable episode for me to watch today.
You disagree, but we're gonna talk about that all as
we break down this week's episode. And to start this
week's episode, we started with a rose ceremony. Ashley, take
it away. Okay, so again, it's the O G s

(04:27):
versus the newbies. Brittany talks about how it's been a
really hard week. Obviously she was accused of being a
escort from from Anna UM and Katie says that she's
going to like call out all the mean girls. Well,
Matt walks in and right off the bat, he says
that he wants to address the rumors that it's been

(04:48):
a toxic environment to live in, and he says that
bullying are not bullying is obviously not a quality he
wants in his future wife. He doesn't want somebody who
has to put somebody down in a or to raise
them up. And then he immediately pulls Brittany over to talk.
She's very honest with what happens, what would happen. She
said that Anna, you know, called her out for being

(05:12):
an escort but not really um the date before. And
then Anna gets pulled aside, and of course she says
like she knows she made a huge mistake. She regretted
it the second that those words came out of her mouth.
And this is what this is a shining moment from
for Mad for me again, Like I didn't love the

(05:32):
episode as far as like plotlines go, but I did
love the way that Matt was as I continued to
every week just love find another reason to love Matt,
the way that he gives Anna so much like grace
in this moment where he was like, you're not a
bad person. You made a mistake, like I've made mistakes
and I grew for from it. And then he basically

(05:55):
proves that this is gonna be one of those mistakes
that Anna gets eliminated for and she's probably gonna earned
a huge lesson from it to you know, not accuse
others of things like this and to keep your mouth
shut when you don't really know the fact. Well, and
it's it's interesting because you know, last week we talked
about it, and typically when we have somebody a contestant

(06:18):
go to the lead and complain about something going on
in the house, we typically aren't fans of that, Like,
it's not something that comes off well, it's not something
that we like really enjoy seeing. It usually kind of
feels like the tattle tell. But with Katie, we're like, yes,
this needed to happen, this was appropriate, and she did
it in an appropriate way or the best that she could.
So Matt's now aware of it. Now this week there

(06:38):
was an interesting thing to happen. I didn't interview, and
I said, I was trying to support Matt, and I said,
Matt just doesn't know. And well, the headline reads everywhere
this week that Ben Higgins slams Matt James for not knowing.
It's like, that's not at all what I meant. Um.
What I actually mean by this is we got to
give Mat a little bit of a break because he

(06:58):
was unaware of what was going on in the house
until Katie said something to him. Now, I've always said it,
once he's aware, then it's how he reacts, and I
thought his reaction to this was incredible, the way he
approached the women right away, walks into the room and says, listen,
this is this is where I'm at, this is what
I've heard, this is what what I know is going on. Brittany.
We need to talk. And I that's what I meant

(07:22):
when I said Matt just doesn't know. As Matt was unaware,
he doesn't he doesn't know what's going on in the house,
and his viewers, we have to understand that the lead
doesn't always know what's going on in the house. He
can assume, uh, he can maybe think about it. But
his reaction to this was perfect, and I think it
was one of matt shining moments from the season. I
also think it's set the tone that he isn't going
to stand for this kind of behavior. I mean, you

(07:43):
see the reaction from the women. They're apologizing left and
right after this because they know that he's not going
to stand for this kind of stuff. Now this is
where I'll stop. Actually, but uh, there's a moment in
Brittany's explanation that I really think like made me feel
a certain way inside. It like really hit home to me.
She said I was excited to be here. I'm sure
she was. Uh, I was excited to meet you as

(08:05):
excited for this experience. But the words being said about
room right now could could change my life forever. My
family watches this, my friends watch this, like I have
to watch this. The things being said about me right
now are not okay. And I think that was a
moment that just kind of like reinforced how big of
an issue this could have been, and how unhealthy and

(08:28):
how toxic the environment in the house was. Now, Hey,
I don't know Brittany's what she does in her in
her personal life, I don't know that side of her. However,
what I do know it's none of the girls businesses
be talking about and rumoring about in the house, especially
knowing it's going to be on national TV. That was
just uh inappropriate. It was unwise. And I think I'm

(08:51):
gonna kind of uh jump to conclusions here. But for
Matt Um when Anna kind of expressed explained herself to
him and said, hey, I was wrong here, uh, I
think what I what I recognize is it was immature.
And that's just not something that's looking for in a wife.
Even if Anna apologizes and even if she means it,

(09:12):
and even if we can all forgive her, which is
up to each individual person, it was just immature and
I just don't think that's a quality of somebody you're
looking for in a wife. And that's why she ended
up going home. And I mean Matt did it beautifully. Yeah,
Anna definitely is a prime example of somebody who just
like kind of got caught up in the drama. I
think she was getting, like I've said multiple times, like

(09:34):
kind of high off it. But I also feel like
she was very genuinely, sincerely apologetic. She regrets that. I
really do think it's going to be in a learning
experience for her. Yeah, and you know you're right, And
I mean, how many times in life? Uh, I kind
of like it reminds me. I mean a lot of
the show honestly reminds me of like of high school,
middle school, college, Like you kind of get caught up

(09:56):
in the gossip, you get caught up in the excitement
of the drama, and before you know it, somebody's really
hurt and then you start to feel the consequences and
you start to feel bad yourself and you're like, oh, man,
I didn't mean it like that, and it's it's not
it's not like at all what I meant. Um, But
here's the truth, Like bullying, it's unacceptable, it's not okay,

(10:18):
and it's what was happening in the house and it
and it has consequences. Uh. It was shown to us,
Brittany explained it to us. We all saw it, we
all felt it. We didn't enjoy watching it. And the
consequences that somebody, you know, that somebody's now going home.
But also hopefully all of these girls that were bullying
are now learning from this, because it got really bad,

(10:39):
really fast, and it was we saw it with our
own eyes, how quickly it can spiral and how dangerous
that can get mm hmm. And we see in this
episode that like Victoria just keeps the bullying coming just crazy,
like she's she's unstoppable, but totally just mind blowingly unself aware,

(11:04):
like I've never I've never seen somebody on this show
to just like who just seems to like not comprehend
the consequences of what they're saying. Well, it's interesting because
after this event goes down and Anna is sent home
um and and Matt is he's somber. You can tell
this is frustrating to him. This isn't the environment that

(11:26):
he wants. He doesn't want Bowling involved in the house
that he's trying to you know, lead and guide and
have this journey with. We said it last week, We'll
say it again, Like, what's been most frustrating about this
season so far as we're rooting for Matt James like
we do most bachelors and bachelorettes, We're rooting for these contestants,
and we're just we're not getting able to see any
of the storylines that really matter. We're just seeing the

(11:47):
toxicity and it feels weird to watch. It feels dirty
to watch some nights. I watched The Bachelor right now,
and I feel worse watching it than I did would
have without it. Now. What happens, though, is an interesting
reaction is as soon as Anna goes home, everybody starts
apologizing to each other. It's almost like, I'm sorry for
saying this. I'm sorry for saying this. You know I
didn't mean it like that, right, Like, everybody starts reacting

(12:12):
to the consequences that Anna's feeling. Now. The truth of it, though,
is there's still people in the house at that moment
that are still in that room that contributed to the bullying. Well,
that's like how one of the girls was like, it's oh,
it was Serena. She was like, this is just like
a whole bunch of sucking up going on right now

(12:35):
because all the girls didn't want to all the bullying
girls didn't want to get eliminated. So all of a sudden,
the apologies start flowing in that cocktail room. They really do.
It was. It was very interesting to watch because you
kind of see everybody back, like whole backtracking and being like, hey, okay,
can we start over? She Anna, Anna was the one
that went home. So the rest of us are safer
right now, but Matt says, no, like, there's still other

(12:58):
stuff going on here and I'm gonna you know, and
it's not gonna rest, Like this isn't gonna be okay. Well,
it takes us then into the next Row ceremony. Matt's tired.
I bet he's exhausted, but he's really frustrated. Quite honestly,
if if we could have asked him, he's probably just
like steaming was frustration and hurt because he realized that
this environment is not one that is cultivating the joy

(13:19):
and the hope and the love that he hoped to
bring at that point. So we jumped right into the
Rows ceremony. I found this to be some really interesting exits.
Ashley who went home okay, So Victoria of course gets
sent home and the most dramatic exit I've ever seen,
dozen hug him says that she's he's making a huge mistake,

(13:40):
that he's just giving into the hearside craziness. Hold up,
let's pause there for a second. Have you ever seen
anything like that? I mean, it was it's just odd.
Without slandering anybody's name here, it was odd how these
events occurred. Right, you have buying highlighted. You see the

(14:05):
honesty from the women, Uh, you see the honesty from that,
and then you have some people that are kind of
like doubling down within it. Like there's name calling alongside
of compliments, there's there's bringing people down alongside of lifting
yourself up. There's you know, self promotion alongside of promoting

(14:27):
you know, the relationship. Like it was a very confusing
series of events that went on there, and I thought,
no matter what, like Victoria was just gonna go home, Like,
you know what, she could be sad, it could be frustrating.
Everybody will have their opinions of Victoria, right, we don't
need to to pile on there. But I thought she
at least just go home because she knew that this

(14:48):
was like her time was running out and that she
was probably associated with most of the stories that were
not positive. But instead she's angry at Matt. And it
was the way that she said those things in the
bathroom to the producer. She was like, um, Ryan is
the shadiest bitch. I'm the only option for him. I

(15:11):
can't imagine him picking an idiot. I think she was
referrend to Katie over me, and if he eliminates me,
I will literally die. It was very odd to watch,
um and very hard to follow because it felt like
it felt like there was an admittance of guilt throughout

(15:32):
the entire last part of that roastum me, where she
was like explaining, you know, she was she was bad
mouthing every other girl in the house, which is exactly
what the girls were getting in trouble for before, which
is exactly what Matt spoke against. But it was like
it was unrecognized by Victoria. There wasn't this light that
went off to said, you know what, I should probably
cool it on my language towards others. Instead, it was

(15:54):
doubly down. And then she leaves and she says, I'll
never you know, uh date a Matt again. I that name,
which is just there's obviously more to the story for
Victoria than we can understand. But she's gone, and I
think all of us believe that the house will have
a different tone. Um. Victoria believes, based on her words,

(16:15):
that the house is really gonna miss her, that it
will fall apart without her, and hey, she can believe
what she believes. My personal opinion is we're going to
see a completely different culture and environment within that house now, uh,
for the next few episodes, up until the very end
because of this exit, and and I'm excited personally to

(16:37):
watch the house without the drama. I don't know. I
think you gotta eliminate MJ before you can feel that,
because MJ seems to be kind of taking over that role.
She's a tough cookie. Uh, there's something about her energy
that makes me uncomfortable watching, Like you'd have to watch
every little thing you'd set around her because she like

(16:58):
kind of wants to come after people. Do you disagree
with me there? I don't know. We see uh, we
see the episode end with a two on one date
with m J. We're gonna talk about in just a
second what led up to that too on one date.
But before we take a break here, um, just to
finally recap some of our you know, favorites initially did

(17:19):
go home. Lauren went home, Marie went home. In Catalina
uh were sent home. These were surprising exits for us
for a couple of reasons. Lauren Lauren was the most
surprising for me. I think Mari and Catalina share whatever,
like Yeah, they could have gone the cut have stayed.
Lauren got a group date Rose. Maybe it wasn't last week,

(17:40):
but the week before, and I really thought she was
gonna stick around for a while. It's kind of rare
to see somebody who gets a group date Rose two
weeks earlier end up being eliminated. That was a shocking
one of me. I think that's the most shocking at
this point. It's the one storyline. Uh, you know that honestly,
Like I said, uh, I love Matt James. I like
Matt James a lot. He's a good dude, and I

(18:02):
think a lot of these girls are good, good people.
I'm excited to watch the rest of the season. But
I was disconnected from the show because there wasn't a
storyline I was watching because it was always covered up
with drama, always covered up with the bowling, always covered
up with the name calling, and so Lawrence was a
story that I was like, Okay, once we release ourselves
in this drama, if we can, if Matt does that,

(18:22):
and he did this week, then we're finally going to
see some stuff blossom. Lawrence was when I was thinking
would blossom, and it didn't. Well, actually, that's the exits
this week. Some I'm surprising, some not so much. But
we are moving on to a clean slate without Victoria.
We're gonna talk about that clean slate because it was
a clean slate. It was a beautiful slate in my opinion.

(18:43):
Coming up after the break, Yes, now I feel like
I can kind of breathe. Uh. Rachel's date. She that's
the classic fairytale date, which we see a lot of

(19:03):
the times on the show, and I always, I always
enjoy them. Kaitlin had one, Jade had one. Now Rachel
has one. And I really think that the person who
gets this date usually goes to the top four and
the examples that I just gave you, that would be
the case that Jared had the Jared had the male

(19:26):
version of the fairytale date. Yeah, you're right, he totally
did at the museum with the helicopter and like fed
for a tux. Yeah right, um, okay, So so Rachel
gets it. They go on a little like trying on thing,
you know, she tries on the most luxurious dresses. She

(19:49):
looks beautiful, They're having fun. She's just so freaking pretty,
Like her skin is unreal. She has no pores, no discoloration.
I'm sorry, I'm like in all of her face. I know, yeah,
you're like monitoring her skin. I'm like, yeah, okay, cool,
she's she has great skins. I was saying this to

(20:11):
Jared last night and he was like, yeah, I'm like, no,
for girls like that is something to really appreciate. So anyway,
they had a great time during the day portion you
can just feel like it's natural and forty between them.
Doesn't really get us to get to know her a
ton better, but you know, that's usually the fun part
of the day. We don't really get a lot of feeling.

(20:31):
And with Rachel, I felt like going into the second
part of the day, I was like, I don't think
she's going to have a SOB story, but I want
to figure out like what's what's just like, what's up
with her? Right? And we definitely get that. The the
first part of the the day was telling to me. And
again I think this was like you had like depth there,

(20:52):
you found some death. There was the way that he
looked at her. That's it. I think it was that
clean slate. It was what we were looking for. I
was finally wanting to see Matt James let his guard
down to breathe to feel like he was enjoying this
process and he just didn't have to say the right
thing and do the right thing at the right time
that he could actually be in it and be on

(21:13):
a date and we could witness that date and watch
that date and then Rachel getting out of that car
and seeing how like nervous she was, and like how
like she just kind of wanted to like lean into him,
Like it was just like Matt, like hold me for
a second, because this is a lot, and like it
just to me felt like the date um that was

(21:35):
real that we will remember. Uh, And I finally felt
like I was watching, if not his love story in
the end, at least a date that could get there
and that we could build upon for the first time
all season. Breeze was good. Breeze was great, But it's
been weeks since we've seen it. This was the second
time that we've seen something like that. Okay, I totally agree.

(21:57):
But talking about exits, let's talk about her exit from
the car with the blue dress on Holy crap, holy
that dress, her in that dress, The way he looked
at her in that dress, so amazing, very fairytale moment
um then we sit down and you do just like

(22:17):
feel something between them. I even think that they're playing
music that's like different and more intense than the music
that they play when like he's on a good date
versus when he's on a great date and she got
great date music, fairytale music. Um. She says basically that
she's never been in love and that she just is
like kind of insecure with herself, especially in relationships. I

(22:41):
completely related to her because when people would be like
asking me, why haven't you had a boyfriend and stuff,
I was like, I just I don't know, like now
that now, not that I'm older, I think I can
admit that I was just scared and just like insecure
of how I would be in a relationship. And that's
how she's feeling. And I feel like Matt can also
sort of relate to this because for as like Studley

(23:05):
as Matt is, he also says that he's never been
in love, and I feel like he also has just
like a little bit more of a sense of innocence
when it comes to deep relationships. And you know, this
was a beautiful moment. I want to go back a
little bit here to Rachel and say there's a moment
that she became like, um my top probably after this

(23:28):
episode is when she goes, I've never owned a pair
of shoes over forty dollars and she puts these shoes on. Yeah,
it's like there's probably underestimating, but you know, yeah, but
like there's an appreciation, there's a gratitude, there's a holy cow,
this is a special moment kind of thing. And it
also is kind of what Matt was saying during the episode.
He's like, Hey, you know this is great, but this

(23:49):
isn't where I'm gonna live forever. We're not gonna be
able to do these kind of dates forever, and and
so you have to take them, you know, with a
grain of salt, but also be appreciative for him. And
then you yeah, like you said, you get to that
evening portion I think is a viewer, you can go, well,
there's great music playing, there's depth there. Um And I
honestly thought, Ashley that you were gonna hear Matt James
is a few weeks into this go I'm in love

(24:11):
with you. Like I thought he was gonna do it
three different times this episode. I really did, but he
never did. He kind of like he didn't, but like,
I think that could be a storyline that we watched
as the season goes on, because I think Matt is
like head over heels for a few of these women.
I think I don't think he knows what to do
with himself, and I think he's gonna start expressing emotion
very openly and honestly. Uh. But you know, to summarize

(24:35):
this date, do you agree with me Ashley that this
felt like now the first day other than Breeze, Uh
and maybe last week's one on one, but like this
is a big date to now build on. Like, I'm
invested into their story as a couple from here on out.
I've been excited for this moment between them because when

(24:58):
I was there on set, I just felt it so
much between him and Rachel that I was looking forward
to seeing a one on one. I was like, I know,
I'm not getting to know all the women here. It's
a group day I have. I don't know what they're
like eight to ten on there, But there's something about
this girl who's like speaking to me as like just

(25:18):
having the energy of somebody that I want to be around.
And I can see it in his eyes that she
is the one in this group to watch out for.
And yeah, when she says I'm falling in love with you,
I was so excited but also totally saw it coming
because of the expression on his face that he was

(25:40):
going to say totally feel the same way. I mean,
he even says, I can see myself proposing to you,
like I don't remember this early on. We're still pretty
early on in this season for somebody to be that
direct on the first one on one do you? I
mean is that common? I feel like there's been a
time or two and the Moose people always get to

(26:01):
top two. Oh, I think I think if I put
money on, I think of Vegas were throw odds on Rachel. Uh,
she's definitely, uh the favorite right now? Well, actually that
moves us. I mean, Rachel's dates incredible. This is why
I'm saying this is Matt james shining moment because I
think through every segment so far in this episode, um,
you and I would say that that this is Matt James.

(26:24):
Some of Matt James's most intimate moments, some of his
most direct moments, some of his best moments. He carries himself. Well,
he's honest, Uh, he's intuitive, Uh, that's what I'm saying.
I think this is Matt james best episode. I felt
like it was just coming out party to finally say
this is how the season is going to go. So
if we're Matt, I mean I almost always give Matt
an a plos like just always knows how to carry

(26:47):
himself in the right words to say. Um, I just
felt like it was so bogged down with drama at
the beginning in the end that that's why I didn't
like which I didn't love this one, but I always
love Matt Well. We have the heart of the episode
without drama. Obviously, it's hard to have drama on a farm. Uh.
There is a group date and uh, Matt is a

(27:08):
country boy at heart. He said he grew up on
a farm, he worked on farms, and now they're in
the farm now. So it's kind of funny because Rachel
goes in this beautiful date that we just talked about.
It's a fairy tale date. And hey, being on a
farm's an incredible experience. I have been on many farms
in my life and it's a great way to spend
a day. It's a great way to spend a career. However,

(27:30):
it ain't a fairy tale, and there's no dresses and
nice uh high heels and shoes involved in this, So
it's kind of funny to see the switch where the
girls are now having this shovel poop uh For Matt Ashley,
did you enjoy watching this date? Yeah? But they're just
really two standout moments when I look back on it,

(27:53):
and that is this was the part of the episode
where I started thinking, like, oh man, m J is
a mean girl. She seems like a girl that I
don't want to be around in that house. And then
the other big standout moment to me is that makeout
session with Piper. Holy crap, he loved that he had
an excuse to run over to Piper and he did

(28:15):
not want to stop kissing her. Well, the sad part
is or sad or whatever you wanna call it. You know,
at this point in the episode, I don't know if
we knew enough about m J to say either way,
but I think we're all getting the sense that, yeah,
like in J's up to something, Like there's definitely the
mean girl aspect in her. I think Matt's really into her, though,
so I think we have to watch out for that.
I think he really wants her to be around, and

(28:36):
so he throws the egg. He goes running. I think
MJ thinks that this is a really cute moment for
the two of them, like really nice moment for the
two of them. So she's gonna chase after him, and
then she gets her sights. She runs the corround the
corner and gets her sights back on her man and
he's making out with a different girl, like that look
on her face, like her heart had to drop. How

(28:59):
I I think she thought this was going to be
their moment to make out, but yeah, he had other
things in mind. So my question for you, because I
was watching this part of the episode, he just like
ran through the barn right and and Piper just happened
to be over there for an interview and he just
decided to step into dark kissing her. That's how this
played out. Yeah, And immediately seeing that, I was like, oh, Piper,

(29:20):
she is off that dark Horse list and onto the
top list. I mean it looked like it they And
it wasn't just like a kiss. This was like a hey,
I know cameras are here, I know, like you're doing
this a statement, but it was a statement you're right,
it was a statement. Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about

(29:41):
the nighttime portion of the state. We had of another
shining moment with Chelsea, who we loved the moment last
week with when she talked about her hair. She is
apparently very uncomfortable and awkward with boys, which I love hearing.
I love it. I love it when a girl who's
like so beautiful and like carries yourself with confidence admits

(30:03):
to still being awkward with boys. I guess it's a
relatability factor. Um, But Matt is Um, Matt is just
saying he looks at her, he looks at her good,
and he says that he's just really happy that she's around.
Talk about liking each other. I don't know. I really

(30:24):
like the two of them together. There's like so many
girls that I feel something with. UM. I have no
idea where it's going to unfold from here as far
as eliminations go, well, and I mean that's the thing
is right now, I think we could have probably stopped
uh and just look at this list. I mean, this
episode has a lot to it, right. We have two
rows ceremonies, Um, we have a bunch of one on ones.

(30:44):
We have a couple of group dates, like there's a
lot that goes on, uh during this episode, But once
that first row ceremony ended, I wonder if you agree
with me, and I would say that there is like
a really solid group of women left and there isn't
anyone that I'm looking at now as I look at
the you know, people left, and I would go, yeah,

(31:06):
they're on the edge, like they're going to be going home.
There's a few people. I would say, Serena, see, I
would say m J. I would say Joe, Senya. Okay.
So basically what I'm saying, Ben is like I can
predict the next row ceremony or two, but after that,

(31:26):
I'm mind boggled. And that's a great place for finally here. Actually,
I mean, that's what I'm trying to get to is
we're finally here at this season where we're like, I mean,
with Tasia, we kind of knew this at this point
in time that she was in the Zack, right, I
mean even two weeks after she showed up with Clear,
we knew she was in the Dale. Like we're back

(31:47):
to a season where it's like I have no idea
where Matt is going. I have some favorites, and I
know he does as well. Were that's very obvious to us.
But there are a lot of potential suitors here. They're
lot of potential women left that we don't know of.
And I think Matt, this is maybe the best part
is Matt is super conflicted but also super happy that

(32:10):
he has this group of women left. I think the
conflicting part is something actually beautiful because He's going, I
got a lot of great women, and I don't always
know what to do about it, but I've got a
lot of great women and I'm gonna see where these go.
That's a fun thing for us to watch his fans.
That's something that we can get into that is enjoyable
to us. So to finish up the night portion portion
of this group date, uh, we did have some great conversations.

(32:32):
It was really really beautiful. Um and he gives the
rose two Abigail, Abigail. He gives the rose to Abigail. Finally.
We see more of Abigail finally, And I mean, how
frustrating must the last couple of weeks been for her.
We've we've never doubted their relationship, we never doubted their connection.

(32:55):
I don't know if she really has either, but it's
gone weeks now, and it's a way to doubt it
this week because we've seen eliminations like Kayla's and Laurens
were like they get roses or they make a splash,
and then they're just gone with no explanation. I was like,
holy crap, is Abigail going to be like the first

(33:15):
person who gets the first impression rose and then like
they're just gone a couple of weeks into it without
ever seeing the development of the relationship. But that is
not the case this week. Abigail sat down with him
during that group date and talked. It was so it
was like so very emotional talking about how if she
were to have kids one day, presumably possibly with Matt,

(33:36):
that the kids could be to be deaf, and that
wasn't it. She also talks about how her birth father
left them at a young age and how the two
of them grew up without having a very present dad.
It was, you know, she's held onto this and you
would have loved to see us during a one on
one where she got more time to explain it to him,

(33:58):
but it was happened during group day and it felt like,
you know, for them, it was probably time to have
this conversation. Uh. It was like almost like I was
watching it, kind of like just like scrolling through my
phone watching the episode, and then this conversation started. All
of a sudden, I found myself like looking up from
my phone and just being like put my phone down
and just being like, uh, in awe of their vulnerability

(34:20):
between the two of them. They're honesty, and it felt
like it got like it was a sign again of
like how good they are together, that they can talk
through stuff that's important to them, they can relate with
each other, they can show empathy towards you each other,
they want to support each other. Um. It brought Abigail
back up in my opinion, to being a favorite, like
a comfortable favorite here along with Rachel and and a

(34:44):
few others that we'll talk about. But like now I'm
now after that conversation, I'm like, Okay, adigas here to
stay for a bit. Yeah, I agree, it kept her
through for the next couple of weeks, but I still
want to see them have a one on one. Then
at the cocktail party partition, there's m J pops up
again and she is confronted by Matt by being one

(35:06):
of the girls that apparently said one of the bullying comments,
particularly one about Varsity versus j V. The JV is
referencing the girls who are newcomers, and you could see
her getting fiery. She got mad, and of course she

(35:27):
doesn't keep it in and she sits down with Joe
Sena and they have a sharing of words in front
of some of the other girls. What do you think
about this, did you? I mean, obviously the bullying is horrible,
and j V versus Varsity is a little bit of
a bullying demonstration, but like, there's got to be more, right.

(35:48):
I think what we're seeing is like there were there
was a lot of problems going on in the house,
and it was festering for a bit. Right. You have,
maybe if you want to like like wait them. You
have the direct bullying Brittany, You have the name calling
that Victoria was bringing. You have the constant toxicity in
the house where everybody was kind of walking on eggshells

(36:08):
for a bit, and then you have the comments coming
in from this new group and the kind of the
older group, the comments they were making, and so it
all felt like probably when you're living in the house
that it's all wrapped up together, that it's just a
mean spirited environment, that it's not fun to live here
because every turn we make, somebody's being mean to us.
And so the j V Verse Varsity thing, if it
was said once or if it was said three times,

(36:29):
there was already a sensitivity towards uh bowling or meanness
in the house, and so that just kind of got
added to it, like it was like, yes, once again,
somebody makes a comment that does not make me feel
any better about myself. It actually makes me feel worse
about myself. And who's behind it, well, as we see
it's it's m J. Now you know there there are

(36:50):
some things that Justine you is like complaining about, saying,
m J, you'r three. I see three different people in you.
I see the person in front of map, the person
you are when the cameras are off, and the person
you are when the cameras are just on you. I
see three different people from you, and I don't think
I see that. I can see that through m J
as having that kind of personality. Well, and it's now
getting brought up and Matt, Matt is now confronting it.

(37:13):
He's reacting to this, He's saying, hey, I might see it.
I might not, but I want to get to the
bottom of it. I want to see this. And that's
why we see him on A two and one later on.
But right here, we're out in the date. We're just
starting to become aware, um, that there's something going on here.
Now I will say that I didn't and I mean,
if I was picky, I didn't love the way this
was approached, not by Matt, not by Justina, but by MJ.

(37:33):
It kind of came out without allowing a free place
for people to speak. It felt like, you know, there
was a pressure into the corner. Uh, there was the
you know, I'm an honest person, Um, I'm this, I'm that,
and it felt like if anybody were was going to
confront it, then they would have to get in an argument.
Now you can make the argument back and say, hey,

(37:54):
was it okay for somebody to go to Matt and
complain without confronting that person first. No, I don't only
ever think that's right. I don't think it's going on
the show or in real life. But it happened. And
so now we see this thing festering once again. And
as you said at the being in the podcast, it
felt like there was a drama up front, and there
was a drama at the end. We're gonna get to
that drama at the end. We're gonna see how that
plays out and what Matt wants to do with it.

(38:15):
But it doesn't make MJ's actions any better. And I
am more interested now than ever to see how much
of the bowling she was a part of, because we're
getting hints of it right now, but we haven't got
the clear, the clear sign that it was enough for
Matt to send her home. But before we get two
kids one on one, let's take a break here. When
we come back, when a breakdown kids one on one

(38:36):
and then the two on one that we see at
the very end of the episode and everything leading up
to that. With kids one on one, I thought it
was going to be one of those one on ones
that we get. We have to get one on one

(38:56):
like this every season where the girl gets eliminated on
the date. I thought this was going to happen specifically
because it was like a half day date. It was
join me for dinner. Kit was very excited because it
was personalized to her. She had already opened up to
him about how her favorite place to be is with
her mom in the kitchen, and I was like, this

(39:18):
has getting eliminated written all over it. Between that and
the fact that we we've seen him with kid, but
not like a whole ton to think that this was
going to definitely be going in the right direction. And
I also just thought, yeah, that the fact that it
was a half a day date and that she she
met him when it was dark. I was like, this
is gonna be so easy to just eliminate her over

(39:40):
the dinner table. But that is not how it went.
I really like Kit. I think she's awesome. Um she
is very natural and super mature seeming for one year old.
And they had what both of them thought was a
great time just making cookies. I don't know if they
actually made dinner, but they had fun. They had a

(40:01):
good conversation. Kit talked about the stresses of being the
child of someone who is so successful. Her mom is
Cynthia Rally, and like everybody, whether you know it or not,
not everybody, but most people. A lot of people have
stuff that is cynthor Rally in their house. Like if
you shop at Marshall's, you can't go through an islet

(40:23):
Marshall's without seeing something Cynthia Rally if your home or
if your closet, and uh, I just I like, I
really liked the two of them together. I don't think
that she's going to get super far um, but I
think she's going to stick around for a few more weeks.
I like her. I think she's just got like a
noble kind of personality that I appreciate. There was a

(40:43):
lot of growth that we're seeing right now with Kit.
You know, she was even talking about like, hey, she's
you know, her mom is very successful. She has these
expectations put on herself, but being on the show has
allowed her to kind of be herself again, to release
herself from expectations to not be a character. I thought
it was really great and I'm actually very intrigued to

(41:04):
see where it goes. I mean, I think she has
a lot to offer. I think she has a lot
of life experience to offer. I do think one of
the best things for her would be to know that
she doesn't have to live up to any title, expectation
or anything, that she can just be herself. And I
think if she's finding that now, I'm intrigued. Another storyline
that I'm interested in is to see how Kit grows

(41:25):
this season. I don't know if she'll be there. Man,
She's still not on my top four when it comes
to Matt, but she's up. She's moving up. This this
episode helped her UM and I thought it was a
great day for the two of them. I thought I
thought it connected them. But this was another moment where
I thought Matt was going to drop some like big
language towards her. Not maybe I love you, but like

(41:47):
I felt like he was really into her, especially as
soon as she walked in, he kind of put his
arms around her. They start kissing, they start cooking, they
they have this very intimate moment. I'm like, Matt really
likes this girl, or he wants to like this girl, uh,
which is a start. Uh. And And I'm I mean,
I was impressed with this date. I'm with you. I
didn't necessarily think, like, you're always bet at that stuff
than I am. I didn't necessarily think, hey, I'm seeing

(42:09):
the writing on the wall and this is going to
end in a rejection UM or her going home. I thought,
this isn't maybe gonna go well. Um. But I wonder
if that was ever even in his mind. I think
he was into this whole thing the whole time. But
it was set up like that. It was kind of
set up for the Hey, let's make this quick, painless,
let's go home, this is done. Um, but it didn't

(42:33):
and she's still here. I think that um, Matt knew
going into that date that it would be good, and
we the audience didn't know. We didn't. But well, now
we have a couple of solid relationships that are forming,
but a few that are not. Uh. The show ends
with a two on one date m J and Josina.
We see them kind of argue uh during the row ceremony.

(42:56):
We now see them on the epic two on one
date that one person on this podcast knows very much of. Well,
it's different. Why haven't they been doing real two on ones?
This is the second season in a row where it's
been a meet me before the cocktail party type two
on one. Yeah, this is good. This is this is
this one though, is what I'm interested in because it's

(43:18):
fiery from the start. They sit down, they're both uh,
fiery and mad, one person speaking louder than the other.
The other person then start speaking louder than the other.
It is a mess, which makes me think, actually, here's
what I'm gonna here's what I'm gonna believe that both
of them are going home after this to on one,
I agree because I don't think either of them have

(43:40):
really created a connection with Matt, so it's like he's
not losing somebody who's really developed feelings for I and
I think that's how this plays out. I also don't
think I mean, I don't know these women very well
right because we haven't seen a lot of them to
this point, But I don't think it loses a lot
of the up like of the season. I think if
we left, if these two women at home, I think

(44:00):
we're still moving on with some beautiful relationships. But uh,
we also see at the end of the episode kind
of for next week the girls are angry. S're gonna
She calls Katie uh the arsonist. Uh. Piper gets her
one on one, which I'm really excited to watch. Katie
calls someone pathetic, and Heather Martin joins the season, which

(44:21):
has got it like for any progress made to this
point with all of them kind of coming together, I
have a feeling that Heather Martin is going to take
the wrath of the House, And can I just say
this again, I don't want this to be a bashed
Victoria episode. I know everybody's going to do that this week,
but can we at least say that I'm really happy

(44:42):
that Victoria is no longer in the house when Heather
Martin's shows up, because oh my gosh, that's sweet, little
innocent soul interacting with Victoria. Just she would have gotten
it would have been it would have been really hard
to watch. Well. Actually that's why I think, Um, this
episode is Matt James is best. I think it's the
best of the season. Uh, we're gonna rate this episode

(45:05):
like we always do, Ashley. What you're rating for Matt James,
what you're rating for the episode. Matt's gonna always get
an A and the episode gets a BE. For me,
Matt's gonna get an A plus from me, and the
episode itself is going to get an A minus, which
other than maybe the first episode, um, probably even not.

(45:27):
It's definitely my favorite of the season. I enjoyed watching
this one the most, I was most interested in and
I felt like viewers, you know, this season has very
publicly been very down in ratings. Um, I think some
of that is because viewers haven't gotten invested in any stories,
and I think after this episode, we're gonna see viewers

(45:47):
get invested in stories. And I think we're gonna see
this kind of like arch going up for the rest
of the season. And I think it's a great thing
for the show. I think it's a great thing for Matt.
I think it's an awesome thing for the contestants. And
I'm excited to watch the rest of at James season
as the Bachelor and his pursuit to love well Ashley.
When we come back, we're having Natasha Parker on. She's

(46:09):
the co host of Clickbait. She's all over the place
right now. She's doing incredible things. She was on Peter
Webber season of The Bachelor, uh and uh, and we's
gonna do some Bachelor headlines. So we'll be back with
the Almost Famous podcast. Well, as promised, Natasha Parker is

(46:32):
on our podcast. Natasha Parker has been up to a
lot in her life and a lot recently. She is
the co host on Clickbait you Can Listen To Whatever
You Listen To podcast. She was also on Peter Webber
season of The Bachelor eliminated Week seven. However, she is
a great co host. I was just on Clickbait very recently,
Natasha Parker, Welcome to Almost Famous. Thank you hi guys,

(46:57):
HIHN again and I just saw you last week. Good
to see you again. It's good to see you. Were
you on click bait last week? Then I was talking everything, gossip, everything,
clicky everything, book. Uh. It was a good experience. It
was a good time. It's actually where that headline came
from that said, hey, Matt James doesn't know anything. And
I was like, that's not at all what I said.

(47:18):
I didn't say it like that, like come on, um,
but I guess that's what happens, uh every once in
a while. Natasha, Uh, you are busy with clickbait? How
did this all happen? Like, how did this work out
to have you come on as a co host? Well,
m where do we start? Tasha and Joe and hannah An,

(47:40):
as you know, were the original cast or the really
really original host for a Clickbait And Hannah Ann decided
that she wanted to do her other things that you know,
all the things that she has going on. She's cooking
her I mean, she's literally like I don't understand how
she has so much energy for Instagram. She is the instagraman. Uh,

(48:03):
and so she decided that she just wanted to kind
of start everybody off, and they were looking and I
started doing some testing with them. I of course have
been friendly with Tatia and I know Tasia. Joe's from Chicago.
I'm from Chicago. I had met him once before. And uh,
I think because I started doing these tea rooms on
Instagram Instagram Live, these little like tea rooms, people from

(48:24):
my season, people just saw that I was interested in
having conversations with people about almost any pretty much anything,
pretty much anything, And uh, I got a call to
do some tests and I was like, sure, Yeah, I've
always wanted my own podcast, so let's do it. And
then we just had a good vibe. They were looking
for a good vibe of Tassia and Joe since they

(48:44):
are the original co host, and we just had a
good vibe and I and I absolutely love it. They
are They're so funny, and we all have a very
different outlook on a lot of different things and it
just works. It does well. Um, you actually have a
pretty good background in media. You're a teaving producer, your
marketing director, you worked for HBO marketing for five years.

(49:06):
Is that what you were doing going into Peter season?
And are you still doing that? So I left HBO
in two thousand and eighteen. But yes, I had a
full career for ten years working as a working in
production and as a producer. And I've always been behind
the scenes. I've always wanted to be behind the scenes.

(49:27):
I never wanted to be on the on the scene.
That makes sense, uh, And so I decided to when
I left HBO. It just really the the environment. It
was something that I mean, I worked so much all
the time and I was just ready. I just felt
very unbalanced. I was like, I'm going to give this
a break. And then I got into marketing and hospitality

(49:49):
marketing and that really served me better, I guess, for
my lifestyle. And then I got into yoga way more
when I had time to actually practice yoga and meditate
that then I became a teacher for that after Peter season,
and um, yeah, so event planned. I mean I was
doing events when I went to Peter season, and it
was all under the marketing umbrella and brand marketing for hospitality.

(50:13):
So you said that you never wanted to be on
the scene, and then how did you sign up with
the show? Well, that's another thing that was just very uh,
very interesting. I have a I have a friend who
is a producer on the show. She's been a producer
on the show for years, and she asked me many times, like, oh,
would you ever do the show? Wouldever to show? I
was like, no, no, no, no no. And my always
my excuse was I'm not leaving my corporate job to

(50:35):
go beyond a TV show. I'm not doing it. So
when I finally left my corporate job just on my own,
She's like, well, you're still single, and you could potentially
fall in love with this guy who I've been spending
time with for the last two months, and knowing you
and knowing him, I actually think you'd like him. And really,
I wasn't. I just finished an event. I didn't have

(50:56):
anything else coming up for the foreseeable, you know, month
or two. I was like, you know what, I'm spontaneous.
Let's just see what happens. I might leave the first night.
I don't even know, And I just did it, like
on a whim. And I'm glad that I did, but
I am kind of mad at myself because I never
watched the show beforehand either, So that was it was
very hard to navigate and know what was going on.

(51:19):
And looking back when I watched the show, I was like, Oh,
she definitely knew what was going she knew to do that. Yeah,
I didn't know to do that. Yeah I didn't know that.
Yeah I didn't. You know, I didn't know to keep
my mouth shut, and I never kept my mouth shut. Yeah,
but you were so likable because of that. You just
kept it real and you said what everybody was thinking. Yeah,

(51:39):
And I got a lot of messages about that, and
and and it was almost frustrating for me because a
lot of times people didn't say things and I was
just like I literally looked at Peter as a boyfriend
and like, I know we were on a TV show,
but as a in real life, if you cancel a
date on me, I don't care what it's for, I'm
gonna be mad. So I gotta express that to you. Yes,

(52:01):
other girls were like, it's fine, it's okay, and I
was like, it's not. You're like, I have never watched
this show before, and I know what is right and
what's wrong in the world real world exactly exactly. So yeah,
I I definitely. I don't regret not watching it though
it was just coming off the show and being broken
up with I would have like that was the first

(52:22):
thing I did when I came home. I watched like
there's like on YouTube all the like famous Bachelor breakups.
I was like, Oh, great, it's not just me feeling
like this. It's fantastic. Okay, good, Well that had to
be fun to watch. Nothing more said than that. Well, Natasha, Uh,
you now find yourself as the co host of Clickbait. Um.

(52:43):
Now we talked about how you got into it, but
tell us about that podcast, Like, what are you hoping
everybody kind of gets out of it? Where do you
think this goes? I hope that when people tune in
a clickbait it is somewhere where they can feel in
attained but also get a real perspective and more of
like an inside look, because as people know, if they

(53:05):
did watch my season, I am going to say exactly
how I feel, regardless of it's an unpopular opinion or not.
And I think that in this Bachelor Nation world, we
tiptoe around a lot of things. And yeah, we we
tiptoe around a lot, and we don't have to and
I think we're seeing more and more real conversations happening

(53:28):
on the actual show, which is prompting hosts like you,
like Ben, like us to talk about these real things
that are going on and not being afraid of that,
and and same thing with Joe, samething with Tassia. There's
things that come up and we all have different opinions.
So I wanted to be a place where people can
here a real outlook on things, but also love and light.

(53:52):
You know, I'm all about that in entertainment in general.
So if we're going to have people come to our podcast,
of course we want them to be entertained as well.
And we want to you know, shoot this and talk
to each other. And Tasia and Joe, let me, Tasha
and I we go. We go in on Joe a lot.

(54:13):
It's easy to do well, you know. The well brings
us to this point, right, I mean, you do have
your opinions you're watching this season, Um, there is a
lot of topics to be discussed obviously that you can't
really dance around, Like bullying is very much present right
now in that house on this show. How what are
your opinions? How have you confronted it? How do you

(54:34):
usually speak upon these things. I try to give the
ladies grace in general for going on a show and
being so vulnerable on the show period. So I try
to see both sides, like you know, especially on our podcast,
if if Tashia and Joe feel a certain way, I
try to be Devil's advocate and try to talk about

(54:56):
the other way of it. I understand that bullying is
a big thing on are in in this season, but
I also understand that people take that word out of
context a lot. We are seeing it on this on
this season and making accusations about people that just you
don't know are true, and making that a thing and

(55:17):
being said, we do have to show people grace in
that world. But the disagreements, you know, Ashley, me and
you were dating the same guy, We're gonna have disagreements, right,
Completely agree with what you're saying, because there are times
in the house that they overuse the word bullying and
you're like, that's not true bullying. That's like you being annoyed,

(55:39):
that's like being a little sad. Yeah, that's you being upset. Yeah,
you can't use that word, but in this case, yeah,
it's it's true. Bullying and then to your other points
when you are dating the same guy and you do
have so many women in the house, like there's going
to be natural drama and you're probably going to say

(55:59):
things that you regret, Like I know, I sure left
up quite a few times, but like you also kind
of need to put it in context as to like
where it's happening, and that like a person can have
a slip and you have to be able to give
them grace for that one slip. Now, if it like
continues to be like a character pattern, that's totally different,

(56:22):
which does seem to be like with Victoria. Yeah, but
we want to there's something about owning it, own it
own the fact that you were you see yourself now
and you don't like what you see own that you
know there. I'm sure there's things that you would have changed.
There's things that I would have definitely changed on my

(56:43):
season as well. But when it came to the Kumbaya
mentality as well, let's call bullish on the Kumbaya mentality
also because it's like everyone being happy. I was never
happy and the other one on one and I didn't
I was not happy. No, I remember distinctively this one

(57:04):
time where I was like, this is bullsh guys, why
are you like clapping and cheering because she got the
card At this point in the competition, we're not happy
for everyone, and you guys are being phony and I
got I got a crap for that, but you're right.
It's just like sometimes like let's just be a little
real here, but not Victoria's style real. Well yeah, yeah exactly.

(57:26):
And it also then brings us into this like you're
watching the season, you're saying, uh, there's definitely some crap
going on. But the one thing that's been um tough
to watch, and we've talked about any times this podcast
and weeks previous, is you know, the drama, the bowling
that whatever has taken over the love stories. We only
have to see a lot of these love stories unfold,
and it's been hard to watch. Who are your top
favorites right now for Matt, maybe like top three. If

(57:49):
you had to choose um for Matt, I would definitely
say Michelle. They're one on one, seemed magical, interesting, even
though she was brand new, even she just it just
seemed like, yo, this is a like it was a fit.
It was and you can tell he's very competitive. You
also could tell that she's very competitive and like love

(58:12):
her Bree as well. Bree I picked her from the
way beginning just because of her story. It's very similar
to Matt's as well. And she just seems even though
she's twenty four, I think she's twenty four, she just
seems very mature and like, I'm a woman with a
plan and a mission. And after this week looking, you know,

(58:36):
seeing him and Rachel on their date, he just lights up.
He lights up with her, and their date was just
so magical too. It's like, I think about Breeze date
and she was all muddy, that's saying, look a nightmare
for me personally, but she was such a good sport
about it. But then I look at the shopping date
and I'm like, I just want to be a princess.
That's it. That's all. So picking that date for her,

(59:00):
I think it's also whoever got that date. He's definitely
really into that person for sure. Yeah. So those three
those are my those are my three. Al Right. Well, Natasha,
we loved having you. It's so nice to meeting you.
And you guys, if you want to listen to clickbait
everywherehere podcasts are and it's not just about Bachelor click
baby headlines. It's about like all pop culture, which is

(59:22):
really fun. Yeah, we get into a lot of relationship
dating stuff on our podcast and you can listen to
us on the one dree app on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, serious,
wherever you guys listen to podcasts, check us out. Well, hey,
you're the best. Thanks for coming on, Natasha Park everybody,
thank you guys. Well, it's time for Bachelor headlines. As always,

(59:47):
I'm gonna read the headline. Ashley is going to educate
us all on what is happening. I'll throw my two
cents in there because I'm always confused, intrigued and curious.
Ashley first headline is this, we're just kind of consolidate
all these head because there's a lot about Clariendale recently,
Um Claireendale. Yes, as we've spoken about many times, they
have split. Um. Now both of them have came out

(01:00:08):
publicly and talked about this split. Uh. Claire has came
out recently talked little bit more Dale's back, um saying
he's wrecked. Ashley, can you just catch us all up
on what is going on with Clarien Dale? And we're
as like, fans, where where do we need to stand? Well?
I stand with Claire. Claire got on her Instagram live

(01:00:32):
a couple of days ago, and she seemed to actually
be pretty uppyat She talked about being in a dark place.
Of course you're going to be in a dark place.
Her mom has Alzheimer's. She said that she was just
dealing with all you know, still like kind of suffering
from all the backlash that she got on social media
as being the bachelorette and then she had this huge

(01:00:52):
public breakup, Like of course she's in a dark place,
but she actually it really it seemed to be taking
a turn because she's like she's feeling good. She said
that on Instagram this week that she's happy about funny
animal videos, getting to visit her mom, a new project,
she's furniture shopping, she went on a trip with her

(01:01:14):
sister just get out and get some fresh, snowy air
in her lungs. She said that she's really loving her
post pandemic trips, her music playlist and her friends reaching out.
And in this video the Instagram live that I watched,
she was really just talking about like how grateful she
is for the little things that people have done for

(01:01:36):
her to make her feel better during this hard time.
She talked about being at the nail place and how
they kind of like just knew what she was going
through without you know, anybody saying anything because she's a
public figure. They gave her a little massage. She just
felt like she got like treated. She just feel like
she got it really, you know, treated um because people

(01:01:59):
just we're thinking about what she was going through, and
she just said, just kind of be aware of what everybody,
everybody might be having. You know, you never know when
somebody's having a hard day, so like always go out
of your way to add a little something nice to
their day. She also talked about how, um, there was
this TikTok. There's that phone viral where somebody on the

(01:02:22):
platform posted a TikTok that they had just met Claire
down in San Diego and that she wasn't friendly, and
she was like, well, just want to let you know
that I wasn't friendly right then because I had just
had a panic attack and I went outside to get
air and tried to recover from it. And I'm pretty
sure it was also the weekend that she was breaking
up with Claire, with Dale, So yeah, not the best time.

(01:02:45):
So she's like, how about taking to consideration what people
might be going through in the moment before you just
slander them. It's a wild event. Uh. Their breakup has
been it hasn't been clean, it's been everything and messy. Uh.
And obviously there's been a lot of opinions going around.

(01:03:06):
Now we don't know the insides and the out of
what happened to really cause the breakup, but you know,
there's been assumptions being made. Um, it just feels like
right now, Uh, I guess we hope that like Claire
can just move on from it because it feels like
it could be all consuming. It sounds like she's doing

(01:03:26):
a good job at it. Well. One of the relationships
coming from that season was Tasia and Zach's. This is
a really beautiful headline by people here. Bachelor A's Zach
Clark opens up about navigating his sobriety in relationship with
Tasia Adams. I think we read this headline because it's
really incredible to hear how Tassia and Zach have worked

(01:03:47):
together in their relationship already. I mean, they're pretty fresh
themselves and helping carry each other's Burdens. Yeah, so basically
never been in a relationship with somebody who's had who's
been sober, so she had an open mind about it,
Zack said. But she also didn't shy away from certain questions,

(01:04:10):
like she even said if I drink, can I kiss you?
And I was like, yeah, you're good. He says that
she kind of reserved time to learn about his sobriety
during the season so that she would be able to
understand him and what he goes through better. Um. He
also said that she's exposing herself to his personal recovery

(01:04:35):
and getting to know what that looks like, and about
getting to know his sober friends, all while living in
New York with him. It's really awesome to hear because
obviously that was something that Zac opened up about on
the show. It wasn't something that comes easy to him obviously, Um,
but to hear that, you know, that's just a sign
of an awesome relationship. Is where you're seeing the one

(01:04:57):
partners say, Okay, I know that you're not You're coming
into this relationship with stuff, right, all of us have stuff,
And how can I best be a partner to you
no matter what your stuff is? I don't know. I
just I found that to be a really incredible thing
and something that we should celebrate Tashawn and Zach uh
in their relationship. And it's a good update. It sounds
like they're doing well. Uh. Well, another headline from this

(01:05:21):
season they came out is, uh, you know Sarah Trot
who went home uh was being accused of having a
boyfriend before and now after her exit from the show. Well,
according to Entertainment Tonight, she is denying those claims Ashley,
what do we know? First off, I want to mention

(01:05:41):
she was This is not her rumored dating with um
G Easy that was last March. Apparently she was dating
another DJ DJ ju um His also his name is
Ben Dorman, and they were reported by the Sun to
having gone to Mexico in August. Um. But her rep

(01:06:06):
which I have to roll my eyes a little bit already,
she has management, Uh says Sarah unequivocally did not have
a boyfriend before, during, or after her appearance on the Bachelor.
She says that Ben and Sarah had a fun trip
with mutual friends, and while their relationship may have been
may have had some intimate moments between them, it did

(01:06:28):
not lead to a relationship. She went to Cabbo single
and came back single, and she's still on her journey
to find love, which is why she agreed to go
on The Bachelor a month or so after this vacation.
And there we go. Well that's all we know for now.
Bachelor's Queen Victoria Larson apologizes the fellow contestants amid accusations

(01:06:50):
of bullying. The quote is, according to US Weekly, I'll
do better next time. Well, is she referring to paradise?
She assuming she's going to be in paradise. Um, well,
she says that, I think in my effort to make
my opinions heard, because we know she's all about her
opinions being heard, like she discussed in that conversation with

(01:07:12):
Katie last week, it may have been perceived as I
was bullying by some and I feel if my and
I feel bad if my words are actions offended anyone.
I take each time each day to reflect and learn
the lessons. Um yeah, I'm just like not really buying it.

(01:07:36):
Like perhaps when I hear her verbally talk about it,
I'll be able to have a better gauge on the
authenticity of these of of this apology. But the fact
that she says, like, I think in my effort to
make my opinions heard, it was perceived as bullying by some.
That's just kind of like blaming other people's interpretations of
your behavior instead of like taking accountability for you actually

(01:08:00):
is having some very few moments. Yeah, I would agree.
At some point you just kind of have to own
up to it and and you have to start wanting
to understand it. And it doesn't sound like quite she's
quite there yet, and we'll see if she goes on Paradise,
will be able to understand more. Well. This will also
say that she she apologized privately, apparently to some cast members. Well,

(01:08:21):
we'll take that into consideration. It's a great start and
uh and hey, we hope that through the show everybody
will learn a little bit of something about themselves. And
watching it back, well, you know, you you have to
see yourself in your actions and sometimes I know with me,
I didn't always love my actions, and so you have
to understand, get better, move you know, move forward, but

(01:08:42):
also know that there was you know, probably some damage
done in the wake. And so it's good that she's
starting the apology to her um and I hope it continues, Uh. Well,
speaking of apologies, Caitlin Bristow apologize to Bachelor's Chelsea Vaughan
for comparing hair stories and uh. Caitlin's quote is, I
was completely ignorant, as according to US magazine. Okay, so

(01:09:06):
what happened last week was Caitlin was watching the Bachelor episode,
as she describes in this statement, and when Chelsea started
talking about her being insecure with her hair and it
being a like an emotional attachment, you know, like car
is it could be an emotional thing. But she was

(01:09:26):
talking about how she was insecure with her with her
hair to Jason, and then she kind of just didn't
really listen to the rest of Chelsea's story, didn't see
how race played a part of it. And um, she
went on I think her Instagram or it was an
it was some sort of ad, and she compared her
hair insecurities with Chelsea's insecurities from this past episode, and um,

(01:09:51):
then you know, she quickly discovered that they are not
the same. That Chelsea's story, um about her hair is
not really something she should be relating to. And she
apologized to Chelsea in a public apology and in a
private apology Caitlin says that she feels completely completely ignorant.

(01:10:15):
She was ignorant in the moment, that she did not
listen to the rest of the story or understand the
history behind the story as to why Chelsea is insecure
over her hair. She said that she owes Chelsea apology,
which I just mentioned. She she did do publicly and privately,
and she said that she owes a lot of people
who are following her an apology for her ignorance. She

(01:10:35):
said that what she did was what I did by
going to my Instagram and doing a paid partnership comparing
my story to Chelsea's about insecurity that my hair was
just wrong. She says she feels humiliated. I am so
humiliated that I did not listen. Andy Dorfman says she
would pick Chris Souls if she did her Bachelorette season
over again. Hey, this article is according to Entertainment Tonight. However,

(01:11:00):
we have audio proof according to our in depth episode,
that Andy Dorfman actually said that to us. First. Yeah,
apparently she said it on another podcast this week, the
Hollywood Raw podcast, and now it's a headline. But guys,
if you are a dedicated almost famous listener, you know

(01:11:20):
that we broke this news months ago. We did. Well, hey,
we just had to get it out there. Anyways, Uh,
Nick File and Natalie Joy we talked about it last week.
They go Instagram official in suitet video that according to
US Weekly, So it's Instagram official if you want to
call it Instagram official, but in no way says hey,
Nick is my boyfriend. It's just Natalie posting a video

(01:11:45):
of Nick while he's playing with his um what is that?
What are those called? What's an oculus? It's one of
those virtual reality game things. Uh. So Yeah, it's the
first time that one of them has posted of each
shother on their Instagram. And I can just tell you
guys that in September Natalie said that she is the

(01:12:08):
happiest she's ever been, and yeah, Nick is probably the
happiest I've seen him in quite some time. Yeah, he
seems thrilled and uh it's very cute. So we look
forward to two more updates on that relationship. Uh. Moving forward, Well, Uh,
one relationship in Batchel Nation that's very known by the public. Uh,

(01:12:29):
Dylan and Hannah. Well, Dylan made news this week. I
would say, kind of out of nowhere. I didn't know
he felt this way. Uh it was I was reading
Twitter the next day and I was like, Wow, this
is surprising coming from him. Hannahkes came out at this
point and also said that she was dealing with the
mess that was caused. Well, Ashley explained to US Dylan

(01:12:50):
Barber slams the Bachelor franchise, claims Jed Wyatt never cheated
on Hannah Brown and many other things. This according to
US Weekly. Okay, so I think len Nooise maybe just
trying to make a splash here because he tweeted cancel
ABC and The Bachelor kind of want to air out
their dirty laundry. Mom got me riled up? Ask away, um.

(01:13:15):
Then he proceeded to talk about the franchise not caring
about people's like mental health or not looking out for
their best interests. It's like, yeah, you are a character
on the show. They're not going to always be looking
out for your best interests. Well, you, guys, I don't
understand the grammar here, but this is the quote. You've
got to understand the game. They get paid off you

(01:13:38):
doing that warrant screen time. Okay, so if you're doing
something stupid, he's saying, then they benefit from it. He
also says that it's easy to make a bad person
look worse, it's hard to make a good person look bad. Um. Yeah,
he's just like kind of blah blah blah, and he's

(01:13:59):
mad at We don't really but I think it's it comes.
It's coming from the fact that he's friends with Jed.
And he said that Jed never cheated on Hannah, which
I I didn't think that it was ever a thing
that Jed cheated on Hannah. I thought the whole issue
was that he had a girlfriend when he met Hannah.

(01:14:21):
Wasn't that the controversy. I don't think anybody ever said
that Jed was cheating on Hannah. I can't fully remember.
But it's very I mean, Jed's been great to us
in this podcast. He's done a couple of shows with us.
He's promoted his music with us. Um, we have never
talked to him. I think we've had him on and
in depth, and we spoke to him about the situation
and he claimed that it was messy and that you know,

(01:14:44):
he wasn't dating this girl at the time. I thought that, Yes,
I think I remember that being the thing, but it's
very obvious that Dylan had a lot of build up frustration.
I mean he and it's not the first here recently, right,
we saw it with Luke Parker. Well, Luke Parker, as
we uh you know announced was was actually sued by
the Bachelor franchise. Um, but it felt like Dylan had

(01:15:05):
a lot held up. He expressed it via Twitter, uh
and I mean as Hannah kind of mentioned like, there
was a lot of reaction to it. This became a headline.
It's still a headline today a couple of days later. So, um,
we'll see where this goes and if if Dylan, I
don't know if Dylan has came out publicly yet and
said anything about it, but it definitely came out of nowhere.

(01:15:26):
For me, had no clue he felt so strongly about this. Well,
former Bachelor at Hannah Brown spotted holding hands with model
Adam Woollard. Well, as we reported a week or two ago,
Hannah's got a new man, and I think a lot
of the blog the bloggers picked up on it, a

(01:15:47):
lot of the sleuthors out there rather, they picked up
on it. And now I think we get our confirmation
by the fact that they're holding hands on a weekend
stroll an Abbot Kinney around Venice Beach. It's cute and
uh and obviously, uh, we can probably say officially that
Hannah Brown at least has an interest, like she's at

(01:16:08):
least she she's in something, she's dating. Good for Hannah Brown,
she's back at it, she's back on the market. Things
are going well. Well, that's all the headlines we have
for today. Ashley, Um, let's break down some listener emails.
Some of them really uh hit home, especially when it

(01:16:28):
comes uh to this episode. I'm gonna start with this one. Um,
just the easy one to get a started. Liz asked,
how do you decide who reads the date card? Does
production say who has to read it? Ashley take it away?
Yes they do. It's pretty simple, pretty simple answer there.
They just kind of pull aside a girl and say, hey,

(01:16:50):
the door is gonna know, there's gonna be a knock
at the door soon. You you run and go get it.
I think it's usually uh, you know, they arrange it
so obviously the person who's not going on the one
on one is reading the day card for themselves. Yeah. Yeah,
it's uh, it's but it never is that big a deal, right,
Like it's never like, oh my gosh, I want to
get the day card. Like I've never seen anybody get

(01:17:12):
too excited about that. Um hey, Kimberly asks. Over the years,
we could laugh at Karen and Demi and the plenty
of other villains that have appeared, but we've always had
the opportunity to learn more about them, grow to like them,
or at least be neutral. The level of bullying that
has gone on this season is atrocious and cringeworthy and

(01:17:32):
has no business being supported or promoted as entertainment. It
isn't entertaining to watch, as most moments with the girls
take me back to moments in grade school in high school.
I would agree. I wish I could erase from memory.
It's awful to wash watch friendships grow over buling at
the expense of others. My husband put it best, it
just looks like the beginning of the end of the Bachelor. Wow.

(01:17:55):
Whoa wow. Well, I think that what's going to happen
is they're just going to take this feedback from the
fans because we all hate the bullying, and we hate
the girl, and we hate you know, this women not
supporting women thing that they're doing right now, and I
think they just won't do it again. I just feel
like they'll they won't cast somebody like Victoria. They know

(01:18:18):
now that we love villains that we can learn to
love like Demi or like Karin, not just straight up
villains who have like no character development beyond that. Jennifer
asks or writes us to start, I'll say this, I
don't I didn't really like Matt was chosen as the Bachelor.
Nothing personal, but as a die hard Bachelor Nation fan,

(01:18:41):
I was not loving that he was chosen as a
lead without ever being on the show. That being said,
I have no problem admitting he is quite possibly in
my top three Bachelor's. I love Matt more and more
every week. What I don't love is the toxic behavior
from some of the women on the season that I find.
It seems I or his pattern is to pick one

(01:19:01):
girl she deems a threat or just an easy target,
and focus on how she can get that girl out.
First it was Maryland, then it was Sarah, Now it's
New Girls. I mean. Then she goes on. Jennifer goes
on to say the mean commons and Bowling are not
only appalling, but so disgusting. I'm wondering your input as
two people who are connected to the franchise. Um, you

(01:19:27):
go first, Yes, I agree. Um, I don't think has
actually just said this will continue. I think what the
show will do from here on out is to allow
the lead to become aware of these situations earlier on,
so we don't see it for a few weeks. Uh
so the lead cann then step in and hopefully stop it.
I mean, you know, the one criticism of Peter is

(01:19:48):
he didn't stop drama. He knew of it and he
didn't stop it. I think with Matt and most leads,
they usually try to stop it, and so I think
the show will show the lead stepping in and saying, no,
this isn't okay, we need to to be her here.
I think that's how they'll stop it from happening. Um,
but I agree. I love Matt James as a Bachelor.
I think he's great. I think it was unfun to

(01:20:10):
watch his season because of the drama that was unfolding
around him. I think it will be better from here
on out, or at least I hope so. Like I
said earlier in the episode, I do think that once
this Ja Sena m J thing is resolved, we won't
have to deal with the drama anymore. And like I
just said, I do think that they're going to listen

(01:20:32):
to the fans and give more of a romantic Tasia
esque season next time around. That's right. Carly reveals whether
or not she'll get back together with Evan. Okay, so
Carly really, uh, she put a lot out there this week. First,
she says that she's just terrified of the idea of

(01:20:53):
dating again. She never planned on doing it. Then, when
asked if or I don't even know, she was asked,
I think she just kind of off it up. She
was like, would Evan and I ever get back together?
She said, it takes two to make that happen. Um.
Then somebody said would you ever be on the Bachelor

(01:21:14):
franchise again? And she said that she'd be so embarrassed.
She said, when I think about that, I just start
laughing because I can't even imagine walking up to Chris
Harrison and being like, here I am again. I'd be
so embarrassed. It didn't really work out for me, So
what makes me think it would happen? Yeah, that that
would be kind of funny. I would I would agree,

(01:21:36):
Like I think I would be embarrassed at that point. Actley,
what a great episode, horrific job today, terrific episode on
Matt's part, and uh for the season of the Bachelor. Uh,
we'll be back next week breaking down another one of
Matt's episodes. We have some really exciting stuff that I
don't want to announce yet that will be coming up
this week and in the weeks following when it comes

(01:21:57):
to the Almost Famous podcast. But then, once again, I
just want to end this uh with reminding everybody of
our live event. Uh. We will have a few different tiers. Uh,
this will be really great. Uh. The hundred promo codes
the event have been used, but we are now going
to add a ticket that allows you to get access
to the event and you will receive a signed copy

(01:22:21):
of my book alone in plain site. There are also
still meet and greet packages available, which will include a
copy of my book. It won't be signed, will be
a copy and we'll hang out with you for a bit. Uh.
It's gonna be really great event. We have some friends
coming in. I'm really looking forward to it. Make sure
you visit events dot loop live, dot com, slash Almost
Famous for tickets. A portion of the proceeds from our

(01:22:42):
live event will go to save our stages. Hey Ashley,
it's been awesome. I've been been, I've been Ashley by guys.
Follow the Benn and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on
iHeart Radio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Ben Higgins

Ashley Iaconetti

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