Love is in the Clare

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Benn and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast
with I R Radio Ashley. When we started this season out,
we were just talking about how we made it through quarantine.
We we hung in there. Uh, we did a great
job at it. I will give us a compliment, say,
I think we did a great job getting through quarantine.
We were so pumped for a season of The Bachelorette

(00:22):
and to our in in a lot of ways. Surprise,
we now have two seasons of the Bachelorette to break down. Yeah,
so why is Bachelor Nation complaining about this? I'm a
little bit mind boggled by people giving Claire so much flak.
It's like, you guys had an issue last season because

(00:43):
Peter was not decisive enough, and now Claire's just too
decisive and you're annoyed that she ended her part of
the season early. Now you get two bachelorettes. What's sort
of complain about two amazing women as leads. Well, in fact,
last night I tweeted, hey, be nice to Claire. Uh Um,
I can get that, Like people are upset with how
she handled it. I can actually understand what people are, like, Hey,

(01:04):
why please clarify for me? I just understand that people
might not love the way she handled things that they
wanted her to me be my more for uh an
ode to the time we're in bipartisan, more open, uh less.
Initially into Dale because it felt like the first three
weeks were Clarion Dale, Clariondale. We didn't get that know

(01:25):
any of these guys. I I can get where people
are like, hey, I don't I don't enjoy watching Claire
for this. I I personally did, but I can understand
that now. What I can't understand then is why people
are being mean to Claire, Like you can dislike how
she handled it, but you cannot criticize the fact that
she pursued love. She went out of her way to

(01:48):
make this love happen as soon as possible. She was
never fake. And when I tweeted this last night, I
got a reaction from somebody saying, no, we wanted a
full season. We only got three episodes. To my responses,
not a good argument. You're gonna get a whole season,
Like you're gonna get a full season now. You just
get two bachelorettes, both incredible women, and we get to

(02:10):
see Tasia on our screens, which we've been waiting for
for years. Are people annoy that they're not getting more
Claire Because I would have liked to see Clarendale a
little bit more. I can see complaining about that. But
to complain that you're not getting a full season, I
feel like a silly because Tassia's season is going. Tasia's
part of the season is going to feel like a
full season. You guys are gonna get like eight episodes

(02:32):
with her. Yeah, we're actually gonna know the guy's names
because I don't know any of these dudes names right now. Okay,
so that's great. We're gonna talk to Chris Harrison later
and break down the episode further. Uh, talk a lot
about Clarendale's connection, but right now, I want to talk
about Tasha and the guys that you see Tasha being
compatible with, because I think it's super interesting that we

(02:54):
the audience now know the guys better than the lead
going into it. So who do you who do you
see that a match with? I don't know. I have
some interesting theories, actually, I really do, And I am
excited for Tasha. I'm excited that we get to watch her.
I think she's great. What are your interesting theories? Yeah,
I'll definitely tell you here. But you know, my thought

(03:16):
on this whole thing is, if you're upset with Claire,
like you should be, you should be celebrating the fact that,
like now we have a new back to Arete and
so like your should be happy all the way around
right now, and especially with Tasha being uh the lead.
She is an incredible person and I think Chris Harrison
said the best in fact, Um, you know, obviously I

(03:37):
get to talk to Chris away from all of this,
and he has nothing but incredible things to say about Tasha. Um,
just as a human and we've been around her. We
love her. She's been great to us. She traveled to
i Heeart Fest with us in Las Vegas. Um, we
just but yeah, she's just great. So here's my theory,
Ashley h I think Ben Bennett is the right thinking

(04:00):
star of this season. I really think this whole like
whispering rumor that you know, I think Nick File tweeted
it first, so I had to give him credit. But
like you hear it more and more like Bennett is
going to rise from the ashes and be incredibly likable.
I honestly think Tasia and Bennett might run off in
this thing together. Okay, So yeah, I think that because

(04:22):
we've seen a bit of we've been teased Bennett so far,
that means that he'll be more of a character along
the way. He has shown glimmers of being a real gentleman.
He's really made all the right moves when it comes
to his one on one time with Claire, even though
she was distracted by Dale. And then, um, I think

(04:45):
he's super self aware, Like he leans into the Harvard
thing in such a hilarious way, like, you know, he's
not taking himself too seriously, which is a quality of
somebody that I love. Um, and then he looks like
Clark Kent, you know, like he really pulls off the
Superman thing and he really is just seems like an
immortal among them. Here's here's another thought I have. Here's

(05:09):
my other theory. I think it's gonna be really hard
for these guys to be unlikable because we've seen them
go through so much up to this point that I
feel like, at least for me, and I want to
hear what you think, I'm just rooting for them, like
all of them at this point, to have a fair shot.
So my question, see, you actually will we see a
lot of drama during Tatia's run, or is this gonna

(05:31):
be just like a love story here getting to know people? No,
I think like all the drama really happened in the
first four episodes between Dale and Claire and then Yoseph.
I think Yoseph is going to be the only villain
of the season. I don't think there's gonna be like
a guy who rises to become the new villain. I
think they're all pretty empathetic characters. Um. I think other

(05:54):
people to watch out for would be um damar Ben.
But Ben is his name, right? Yeah? I think it's
been Yeah. I think it's funny that we're like questioning
the guy's names because like I really don't know them
and we're four weeks saying uh yeah. And when we
watched the screeners, they don't have the name on the bottom,

(06:16):
which is sometimes frustrating. So demarrow Ben. I really loved Riley.
You know, Riley was the one that danced with Claire
as if they were at prom. And then I think
that Chason will also can make like top eight at least. Well,
let's pause here, UM kind of wrap all this into

(06:39):
um some type of linear movements. So now we have
Tasias the Bachelor atte Ashley and I have just told
you who we think is gonna rise and shine Ivan
Ivan too. I think we just named all of the guys.
Um in fact um. Now here's the big storylines that
I thought we were going to get more from at
the end of the episode. We didn't, um, and I'm

(07:01):
glad we didn't. But there's uh, Blake and Jason, who
really seem like they're the two that, for lack of
a term, like wear their hearts on their sleeves. They
really invested into this whole experience. They really wanted to
see this work with Claire. They stuck around. Uh, we
got hints of this story kind of coming to the surface.
Wondering if they're going to show up or not. What

(07:23):
happens with Blake and and Jason from this point forward,
that's a great question. I feel like one of I
think I feel like one of them is gonna leave.
They're gonna give Tasia the night one shot. Um, They're
going to see if there's any sort of instantaneous connection.
But I don't think these two are gonna wait around
for a connection that grows. And I don't really blame

(07:49):
them because looking at it from a viewer's point, because
it's been a few years since I've been in it,
I'm like, ah, come on, you guys, be fine. Look
at how beautiful Tasia is, and she's so wonderful and
glow like she's just she's got such a bright personality,
Like why would you have an issue with this? But
then I think, and I put myself back in the house,

(08:10):
and if some if I say, Crystals and I were
just really hitting it off in the bachom acson to
the Bachelor, if he was just plucked away, I can't
really imagine being able to reset that fast. What about you? Well,
it really brings up our eternal question that has lived
on this podcast for three years now is how soon

(08:32):
is too soon to move on? Um that really this
really is going to highlight if they can move on
within twenty four hours to totally find love again. Now.
I don't know if they're in love with Claire. I
don't know to the extent of that relationship and what
they invested into it, but they will have to ask
themselves the question, Hey, I wasn't chosen Claire in as
Sence broke up with me. That's yeah, Yeah, that's what

(08:57):
they need to focus on. They're like, we're not gonna
get back with Claire. There's no way to get back
together with Claire. She's gone. So if she's gone, as
one as well, just start the fresh page as fast
as possible, but maybe easier than done, it might be.
It's gonna be interesting to see that play out. This

(09:18):
is different than the Caitlin brit Britt situation because, um, now,
you know, I think the show did a great job
by prientation. I think this was an incredible um performance
on the fact of the on behalf of the show
just to make this happen in the way that did.
And as we talked about, Chris Harrison is gonna talk
a little bit more, a lot more about that and
what that process actually looked like behind the scenes here.

(09:40):
Um in just a little bit. But I still think
there's something to come. We saw in the previews Ashley
that everything is about the change, which is a very
common Chris Harrison line. M hmm. I think the big
change is there there's new guys coming in. I think
we're back to twenty four guys starting this next episode.

(10:01):
That would only be fair for her. I mean, what
are they down to right now in that house? Like
maybe not even sixteen That would be so unfair for
her to be like, Okay, pick somebody from these sixteen guys.
It's like walk into a bar on a regular Friday night,
you'll meet you can meet sixteen guys. I highly doubt
one of those sixteen two guys is going to meet
your husband. Here is gonna be the interesting part to

(10:24):
this whole thing. You kind of saw at the end
of this episode, and I really enjoyed this part where
the guys are sitting around in the circle and Jason
walks in and they cheer for him. Now, at this point,
you have to imagine that these guys have been locked
together in a house for days, kind of waiting to
see what happens, waiting for Claire to come back, waiting

(10:45):
to see what the next steps are. So they have
a bond, and you see it when Jason walks in
and the guys are like, hey, welcome, Like we're so
happy you're here. The interesting part of this whole show
is they're really happy that Jason is there. That's great
because they obviously like him, but they're rooting for a
guy to show up to compete to find the woman

(11:06):
of their dreams. Like that whole idea is weird to me, Like,
that doesn't I would do this. I'd probably do the
same thing because they're friends now, but if we watch
on television, like it makes no sense for them to
be happy to anybody else's day. That's so funny. Well,
there's a huge difference between like a guy a friend
coming back to the group after a group date or
after a one on one. When you're in those teens,

(11:28):
you know when when there's sixteen guys left. Now when
somebody walks back in when there's eight people left, then
you're like, I wish you didn't come home. I would
have liked to hang out with you off the show.
So will they be happy the other guys show up
or like, is this going to be the same kind
of vibe and it's just gonna be like two different
groups now, Oh, fantastic question. I feel like they're not

(11:52):
gonna like it initially. I'll tell you that they may
come to the conclusion that it's like the right thing
to do and they'll be okay with it. But like
at first, when Harrison announces a limo coming forward, if
this does this theory of yours does hold true. They're
not gonna like that. They're not gonna like it at all.
I mean they're friends at this point, like they've seen

(12:14):
a lot of time together. Well, that's one interesting thing
that could happen. The other is, you know, obviously, as
we talked about who you know we think Tasia will pursue.
We have no clue there might be a new guy
that shows up that she likes even more than all
these guys. Um, I'm excited to get to know other names.
Ashley close off here before we bring Chris on, because
I know we have a lot to talk to him about, uh,
and I have a feeling he's gonna be pretty vulnerable

(12:36):
and honest because he's uh, he's just hanging out right now.
Can we just say, like, how much he's shown shown?
Is that a word? He shined? No, it's shined like
she shined in this episode. He was he was shown
and he shined. He was so amazing, like he this

(12:57):
is one of these episodes where he really conducted it,
you know, step by step, and he's just so down
to earth and I think people loved seeing this. Chris
Harrison that isn't buttoned up at a rose ceremony. He's
just like the friend that's coming in jeans and a
little scruff to come and talk heart to heart. He Uh,
it's funny. Last night on Twitter, he was trending many

(13:21):
times last night. It's because he was showing shining. But
one of the things reasons was because we saw Chris
Harrison swear on TV, which is not shown often, and
people loved it. They mind me, oh, because he's what
did he say? I think he said this is BS
like or something, so I can't I don't know. It

(13:42):
was blur, but like he just said something. But like
they had to bleep Chris Harrison, which is just a
magical moment in bachelor history is when Chris Harrison gets bleeped.
Love it, guys. If you only knew that Chris Harrison
off screen and how less buttoned up he is, you
love him even more. He's a great dude. Um. Well, yeah,
we're gonna bring him on here in just a second.

(14:03):
We're have a lot of fun with Chris. Uh. Super
excited to talk to him. Now. Final question for you, Ashley.
I know our listeners are are probably anxious about this
as well. What are you most looking forward to as
this season progresses with Tasia as our bachelorette. I hope
to just see Tasha okay to overcompensate for Claire's lack

(14:26):
of connection with multiple men. I hope that we have
And maybe I sound like a huge horrible friend saying this,
but I hope that at the end of this Tasia
has a lot of connections that needs she needs to
weed through. And it's a difficult decision because she has
feelings for so many guys and like maybe her top

(14:48):
three is just it's heart wrenching. Is that horrible? But
of course at the end of the day, I hope
that what we get out of this season is to
engagements that be incredible, And yeah, I'm with you, No,
I don't think it's horrible. I think we I think
the best of seasons are when there's at the end
of a little bit of heart pool and heart pool

(15:09):
in different directions, a little drama. You get to really
relate with the leads and see their hearts in the line.
And I think, uh, knowing Tasia and knowing kind of
what she hopes for, I have a feeling that could
happen as well well. Ashley. Before we bring Chris on,
we do have something announced to all of you out there. Uh,
we have a friends Giving virtual event. Please join Ashley

(15:31):
and I and a few others that I'll mention here
in just a second for an almost famous friends giving.
It's time to celebrate with appearances from other Bachelor Nations stars,
special guests, appearances by Crystals, Crystal Nielsen, Wells, Adams, Jared Haban,
Ben Flank, and many more. We're gonna share some recipes.
We're gonna find out which is the Bachelor, which of
our Bachelor friends are experts in the kitchen, and which

(15:53):
one is our disaster. I mean, Crystals and Wells, we're
both on Worse Cooks in America or like, what is
that show on the Food Network cookt in America? Right? Yeah,
I think it is. I mean, like, I don't think
you have to actually be a horrible cook to be
in there, because I think Wells is actually very much
a pro in the kitchen. He does a lot on
his Instagram with cooking. But you guys join us. We're

(16:13):
gonna be of course talking about Claire Tasia all the guys.
We're gonna be eating, drinking, laughing, possibly crying. They'll be prizes. Um.
So if you want a little bit more Bachelor Nation
for your Thanksgiving, make sure to get tickets. Tickets are available.
It's on location live dot com on location live dot

(16:36):
com and it's our friends Giving. I'm gonna pull out
the bourbon for this. I'm gonna pour a glass of bourbon.
I'm gonna have a great time. We're just gonna celebrate.
I mean, this is what this is like. Let's celebrate this.
This isn't something to be buttoned up and put together. Um,
we want to celebrate with all of you. So yes,
please join us for our friends Giving. That's November nineteenth
at five pm Pacific, one last time on location in

(17:00):
live dot com for tickets. I'm going to bring the
Bailey's out. I'm going through a Bailey's face. I feel
like a Dad Ashley. I feel little Bailey's of the Rocks.
It's like so seasonal and delicious. You're like my dad.
My dad never drinks and when it gets cold outside,
he he loves himself some peppermint schnops on. It's so ridiculous.

(17:22):
It's so sugary, so thick, it's like syrup and you're
drinking straight cream. Hey, um, Ashley, let's take a break.
When we come back, we're gonna have the one and only,
the legend, the leader of this franchise, giving us all.
Oh my, I can't believe I'm gonna say this all
the t Chris Harrison will be here and just hey, Chris,

(17:57):
how are you doing? Hi? Ash sending right now that
we didn't just talk for five minutes beforehand, but now
we're going to dive into the episode, and it should
be the show before the show. This was such a
fantastic episode. I was falling asleep and I was like,

(18:17):
you cannot fall asleep because I think it's one of
our best. And I'm not lying, and I'm not just
completely full of crappier when I say the last two episodes,
episode three and this was episode four, are two of
the best episodes we've ever produced and created in the
history of this show. And I don't mean that like
a hyperbolic, dramatical way. I just mean the circumstances with

(18:38):
which it happened in the middle of a pandemic, the
fact that it's airing at all as a miracle, but
the fact that we also created this and was able
to pull it off. There's not a team in the
world that could have done this and made it look
like it did in the business. And I'm so proud
of my crew and my family for doing it. And
when I watch it back, I have honestly such pride

(18:59):
in the two episodes especially. I completely agree with both
of these weeks. Since we get the screeners. I was
telling my friends and family, be like, wait to see
this episode. It's a really good one. I honestly don't.
I don't always even watch the show back because I
know what happens. I was there and helped create it
um And then sometimes i'll watch it on TV or
I'll see a screener when I usually look at the

(19:20):
first edit and when it's really raw, just to make
sure it's head in the right direction. But I've watched
I watched episode three three times. I watched episode four twice,
and that's pretty rare for me to go back. I
just enjoyed it so much, and then the nuance and
the things we were pulling off to see how it
all came together. I'm really really proud of it. Let's

(19:42):
start off at the top of the episode. Last week,
Rob Mills said that you needed you. You decided when
she gave herself the rows at the group date that
collectively as a production team, you thought that something was
probably gonna be need need to be done. This was
like the turning point where you called Tasha. Can you
confirm this? No, I hate to disagree with Rob, but

(20:05):
he's completely wrong. Um. I mean, I love Rob, he's
he's my boy. But that's just not the case at all.
Um that that just wouldn't even remotely work. Um, there
was an issue earlier than that. Um, you know is
Rob Wright and that maybe it came to a head,
But that was even late till I think it had
already come to a head. I think that was just

(20:26):
something we you know, that was kind of maybe the
straw that broke the camel's back. Maybe I don't know,
but obviously the rock was already rolling downhill by that point.
So no, that's that's not exactly accurate. As much as
I hate to disagree with Rob, can you let us
in on when you guys had Tasha come to start
quarantine NG At what point in the narrative you know

(20:48):
what I would I would love to say, I really
don't remember. It was when I tell you. It was
such a blur and we you guys know our schedule.
You know, we don't sleep. You know that it's a
normal life, and that's a normal season. This was anything
but normal. So we were trying to facilitate a show
and at the same time trying to figure out how

(21:09):
do we keep this show going? What do we do?
I mean, we've never been faced with anything like this
on a you know, producers side, production side, and so
you know, again, there was never that aha moment, There
was never that light bulb like, oh my gosh, we're
you know, this is this has taking a turn. We
have to make a change. It really was this gradual
I say gradual. It happened quickly, but a gradual thing

(21:32):
where we you know, there were murmurs of like, hey,
this this might be going in a very interesting direction.
Hey we may have to do something about this. Hey
you know what, what are we going to do? What
are our options? And so there wasn't just a hey,
let's have a meeting and let's figure this out. It
was these things happen over time, a million conversations, spending
all night together, throwing everything against the wall. So there

(21:54):
really wasn't this light bulb moment of oh my god, Tasha.
You know, she gave herself a rose. We need Tasia.
It really was more of a gradual moment where we
had to stop and say, Okay, first of all, what
can we do to help Claire? How can we help
Claire make the decision to find the love of her life?
And that was our honestly, that was our biggest priority.

(22:15):
Take care of Claire, take take care of Dale, but
also what do we do with these guys and preserve
that and to us For us to hit the pause
button like you saw in that fourth episode last night
and do what we did is so unprecedented, so weird,
and so hard. I can't begin to tell you how
difficult that was to try and keep the guys at

(22:37):
bay and say, hey, guys, just give us a second,
we're gonna go shoot another television show first for a bit.
It was truly bizarre. I've never been through anything. I
was on a scooter going back and forth across the
property fifty times, talk to the guys, talk to Dale,
talk to Claire, just sweating my ass off in the
desert um. At one point it was funny. I actually
noticed when I sat down with Claire. I was out

(22:59):
of breath because I had just run across because I
heard she was kind of melting down again and I
wanted to talk to her. And I'm like sweating and
like profusely, like hyperventilating. It was a wild, wild ride
for all of us, but I think it was handled
very well, and at the end of the day, it
was all about Claire leading us in the direction, making

(23:19):
the choice, and us facilitating that. That's the only thing
we cared about the h I love that you just
said that, because I noticed when we're watching the episode
that moment with Claire you get a few of those,
is one that felt unexpected because you are out of breath,
like you're sitting down and you can hear it, like
a few times, I'm literally moving chairs into the there's

(23:41):
no set up for this now, Chris. I think one
of the things that we always talk about, and this
is a good moment for that, is people who who
watched the show oftentimes believe that that the producers have
some sinister plan. They're sitting in this room and they
have this all calculated in there. You know they there,
this is gonna happen. No matter what. Can you give
us a little bit more of a background. You just

(24:02):
mentioned it to what's going on as the story is unfolding,
everybody's trying to keep up with it, Like, what does
this look like for the producers who are trying to
keep up and still make a show? Well, I heard
to your point. Um, I I hear some crazy, outlandish
ideas and conspiracies, and and considering you know what we've
been through as a country, maybe these aren't the craziest.

(24:23):
But I had heard. I saw somebody or somebody mentioned
that this whole thing was planned from the beginning, and
I thought that might be the dumbest sentence ever uttered
by any human being. Think about what what would have
had to have happened. That's crazier than the grassy Knoll
and the fake moon landing. I mean, think of what

(24:44):
would have had to have gone in place to make
that happen. We would have had to guarantee that Claire
was going to fall in love in a certain amount
of time and pull this off, by the way, and
do it in a pandemic good luck. But anyway, beyond
that being the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life,
you know you're right, we have learned to embrace, especially
over the last three or four years, to really embrace

(25:07):
and let this show be raw, and let this show
lead us into wherever it's going. And I sat down
a number of occasions, and you saw a lot of
it with Claire where she was really open about you know,
last episode, episode three where she says, you know, can
we move this along? I don't really want to spend
time with these guys, essentially, and you know, and clearly
her head was not there anymore, and clearly she was

(25:28):
not even remotely giving anybody else a chance, which is
not bad. Again, I'm not mad at Claire. No one
is mad at Claire, at least on the show side.
The producers. We embraced it. And I sat down with
her and said, Claire, my only issue is this isn't
fair anymore. Let's just figure out what's going on between
you and Dale. Let's stop the show. I mean, if
you understand, you guys do. But I hope the people

(25:49):
listening understand what it takes to push pause on a
television production and not know where it's going, and just say,
you know what, Claire, We're going to give you a
shot with Dale and Dale, only it might be the
worst decision in television history, but we're going to give
this a shot because that's what you're telling us to do.
And then they end up together, They end up spending
the night together, they tell each other they love each other,

(26:11):
and then they get engaged. I mean, that is the
ultimate dream. And so you know, I just want to
clear it up that at no point it was like
disappointed and Claire, at no point where any of us disappointed.
In fact, it was the contrary, and we said, Babe,
we love you, We're here for you, this is your show,
do what you want. We're gonna let you lead the way.
And Claire said it herself, She's like, I'm unconventional. I've

(26:34):
taken control of this from the start, and this is
what I'm gonna do. And so I was. I was
happy to go on that ride as well as it was.
Talking to producers, so many, pretty much everybody said that
they had never seen this kind of instantaneous connection, this
kind of front runner situation like they have with Claire
and Dale. If there was another couple in Bachelor history

(26:57):
that you can say you felt was pretty certain from
week one, who would have been Ben in Olivia. It
all comes back around. But I mean, and I hate
to use Ben and beat on him, but that's a
good example of how things usually go is night one
and you guys both know this intimately night one, you're

(27:20):
really just getting a gut instinct. Sometimes that gut does
pay off. Um, whether it's you know, Ryan and Trista
or Joe Joe and Jordan's. But and if you ask
them now, look, they're not dumb that they're trying to
get married, or they are married, they're gonna say, oh, baby,
it was always you. Baby, You're the one. You know, Baby,
you're the best I've ever had. Um, you know. But

(27:41):
the truth is somewhere in between, which is if you
really allow yourself like Ben, you're gonna go off and
you're gonna explore everything. This is the one time where
you truly don't have to just stop. You can continue
figuring it out. Um. Look at Sean Low, He's a
great example of somebody if we had stopped the show,
he wouldn't be with Kathy it Um. You know, I

(28:01):
think this is not a detriment or a throwing shade
at Claire, but I think often you are doing yourself
a disservice by not exploring all of these This is
the one time you get to step out of your
comfort zone, date people you wouldn't date, meet people you
wouldn't meet, and really push yourself to be uncomfortable. That
doesn't mean you're gonna fall in love with this particular person,

(28:22):
but now you know what you are looking for. And
so you know there are times when someone might find
someone night one, but do they really you know it
ebbs and flows and and oftentimes they think they know
and they don't. And so usually it's a journey you
really do need to go on to be certain of
your love. And we really reaffirmed that love at first

(28:43):
sight feeling. Um, you know, for Claire, it was ballgame,
you know. And so I will stand by that comment.
No matter what revisionist history people would like to reimagine
in their head, that's never happened. Nobody has ever looked
at me dead in the eye and said, my husband
just walked in. This is a of her and hyperventilating
and sweating. Well, we were all sweating, but you know

(29:06):
what I mean. The uh, Chris, this is this. I
agree with what you said at the beginning. It was
this is some of the best television ever produced, considering
there was a pandemic, considering the situations that you're in. Uh.
I think it's a great point and you always are
good to do this, but to pause here, uh and say,
like the team behind the scenes, UH did a tremendous

(29:30):
job making this season happen. I mean, absolutely incredible and
that should never be forgotten. But it points me to
my next question. Um, you make your job look really easy.
I think one of the biggest maybe like things that
are I find most offensive when somebody comes to us
like Chris Harrison has the easiest job in the world.
I don't think any of us would ever say that
that have been on the show. But you make it
look easy. How do you personally stay calm, collected, like uh,

(29:55):
engaged in the midst of what's going on behind the
scenes with two people who are you know, going scooter
hering back and forth to try to keep a show going.
What what do you have to do to get in
that mindset and make this look like, okay, everything's okay,
We're going to move forward. It is. It's juggling a
lot of balls and once and that is you know,

(30:16):
the producer's side of me. But then at the end
of the day, it's it's it's what would I, you know,
do with my kids? And I think being a dad
of two teenagers and and and with age comes this
wisdom and experience too. And I'm a little older than
everybody now is to come in and have this grace
and empathy and you know, tell me what you want

(30:38):
and what Claire was difficult. She was difficult, not in
a bad way, but just I know her well and
I know that there's some serious insecurities. And you saw
that last conversation when I went back in because she
was crying, because she was still doubting what was happening.
Even after Dale had really like exposed himself and explained
how much he loved her and was ready to take

(30:59):
that next steps, she just couldn't believe this was going
to happen. And so that was just me being a
loving father and stepping in and saying, you know, forget,
forget the show, forget being a producer. You've got to compartmentalize,
just like a Bachelor of Bachelotte does. So I do
the same where I stopped producing and I'm like, Okay,
I'm just gonna be here for you We're just going
to talk this through and if it turns out to
be on television, grade if it doesn't, I don't care.

(31:21):
But as you know, a lot of stuff happens that
never ends up on TV that I do. UM, sometimes
we're not there's not even cameras around where you know,
someone might be spinning out of control or just struggling
and I just sit down and have a drink with
them and we just shoot the shop. And UM, I
have a very bizarre job because it's not just sitting
in front of a television camera and hosting like I'm

(31:44):
doing Who wants to be a millionaire? Um, A lot
of stuff happens behind the scenes where it may never
be on TV, but the effect will be on TV.
If that makes sense. Now, I question all the times
that we sat and had a cock toil together if
I was actually spinning out of control and didn't realize
it myself. But it also helps me too, like I
like to know what's going on, and so that's a
weird thing. It's a weird job, you know. You know,

(32:07):
it's a strange career to have where I am like
I'm talking to two people that I dearly love and
are and are very good friends of mine, and I'm
really involved and care about your lives. Yet you were
on my television show that I was also trying to produce,
and that's a weird line to draw. And I have
to be very careful, and I always err on the
side of being human and caring about you guys, And

(32:30):
sometimes I just want to know what's going on, and
that helps me treat you. I just don't ever want
to be that a whole that threw somebody under the
bus or or mistreated you. And look, sometimes I'll push you.
Sometimes I'll you know, be you know, misleading in certain
ways if it's you know, if I know I can
get away with it if it's good TV. But at
the end of the day, you guys know, and I

(32:50):
will tell everybody, I will not lie to you. I'm
not going to screw you over like unless you deserve it.
Unless you push me, I'll push back. You know that. Um,
But I at the end of the day, I have
your back and I'll be there for you you always. Yeah.
So then to follow up on all of that, you
you do you treat this like you you care about Claire. Uh,
you're treating her uh like a daughter as a friend

(33:13):
when she tells you, then I love Dale and I
want this to be done. You then obviously believe like
your your daughter and son come to you sometimes and
say things that you're like, that's not good for you,
Like that's not right, Like I need to correct you here,
But at that moment, you obviously believe that was the
right thing to do. If you allowed it to happen,
why were you so confident this was the right move? Well,

(33:34):
and I again, it's I don't know if that's necessarily
the case, Like, you know, again, you could go back
to being a dad. It's you know, my daughter Taylor
comes in and says, Dad, I love I love Tommy.
You know we're gonna get married. And you know she's
sixteen years old. Um, hopefully it's not that drastic um.
And and you know Tomy's gonna be walking with a
lip for a while. But no, but you know, I've

(33:56):
learned if I go in and say Taylor, you're forbidden
from seeing him, You're never going to talk to him.
You know, what's she gonna do? I mean, Ashley loves
romantic comedies as much as I do. All you're gonna
do is make that person run to them immediately. And so,
you know, my thing with Claire was not to tell
her she's wrong, because who's to say she is? By
the way? Um, And that's something I learned a long
time ago as well, Like, just because I think something

(34:18):
doesn't make it so. It doesn't make it right. It
doesn't make it it's not it's not so black and white.
And so telling Claire from the beginning you're wrong there's
no such thing as love at first sight, Well, that's
naive and stupid and arrogant of me. And so maybe
I need to learn something here. And so it's more
of Claire tell me from the moment this happened, which
was night one, explained to me what you're seeing in Dale?

(34:40):
And so it wasn't just this this light bulb moment.
There was several days and several, like you know, a
few weeks where we were having these deep conversations, sometimes
on camera, sometimes off of like what is it about Dale?
What are you feeling? What is it in your past
that's making you do this? You know, So when we
got to that moment, I did feel secure in that, Okay,

(35:00):
you are making this decision, and I'm going to support it,
And it doesn't mean I agree. That's not my job
and it's not my job as a parent to always agree.
But it is my job once you have made a decision,
to support you anyway I can and and to still
be there for you. And it doesn't mean she won't
fall on her face. It doesn't mean my kids won't fail.

(35:20):
But you have to be given enough leeway to make
your own mistakes in life. And again that's not saying
this is a mistake, but you. That is important that
you're not that dad or not that person that just
says then you're wrong, You're an idiot. It's like, well,
that's not given anybody not to make this political. I
think we saw enough of that over the last several years,

(35:42):
of people just canceling you or telling you you're stupid,
telling you whatever you're saying is wrong. It's like, well,
where do you go from that? Where's the grace, where's
the room to talk and debate and have a conversation.
How am I ever going to evolve and learn? If
you just tell me I suck and I'm stupid, that's
I just I've never understood that. And that is our

(36:04):
political parties right now, and not the parties, it's the people.
You believe your side so much that if if anybody
disagrees with you, they're just idiots. Well, where's the room
to grow? And I and in this case, I had
to give her room to grow, and I needed to grow.
So when you walked into the room and he said, Okay, Claire,
we gotta we're gonna make a decision here, how do

(36:25):
you think that conversation was gonna go? Um? I wasn't sure. Really,
that's the weird part. I mean, you should never produce
a show where you don't know the outcome. And I
mean it's really it's like TV one oh one. You
go to school, it's like when you're learning journalism, don't
ever ask a question you don't know the answer to. Um.

(36:45):
And that's our entire show is we're asking a question
we don't know the answer to. So it's a really
dangerous way to produce TV. But I thought I knew
what she would say, But I wasn't so sure that
she was going to be so wrong in her convictions
that she was going to be willing to shut things down.
And that's where that dinner came from. And even at

(37:07):
that dinner, I wasn't so sure that we wouldn't just
put Dale back in the house and kick back up again,
and then who knows what happens again. You know, there
was no definitive set answer to Tastia's our new back cerette.
By this point, I will tell you we had already
called her and she was on property, but that didn't
mean she was the bacherette yet. That just means she

(37:28):
took a leap of faith and if things kept going
that direction, in this direction, then she would be. But
there was never that moment of Tassia just because she
she's here, is going to be our bacherette. Claire had
to lead us down that road. And when we got
to a point where the show ends, and I think
everybody's been watching the show for twenty years, you know,
when the show ends, there's a proposal, that's it, Like

(37:51):
that's ballgame, we move on. And so Claire took us
to that point, and Dale took us to that point,
and that then, and really only then were we sure
that she was going to be the bachelorette. And anything
before that, If anybody tells you any different, they're lying.
It's just raw. But Tasia was there clearly she needed
to come because the protocol for getting tested medically to

(38:14):
be safe, figure out what we would do with clothes,
because it's not as easy as just going shopping because
we can't shop for you, So we had to figure
out a lot of things. So she was there, but
she knew as well as all of us that it
wasn't a set deal until this couple was you know,
well not even till they were engaged. It was just
until Claire made a definitive decision. So it's bananas to

(38:37):
me is that over the past two weeks or so,
there's been a lot of rumors that Claire didn't feel
like she was in charge, that she felt like, you know,
she had to go along with productions decisions. But watching
this episode, it makes it seem like she was given
the decision making power the entire way through and that
she made the decision that she loves some watch. So

(39:01):
how do you address those rumors and why are they
even floating around? I don't know. I mean, I haven't
heard Claire saying anything, um, you know, and until I
hear Claire say something along those lines, then you know,
all I can say is and I texted with Claire
back and forth, and I think she understands this too.
It was all in in her hands. I mean, I
can't tell you how many times I sat down with

(39:22):
her and you saw a lot of it, and said,
you tell me, where does this go from here? What
do you want to do? I want time with Dale? Okay,
I mean, in unprecedented fashion, we stopped the show and
gave her a bizarre, uh kind of overnight fantasy suite
in the middle of the show. I mean, that's just
it's unpressent. So not only did she have control, but

(39:43):
we also moved mountains to make things happen that shouldn't
be happening right now. And so yeah, I mean she
had total control. You know. Yes, we push things along
because that's how that that's also how the show goes of. Okay,
well this is the next step. They crossed that hurdle. Okay, well,
now this is the next step. Where does this go
from here? And that's engagement. And then once there was
an engagement, um, then there's no forcing. It's just that's

(40:06):
where the show. I mean, I don't know what else
we would have done. And just let's show the meeting,
dinner every night together, watching Netflix. That's that's not a
television show. But even with that said, you saw in
the tease, we still bring them back and we still
have conversations. We're still going to keep up with them, um,
you know, as things go along. But there is no
more show. She's not dating anybody body anymore, and so

(40:27):
I'm not sure what else anybody would want us to do.
Things took its natural order and progress, and then it
was time to move on and start another season of
the back turette Now. I have a couple more follow
up questions to that. Um, but before we transfer, transfer
just for a bit into mainly bands talking about proposals. Uh,

(40:49):
you had mentioned that this a few weeks ago. And
this is something that actually I've been uh confused by
since then, is that there's Claire season. You made that comment. Um,
why that comment? Because it still doesn't fit with where
where we know we're going with the show now. M m. Well,
but because it was well, first of all, we weren't

(41:12):
talking about who was next, you know, what was happening,
so we weren't gonna givewayplose that's first and foremost, um,
And and that was also out of respect for Claire.
You know, we we had a lot of meetings behind
the scenes ABC and producers and the promos department, like
when do we announced Stasia, what do we do with that?
And again the decision time and time again was protect Claire,

(41:33):
protect this season for her, let her promos run. I
want her to feel like she has as much of
this experience as possible. And when I say it was
a Claire, I mean until it wasn't it really was
for Claire. Yeah, we started making arrangements just in case
something went absolutely bonkers, which it did, but it was
still about Claire, facilitating her relationship, making sure she was happy,

(41:56):
making sure she got engaged, pushing pause, creating this bizarre
moment in relationship with Dale, and then it can become
about Tatia and moving on. But up until that moment,
I I would beg to differ that it wasn't a
about Claire. I mean maybe you could argue as because yeah,
we started looking towards the future of what do we

(42:17):
do with this television show because we also have to
deliver ten or thirteen episodes to ABC and we have four,
uh so we need a little bit more TV. We
have eight eight times doce we have sixteen hours. We
still need to deliver to ABC or else I'm getting fired. Um.
And so yeah, we had to look down the road
a little bit. But I fully stand behind the fact

(42:38):
that I poured my heart and soul into Claire right
up until the time I knew it was okay, not
too That makes sense now that does that clarifies it? Um? Clarify? Yeah,
I don't know. I don't can't. You can't get away
from it. I can't get away from it. Um, let's
take a break here from the show. I know Ashley
has a few more questions to ask about this episode
and where we're going. But we did see a proposal.

(42:59):
I am in aged um as well. And Uh, with
those two things combined, I have chosen to get a
manly band, uh for my wedding ring, which I'm super
pumped about. I've gone through a couple of options. In fact,
it's interesting I was going to get one tattooed on
my hand. I still might, um, just for golf and

(43:20):
for you know, whatever you do. And I and Jess
and I were trying to figure out what we're gonna
do about having a wedding ring. Well, I see Chris
come out with this ring set uh and this partnership. Uh.
He reaches out kindly enough says, hey, you know, are
you interested? I'm gonna I'm choosing to because I love him. Uh. Chris,
before we jump back into the show, tell us what
mainly Bands is. Why you chose to do it with

(43:42):
manly bands where this is gone? It's really cool. I
love stories like this again. It's a little bit like
the Batchlor. It's just a great love story that happened
in this this weird meeting where the folks are mainly bands.
It's this true, kind of great American story of this
husband and wife that we're getting married. He's a big dude.
No rings fit him. There was no variety because there

(44:02):
really isn't variety for men. And they decided to create
a company. And this husband and wife created a ring
company called Mainly Bands, and now it's this massive success.
And they came to me and said, hey, will you
help us with some promo videos. You're kind of the
master of love and matchmaking. We'd love to kind of
promote our brand. And like any company, before I do anything,
I get to know them. I want to know what

(44:23):
they're all about and what they represent and I fell
in love with them and I said, hey, can we
do something more substantial than some silly videos? And they
said what do you have in mind? And I said,
I don't know. We started talking and now this is
what's happened, is this collaboration where I have my own
wedding ring collection and we we dove in came up
with this amazing variety of materials and rings and looks

(44:46):
and feels and you know, you've seen them, Ben, And
the main thing for me is and I've been married before,
and I think the wrong ring is was the main
cause of my implored But in all seriousness, there there's
really no variety. And so what I love is you
look through this collection and you find your personality, you
find a ring that speaks to you, Um, you know,

(45:07):
actually you and you and Jared, you know, go through
this and it's like, Okay, there's silver, there's gold. There's
really not a whole lot there. And so I love
the fact that you can find something that has wine
barrel in it, or something that has diamonds, or something
that has meteorite or dinosaur bones, something a little country,
a little rocket rolled. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Dinosaur bones.

(45:28):
I it's I. I have to hear about this dinosaur
bones because I saw on the website. Are they like,
where do you Yeah, where do you dinosaurs? This is
the weird part. I have to sneak into the Museum
of History at night. Yeah, you know, it's crazy. So
there are and this is the things you learned. There

(45:48):
are bones that people have unearthed, uh, that are just
too small to display. They're too small to fit on
anything in a museum. I mean tiny, tiny bones that
are never going to be used. And so they say
or they donate these bones and they're too small to
do anything with but as far as a museum, but
plenty to use in bits of rings and other materials.

(46:09):
And so we take these bones and we you know,
repurpose them. You know what's cool is we have meteorite
and we have dinosaur bones. So the thing that dinosaurs,
it's all full circle. It's this weird dark but yeah,
so there's some really cool different materials and looks, and

(46:30):
you know, I wouldn't be opposed to, you know, having
several rings, you know, like you know, I don't know
what look ash. I would never say, wear the same
dress and the same purse. Every single day of your life.
You know, sometimes you want to dress up sometimes, you know,
like you look like Ben does now and your casual
and uh, you know, you just want to be bopping
around and the cool thing is to have been. First

(46:53):
of all, we send you a ring sizing things, so
you you size, you know exactly what size to tell us.
But we also send you the silicone ring um that
you get to keep, and so you could take your
ring off like I had to when you play golf
because it hurts, And it's this cool silicone band that
you can put on so you don't have to permanently
tattoo anything to you. But it doesn't hurt when you're

(47:14):
playing sports, working out any of that stuff. So it's
it's kind of a cool thing you can slip on.
This is a great I mean, this is such a
good idea because you're right there. I mean, Ashley, you're married.
I'm on my way to there. When Jared is picking
out a ring, there isn't a plethora of choices up
until something like this. That's so true, No, I mean,

(47:34):
that's really how sentimental is Jared's ring. Can we can
we get him to switch? Can we get him a ring.
He'd be down to get get one that he could
like play sports, lift, weights in and stuff like that.
But I want to be like a number twelve Tom
Brady ring. Yeah, I mean, can you get him a
super Bowl ring he'll wear on his left finger? That
would he loved that? Yeah, be engraved like inside, Yeah, absolutely,

(47:59):
when you're it's really cool. It's something I got really
excited about. I'm really proud of it people that have
found it already. It's been a huge, huge success that
people are falling in love with and the quality of
these rings are awesome. And by the way, this Friday
is Black Friday and so um, massive sales on if
you go to the site. So go to mainly bands

(48:19):
dot com. If you're ever gonna do it, do it
this week because there's massive deals weeks Black Friday. What
do you mean, I'm so confused. We're starting We're starting
Friday sale. Yeah, it's mainly Bands Black Friday sale. Okay,
So before we go back in, I know Ashley's itching
right now. She's itching, like literally itching to ask you
more questions about this episode. Um, where can people find

(48:40):
mainly bands? Uh? And uh? And then we can move on.
But the coolest thing is you don't ever have to
leave your house, which is kind of important these days.
There's no brick border, you're not going to a store online.
You pick the ring you want, we send you the
ring size or you get this cool thing and you
size exactly what you want size of your ring, and

(49:00):
then you tell us and then we ship it out
to you, so you never leave your house. Everything fits perfectly. Um,
money back, you know, you know, you get your life
lifetime guarantee on the ring, so anything goes wrong or
doesn't fit, we'll fix it, um and you're gonna absolutely
love it. So it's I mean, it couldn't be easier. Um,
you know. And look, guys, we're not complicated, but we're

(49:21):
also not smart, so we we've done this down. We
make it as easy as possible. No matter what you're
what you're there's a ring for you as far as
there's none of them are crazy, crazy prices and so
it's very affordable. You can find a ring, and if
for some reason there's nothing in my collection, just go
to Mainly Bands too, because you're on that website and
there's a thousand other rings to choose from. Sweet man Hey,

(49:42):
Manly bands dot com is there where we go? Yep,
go to mainly bands dot com and look for the
Chris Harrison collection, look for my pretty face. Awesome things. Appreciate.
We talked about your pretty face for a second. Why
are you getting so much better looking with age? Like
you've always been a handsome man, but it's like you're
taking handsome pills or something, because like you get hotter
every season. First of all, thank you. I'm glad you're

(50:03):
saying that instead of Ben. But that's you know, that's
all Gina Modica. Uh, she's she's my secret weapon. Geane
has been with me for god over twenty years now.
She's my he's my longest relationship. Yeah, Gene is my
is my makeup artist, and I am so thankful that
she started. She's like, you know, my the big sister
that I probably never needed um and she just you know,

(50:25):
has beaten me for the last twenty years of wearing sunscreen,
taking care of myself, all the things that you know, moisturizing,
and she's introduced me to these great products and things
and so luckily obviously good DNA, good genetics, thank God
for my mom and dad. But she's taking care of
me over the last twenty years and so you know,
but what I do laugh about is I never shoot

(50:46):
in the same studio, so I guess my hair looks
different from time to time. It'll be darker or lighter
or whatever. People like, oh, nice spray job, dude, he's
up on the paint or whatever. I'm like, guys like
you guys, are you guys have been near me enough
to know there's plenty of gray up. Yeah, yeah, well
it's I think I like you when you're scruffy and

(51:08):
you have like you're dressed down. So you had those
conversations a lot during this episode, so I was I
was like on the phone with my mom. I was like,
why is Chris Harrison keep getting better looking? And then
Jared in the background goes, it's true, he's getting better looking.
So it's not just me Jared. By the way, when
you're in the desert and it's a eighty degrees, that's

(51:28):
really good. You're really god. Okay, but let's go back
to proposals now. So she gets a gorgeous ring. It
was a beautiful proposal, and I know how you're going
to answer this question. But like during their dinner conversation,
and during like their little sleepover, I was like, I
feel it. I totally feel it. I love this. Um,

(51:50):
this is so crazy that this is happening so quickly.
But then like when you're like, okay, it's time to propose, now,
I was like, now this is wild, this is ridiculous.
That's where it crossed over to like, this is ridiculous
to me. But in bachelor fashion, that's the way we
have to end it, right, that's where we go. Well,
you don't have to you know again, you have to

(52:11):
understand that was just the point where we were. What
you decide to do with it is up to you.
And that's always the fascinating thing with this show is
you push people out of their comfort zone. You push
them to to these decisions and these crossroads, and you know,
given you know, your own leisure whatever, you could just

(52:34):
go on forever. But when it gets down to Claire
and Dale as a show, we said, okay, now what
and so we took the next night, that night and
the next day, and we were talking about it if like, well,
I mean, we're not just gonna watch Claire and Dale
go to the movies every night. We were at the
point where after after this moment in the show, there

(52:55):
is a decision to be made. What do you guys
want to do? And it was very clear the more
we talked to him, they head over heels and love
and so we proposed the idea of them proposing, and
Dale said, sure, I'm in I love this woman, Let's
do this. So that's where we ended up, and it
was it was a bizarre. It was a bizarre level
to get to because it was so extreme, but that's

(53:18):
where they were, That's how extreme it was. And so
when you saw that proposal, it all felt to me.
It felt lovely, and it felt wild, and it felt
again unprecedented. Um, it was. It was very interesting to watch.
I agree. Once it happened, I was like, okay, yeah,
that's right, all right, let's look. I'm so happy for them.
This is great. But it was like the lead up

(53:39):
to like, wait, oh my gosh, these people have known
each other for ten days? Can we confirm or deny?
Has it? It was it about ten days? I think
it was longer than that, but it wasn't much more
than that. Um, you know, probably too, you know, twelve
or fourteen or something like that at that point, you know,
because There were days off too. We took you know,
we're working to take days off, but there were days
where we had to stop and say, okay, what are

(54:00):
we doing? Where do we go from here? Because again,
it's just it's hard to explain how we are trapped
in a bubble. And it's not like we could just
you know, maneuver and move things in and change dates around.
We were pretty confined trying to figure this out. Um.
So there was there was a lot of work and
meetings and stuff that had to happen um and then

(54:22):
people are being consulted outside, whether it's you know, Rob Mills,
Mike Flice and Martin Hilt all these people that weren't
in the bubble. We were having to you know, try
and consult and they're trying to comprehend what is going on,
you know, inside this bubble because for them to get
in takes you know what, five six days, and so
it wasn't just where you could just swing by and
see what was happening. So there was a lot of

(54:42):
moving parts to get to that moment that we made
look pretty smooth. And there was no hesitation on Dale's
Park none, I mean not to me anyway. You know.
I don't know if you said something to anybody else,
but every time I talked to him, he looked me
straight in the eye and said, I love this girl.
I'm all in. I said, okay, great, well, let me
call Neil Lane and we had to you know, I'm

(55:04):
calling Neil Lane, who I face timed him. I didn't
know if they would even use that, but they did.
My Neil, Um, I need a ring. And this is
again talk about a fortuitous balance. If we weren't where
we were, which was a two hour drive from l A.
We actually had to have a ring driven out to
the property and dropped off at production because we didn't

(55:27):
have a ring. Why would we It was two three
weeks into production. Okay, So watching this engagement, I may
get flag for saying this, but oh well, um and
made me kind of annoyed that Claire accepted ben Wah's engagement,
because I just feel like that was so premature and
I feel like, personally, in my opinion, she accepted his

(55:50):
proposal on that stage because he didn't. She didn't want
to embarrass him, and um, and I don't know, I
think that's I think that not complete leave wrong, maybe,
but not completely fair in that I would stay knowing
clear like I do now. I think she wanted something
so bad. Yeah, you know how you want something so

(56:12):
bad that you're able to kind of look past a
lot of hurdles and red flags and and you just
you want it so bad that you just kind of
manifested like she had hoped for it. She was like,
this may not feel right now, but like I'm going
to go for it and give it a go. Yeah.
And I don't know if you've ever been in a relationship.
I think we all have at some point if you

(56:33):
get mature enough in your life where you have entered
into a relationship. Maybe it's not a proposal, but you've
entered into a relationship. You're like, this isn't but like,
I think maybe I could make it work. I could
maybe change him, or I can look past this, and
and then later and then later you look back down
the road, you're like, what the hell was I thinking? Um,
not that Ben was a bad guy or it was

(56:55):
a mistake, but clearly they were two different people heading
two different directions and it wasn't going to work. And
it's easy to say in hindsight, but I think she
just really wanted love and wanted to be loved so
bad that she just I think she was willing to
look past a lot of those red flags and make
it work and make it happen, makes the fairy tale.

(57:15):
That's not my place to say that, Like, you know, whatever,
it's like if Claire Claire makes her decisions, and I'm
not saying that that takes away from this moment, but
I think that this moment felt so much more full
of love and real and and to me too by
you know, I will defend Claire and I will defend
this decision and everything we did because at the end

(57:37):
of the day, look, is it gonna work out with
Clarien Dale who knows? Who knows? Is it gonna work
out with Ashley and Jared? Who knows? You know? You know,
it's easy to say, as someone who's sitting here with
her hand up of a relationship that didn't work out,
It's easy to say something's not gonna work because guess
what odds are it's not. Love is hard, and Ben's

(57:58):
been in the same boat. It's hard, it it's difficult,
and it often doesn't. But when it does work, and
when you see something beautiful, why not support it and
just love it and give it a chance, because you know,
nine times at a ten it may fail. But um,
it felt great. I love them in that moment, and
I felt like there was love there, so I'm there

(58:19):
to support it. You know, it's so easy to sit
back and go, this is crazy your mind. You guys
did this. She did this. It's like, who cares? Like,
there're there. Let's let's just send him some love right
now before we wrap this up, and I know we
we do. I have to just mentioned that I think
that this episode really solidifies the fact that these two

(58:41):
did not talk before the airing of the show. I
mean before they can we talk about this? Um, I
am only is as good as my eyes and heart
tells me to be, and I only can say things
with the information I have at the moment. And I
can't tell you how many conversations I've had with Claire

(59:03):
and a few with Dale, but mostly with Claire because
I'm just more intimate with her on the show, And
to my eyes, I don't think they did. I truly
don't think they talked. There was there were several moments
and I went back and watched and remembered that first
night because I had immediate suspicions. But the way they
introduced each other, the conversations they had, and you guys

(59:25):
didn't see at all. You only saw parts of obviously
what we air. But nothing felt familiar to me, Nothing
felt rehearsed. It didn't feel like they were faking it, like, hey,
remember you don't know me. Um. There was just these
basic questions that they asked that I don't think they
you know, this isn't Meryl Streep and Tom Cruiser, Daniel
bid Lewis. They're not that brilliant. They would have tripped up.

(59:47):
And there were just things that happened that lead me
to believe she did look him up on social media.
She she totally has owned that she looked at a
lot of those guys. She had great expectations, She built
him up in her head. She went in with almost
kind of like a celebrity crush on him. But I
think that that's it. Yeah, I think I think she
wanted to love him. I think she wanted him to

(01:00:08):
smell good and be tall, dark and handsome, and and
he was. He was all those things. And as soon
as she saw that smile and no joke smelled him Um,
sniffing his pants was a whole different level. But that
was weird And Dianna I have a problem with Dianna
for being an you know, an enabler and that. But no,

(01:00:29):
I I I just want to put that to rest.
And again, I'm not saying I'm a accurate this is
just my opinion. That's it. Chris's final question for you.
Thanks for spending some time with us. Thanks for hanging
out with us. It's been an awesome, awesome experience, and
it's always good to catch up with you, especially about
the show and then about life. Where do we go
from here? We have a bunch of guys still sitting there.

(01:00:49):
What are your hopes for them? Uh? You know obviously
how this plays out. But if this, if you can
go backtrack to this night, on that day when you
can front the boys again and you bring Tatia in,
what were you thinking, what you're hoping for? Um, this
is actually the first time I actually excitedly get to
speak about Tasha, Who's who, as you guys know, is
a very dear friend of mine. I've gotten to know

(01:01:10):
her for a couple of years now and I absolutely
adore her. I think she is a fantastic woman. Obviously
stunningly beautiful, but she is so kind and giving and
just sweet and down to earth. Um, it just has
such balance about her and this this this great energy,
She's this type of person you just want to be around.
So I'm really excited. I it's not that Claire shouldn't

(01:01:33):
have been the bachelrette, and stop saying that, you know,
this doesn't This isn't an either or proposition. Taste is
just someone who I wanted to be the bachelorette. I
fought for her. I wanted her to be on our list,
and she was, and as soon as we had the
chance to have another one, Um, I was so excited
when we all decided she was it. And and and
it's not that we didn't talk about other people, but

(01:01:54):
I can promise you the list, there was Tasha, and
then there was the rest. We really wanted it to
be Tasia, and I'm glad that she came in and
because I knew that she And also, let me just
say something else when I say the guys, I feel
like these guys were cheated in a certain way. Doesn't
mean Claire screwed them over. Claire just found love. And
so I just this is a great group of guys.

(01:02:16):
I and I don't know if we've ever had this great,
solid group before, which is strong, professional, mature, good dudes.
And I didn't want to waste this group of guys.
And so you know, people like, oh, you're reusing them
or repurposing him, and like these guys haven't found love yet?
Why not? This is an awesome, awesome group of guys,

(01:02:37):
And so I was excited to have Tasia meet this
group and bring them together. I thought there was gonna
be some perfect fits in here. So I was it
was bizarre to all of a sudden have gone through
the craziest moments in my career and then start over
and have a Limo pull up. It was just like,
what are we doing? It felt so bizarre to me too.

(01:02:58):
Then reset and we start. I can't begin to tell
you how odd it was. But I was excited and
I was so happy to see her, And it was
kind of a weird conversation when she got out, it
was you could tell it was kind of a couple
of friends talking is It was this kind of weird
moment of like, what are we doing here? Really weird?
And obviously, starting next week, you're going to see the
rest of where it goes from here and now it's

(01:03:18):
all about tation, It's all about her journey. Although we
will check in and keep you up to date on
what's going on with Claire and Dale. What I think
is cool, or at least what my hope is is
that this season was very like Fateful, whereas there were
two women in the franchise who had their future husband's
in that group and they were meant to both be there.
I hope so. And and you know, I do want

(01:03:41):
to say one thing before I go, and and that
is I would ask everybody to just take it easy
on Claire. Um, she is getting beat up and torn
up in social media. And I get it. Social media,
especially Twitter is an absolute just waste basket. You know.
It's the vocal my milority people that want to troll
you and scream and yell whatever. And so I get it.

(01:04:04):
You can ignore what's on Twitter, but people are going
after her and it's not deserved. You know, this woman
has done nothing wrong. There's nothing, there's nothing that Claire
has done that deserves anger in her to be vilified. Um,
if you don't agree how she did it, if you
don't agree how she treated the guys. I get that,

(01:04:26):
and the guys were frustrated, and I was frustrated at
times too, But at no point was I mad that
this woman fell in love. Think about what you're mad at.
Who are you really mad at? Why are you mad
that this woman found the love of her life and
got engaged. If that's when you're pissed at, you need
to really reassess your life. Um. And so I just
would ask everybody to have a little grace and little understanding,

(01:04:47):
and let's support Claire. Let's support Dale, and let's see
what happens. And now let's also Supportation as our backs
are atte. I just I've just seen a lot of
anger and a lot of just things being spewed right now,
and it just kind of upsets me and and Claire
to it's this stuff too. Heart. I know that, especially
our female leads, tend to really lean into social media
a lot more than the guys do. Um. And it

(01:05:08):
just it breaks my heart when I see Caitlin, when
I say, well, Ash, you've had it to you and
you know it just it drives me crazy. And I
know that they've opened up their lives to social media.
They've opened up their lives and agreed to be on TV,
but nobody signs up for that. Um, if you want
to be frustrated, if you want to voice your opinion,
God bless you, you are welcome to it. But just
think about it, think about drawing that line of where

(01:05:30):
you're going, Chris, you're the man? Um, Okay, before they go,
should be still tun infortatious season? Yes or no? No? No,
I would turn it off now. I do. Let people
that have said this is the worst season ever. Man,
you suck, You're the worst, And I'm like, well, record
ratings tells me different. We have had two of the

(01:05:54):
highest rated episodes. Uh, I think since last week was
two thousand seventeen. This week even higher. So um, something
tells me you're gonna be back. And the cool thing
is Tastia's journey is totally different. It really is same.
You know a lot of the same guys. Um, obviously,
maybe you'll see some of the same guy spoiler alert, Um,

(01:06:17):
well you've already seen him sitting there, but maybe not
all the same guys. And so it's it's pretty interesting
to see where this journey goes. Because again, Claire is
not Tastia. Tastie is not Claire that everybody is different.
They bring their own personality to this. Thank you did
you just do you just hear that say thank you

(01:06:39):
for clarifying? Yeah, thank you, thank you, Claire. Chris is
the best. I love him. You feel like he'd be
tired about talking about the friend chies, but when you

(01:07:00):
ask him questions, he rolls. He loves it. Yeah, you do.
Like I always used to think that Chris probably like
was like, I'm just sick of this thing. I don't
want to talk about it anymore. But then given the
right circumstances, like giving him the environment to which you know,
you ask him not the typical questions, but different questions,
and you hear it a lot more now than ever,

(01:07:21):
with different podcasts, not just ours. He really enjoys it.
And you know what, Chris is getting more and more
into as he gets more and more comfortable, which you
know he's twenty years in. He really enjoys talking about
the just the amazing team behind the scenes, Like he
loves talking about the production, the cameras, the people helping out.

(01:07:42):
I think he's just super grateful that they've helped him
have a job for this long. Yeah, it's such a
great family. I wish you guys could could know them.
On the other side, I really wish that we can
interview some producers, but I know that's probably not allowed.
But they're great people. Um, all right, well you guys,
we have some topics. Uh. First, starting with Claire wearing

(01:08:04):
the massive engagement ring the day that her final episode aired, Ben,
did you see this yesterday? I did. It's a big deal.
I felt like maybe it was sort of like a
commercial for watching the episode. With the election and everything,
like maybe people's minds weren't all on the fact that
there was going to be a Bachelorrette episode airing on

(01:08:25):
a Thursday, and then the ring was kind of like
I'm gonna put my ring on and remind everyone that
the that possibly the engagement episode of tonight. It's, uh,
you know what's going on. I think she's super happy,
and I think she's probably waited for this. I imagine
right now that Claire is just like I want to
be done with the criticism, the hate and move on

(01:08:50):
with Dale and make this thing work. Um. In fact,
we saw them on Instagram Live last night and I
thought it was really cute. I thought it was a
great way for them to kind of, you know, uh,
announced themselves to the world. I agree. And yeah, Claire
just she just she looks great with that ring on.

(01:09:13):
It fits. I feel great about it. Yeah. Um, I'm
just excited for them. I can't wait to watch more
of the relationship. Like I hate, I hate that there's
pressure for them to have to like show it off
on social media, But I have to say I'm very
excited to see that and get to know their relationship
more since we did have a few episodes. Yeah, it's right.
And uh as Chris Harrison intervention, you know, somebody literally

(01:09:35):
had to drive down um to deliver this ring. That's hilarious.
It's gorgeous. Next headline is it was announced this week
that Cassie Randolph dropped the restraining order against Colton Underwood. Well,
we also know now that Colton Underwood has taken down
all of his Instagram posts, like all of them. Actually,
what do we know? That's really all we know. Um,

(01:09:57):
he still got to two million and followers, but zero posts.
I know that sometimes celebrities will do this, that they're
about to launch something when they want a fresh start.
I mean, it seems like Colton would want to fresh start,
so he wiped his page clean of all pictures, not
just ones of Cassie. When I saw this headline yesterday,

(01:10:17):
I thought, oh, yeah, he deleted the pictures of Cassie,
but no, just clean, no pictures from any time in
his life. Though there are no posts on the account,
his page is not the activated, it's just there's no
post all right. Next headline, Bachelor's Ti Era is engaged
to Tyler Brooks Brown, seven years after controversial stint on

(01:10:41):
Sean Lowe's season. Yes, if you guys remember back in
June when we were doing coverage of Sean Lowe's Goat episode,
we tried to track down Tierra Um. Apparently no one
has been in touch with her from her season or
in the Bachelor community since Sean season. But here she

(01:11:01):
is on Instagram announcing on Wednesday that she got engaged.
Um in Tuloom, Mexico, the place of the first Bachelor
in Paradise and his name is Tyler Brooks and Um
she was. She was surrounded by red rose petals ironically

(01:11:25):
at the time of the engagement, and it was like
in a TP like structure. Seems eerily Bachelor esque. Hey,
good for her though. We celebrate that. But that is
the big headlines here is engaged now. The next one
is something we talked to Chris quite a bit about.
We took a long segment just talking about something cool
that he's been up to. Not only is he a
host of a show, but he also has a collection

(01:11:48):
of manly bands wedding rings. They're pretty awesome. So if
you're out there you're thinking about getting engaged and your
man uh doesn't know kind of what he's looking for,
hasn't found a ring he enjoys. I've been on Mainly
Band's website. They're really awesome. As Chris said again, if
you want to hear more about that, we talked to
Chris to a long extent about it during his segment. Well, Ben,

(01:12:13):
do we wrap up this episode with another story time
with Ben flying through these? Okay? Ben, um? The next
story is one of those ones that you've teased to
be intimate. I believe the time I had to sit
out of my senior year homecoming football game due to

(01:12:34):
a severe case of jocketch and the local papers headlot
in the local headline read Ben Higgins sits out of
game due to severe rash. Oh my god, Ben, this
is the last story that I copied and pasted, is
it really? Yeah? That's sad. Well I have one more

(01:12:55):
um that will share next week. But yeah, that I
think we're down in the final two. This is really
good story actually, and it might give a sense a
little bit more to why when I tell you or
I I announced publicly like hey, I've always been a
little insecure. Um that, like this really hints at Okay,
so here's the deal. We gave a little background. This

(01:13:15):
is one of the most interesting stories, and and the
headline in the book doesn't really fully encompassed the whole
story itself. Um. So I was the quarterback on my
high school football team, I mean ow um, and I
was able to play as a freshman. Luckily, a couple

(01:13:37):
of guys got hurt. So it wasn't because I was good.
It was just because I was alive for freshman and
the quarterback of the varsity team. Who are you and
why have you ever felt insecure? You're like a hometown dream. Well,
when three guys get hurt and you're pretty average, it
pretty it hurts you pretty bad. Um. So I'm I'm
so I'm playing football I really want to play in college. Um.

(01:13:59):
Then junior year, I blew out my knee completely and
it kind of like changed my path because I was
just no longer as good or as fast, or at
all as athletic as I once was. And so I
had to come to terms that, hey, I'm gonna still
play football in my my senior year, but I gotta expect
to not be as good as I ever was hoping
to be. And I had to mentally get to this point. Well,
so I was always kind of walking this line of
trying to prove to myself that I could still play

(01:14:20):
and I still want to put together a good season
so that I would feel like, hey, all this work
for all of these years have led up to something
um positive. Uh. And I carried that weight. I wanted
to be the best for really my confidence, for myself
and for my for the team. Well, um, it gets
to be homecoming. And our football team was pretty good.

(01:14:42):
We had a good run going. We had won a
lot of games. And in a in a football this
is gonna get pretty graphic. And so just if you
if you get grossed out or if you don't want
to look at me in this way, just like turning
this off. Now, it's no big deal anything, but um,
in a football locker room, a lot of guys you
know obviously sit naked and change and like put on

(01:15:02):
their clothes, whether you sit on these like concrete benches,
uh that are kind of in front of your locker. Well,
I had sat down one day, I guess, and I
had gotten some type of um like it's called it's
called a fistula. Quite honestly, an official is like a
really bad bacteria that like eats into your body and
it eats, it eats, like it tunnels a hole in

(01:15:24):
your body, um for whatever kind of it touches. So
I had this fishula that is, and if anybody out
there knows what official is, like they're gross and they're
really bad and like they hurt really really bad. And
so I got it right where you sit down, Like
it wasn't it wasn't. It wasn't jockey, that's the thing.
It wasn't jockets at all. Um, But like people don't

(01:15:47):
know what fishulas are, so I put jockets in the book.
But so I got this fishul up. It takes me
weeks of trying to get rid of it, like tons
of doctors appointments. Um, in fact, I had surgery, like
to cut cut it, cut it out. They would go, Yeah,
they would take these like um sticks that like uh
with like a silver knight, trade on them and try

(01:16:07):
to burn it out, like they stick it inside of
the fishila and try to burn out the back. It
was the worst couple of weeks. And I'm still trying
to play on top of all this. Well, finally I
can't take it anymore. Like it's gotten so bad and
it hurts so bad that I can't hardly walk and
there's no way I'm gonna be able to play a
football game. And so I have to get that surgery

(01:16:27):
that I just mentioned, and it's about a weak recovery.
So when I get the surgery, I hadn't really told
many people obviously at this point in time, like hey, um,
you know I've got a fishila that I have this.
I told my coaches, but I wasn't like announcing it
publicly by any means. Um, I wasn't really hardly telling
my friends. But I had to wear a diaper because

(01:16:48):
you're bleeding so much, and so like you have this, yeah,
you have this adult Yeah you want to talk about
like a confidence kick. You are not only like somebody.
You know, you're in your senior year, You're the quarter
You're hoping I have a good season. But like now
you're wearing a diaper to a football game and you're
you know you're bleeding. Um, yeah, it's rough. I told

(01:17:11):
you this is a graphic. Um. Well, okay. Fast forward
to the night of the game. It's a homecoming game. Uh,
the crowd is packed, and I have to tell my
coaches three days before the game, I can't play because
of this surgery. And they go, I get it, like
this is pretty bad. We've seen it, like you can't play, um,
And so out of the goodness of their heart, they're like, well,

(01:17:32):
we have to obviously tell, like announce why you're not playing,
Like yeah, you you do. And they take it upon themselves.
These are football coaches. This isn't a good pr team
like this team. This these guys, these guys like are
just trying their best to keep some high school kids
running up and down the field. And they tell they
think the best option is to tell the local paper

(01:17:53):
and the media, uh that I'm sitting on the game
because I have a rash. And so literally the headline
of the paper reads Tigers win without Ben Higgins who
sat sits out the game because of a severe rash
and jocks. I mean, can you imagine the assumptions. Can

(01:18:17):
you imagine the jokes from people, your friends, family, like
people who are like reading this headline, going what kind
of rash do you have? Been? Like? How? The best
of all the story is how like? What? How severe
is this rash? Um? And I have to defend myself

(01:18:37):
to something I'm already insecure about that. No, it's not
a rash. It's actually just like this like bacteria, that's tunnel.
It's way through my butt and it looks worse than ever.
Now to close the story off, I did recover. I
did come back and play football. Um, I never I
never walked the hallways in my high school the same again.
And there's another reason for that. Uh. And I'll tell

(01:18:59):
you that story next week. It's one that might top this.
And it's okay, okay, you know why I didn't put
that on the list. I didn't put that on. I know,
I know the story you're about to tell, but I
didn't put on the list because I wasn't worried that
you weren't going to feel comfortable talking about it. Come on, people.
The one thing I've learned over my life is that
everybody has weird stuff going on. Everybody has um awkward moments.

(01:19:23):
And if the more I talk about it, it's the
lesson secure I feel, and it's the more other people
maybe out there can be like, oh, yeah, here's a
funny story I have. I mean, this is our podcast,
so let's just talk as much as we can. Hey, well,
thanks for asking. This has been a blast. Next week
will be our last story. And uh, and I'm glad
we've got to know a little bit more about me
in this whole experience. Well, hey, awesome to have Chris

(01:19:44):
Harrison on the podcast. It's always a pleasure to take
time out of his schedule to come onto this show
and give us all the details that he does. Uh.
This has been another Almost Famous podcast. We'll be back
next week for a breakdown of Tastia's season of The Bachelorette.
With that I've Been Been, I've Been Ashley, and I'm
Chris Harrison. Very go you said, Harrison, It's amazing. Followed

(01:20:07):
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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