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The Golden Divorce: Ben’s Take · The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: We've had the unique opportunity here in the Almost Famous
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  Speaker 2: podcast to have some voices, some wise voices, some voices
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  Speaker 2: who have been through the Bachelor franchise for a bit
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  Speaker 2: share their thoughts on the recent announcement of the Golden Bachelor,
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  Speaker 2: Gary and his wife Teresa's divorce. So I was going
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  Speaker 2: to jump in for a second and kind of share
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  Speaker 2: my thoughts. It's this was this was a difficult announcement.
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  Speaker 2: I think for so many of us to kind of understand.
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  Speaker 2: That's why it's everywhere if you google this divorce. All
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  Speaker 2: the major media companies and journalists are covering this. I
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  Speaker 2: think we're shocked, because we're saddened. I'm shocked. I guess
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  Speaker 2: I can speak for myself personally, because I really believe
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  Speaker 2: the two of them we're gonna make it. For multiple reasons.
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  Speaker 2: Let me touch on those. One. I thought their age
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  Speaker 2: was going to allow them kind of this next chapter
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  Speaker 2: in life, and they were really going to invest during
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  Speaker 2: this next chapter into this new love and this new
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  Speaker 2: relationship they found. Quite honestly, this could come off wrong.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't think there was enough time to necessarily have
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  Speaker 2: major disagreements, major disagreements, especially ending in a separation. I
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  Speaker 2: also thought they were gonna have a lot of fun together.
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  Speaker 2: Obviously both of them have done very well in their life.
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  Speaker 2: From all we know, they're both financially sustainable, and so
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  Speaker 2: they had a ton of opportunity to go off and
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  Speaker 2: to travel, or to spend time on the lakes, or
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  Speaker 2: to go out to dinners and to just enjoy kind
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  Speaker 2: of this next chapter. And so for me, I took
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  Speaker 2: all those into consideration without knowing the two of them
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  Speaker 2: very personally, been able to meet him a few times,
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  Speaker 2: and thought this could be something special. Obviously, now shockingly
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  Speaker 2: they are announcing that they're going to divorce. I also
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  Speaker 2: think the fans here are a little bit confused because
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  Speaker 2: we don't have a lot of information. As so many
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  Speaker 2: who have came on here now the podcast today and
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  Speaker 2: been interviewed, they've shared that we just don't know enough. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I believe it was Trista who said that, you know,
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  Speaker 2: if love truly exists, then you can figure the rest out.
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  Speaker 2: So many of us who listen to this, who have
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  Speaker 2: been in a committed relationship or in some type of
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  Speaker 2: relationship that we've had to make tough decisions for understand
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  Speaker 2: that the decisions are tough still, yes, but they're going
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  Speaker 2: to get made because there's love behind them. So if
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  Speaker 2: it's just a matter of where you move and what
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  Speaker 2: family you're closer to, then I would say this is confusing,
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  Speaker 2: especially because Gary, yes, has family fairly close, but he's
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  Speaker 2: they still have to drive. I mean, I believe he
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  Speaker 2: has some children that are you know, five plus hours away.
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  Speaker 2: That's you know, a flight from the East Coast to Indiana.
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  Speaker 2: I and you're retired. I guess I should say that
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  Speaker 2: he's retired, and so there's time to fly, there's time
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  Speaker 2: to travel. I've lived in Colorado, my family's lived in
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  Speaker 2: Indiana for the past eleven years, and I don't see them,
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  Speaker 2: maybe as regularly as I would if I lived in
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  Speaker 2: the same hometown or within an hour's drive, But I
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  Speaker 2: see them often. My dad just retired last year, and
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  Speaker 2: before that, you know, there was weeks every year that
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  Speaker 2: I would go home, or there was weeks that they
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  Speaker 2: would come here. There was flexibility in that, and so
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  Speaker 2: I never have felt like I cannot see my family
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  Speaker 2: when I desire to see them or when they desire
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  Speaker 2: to see me. And spend time with Jessica and I
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  Speaker 2: and so I want to believe their excuse. I do.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think their reasoning that it was hard
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  Speaker 2: to kind of figure out where they're going to be
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  Speaker 2: for their family is fair, but I don't believe it's everything.
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  Speaker 2: And honestly, I don't know if they owe us everything
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  Speaker 2: in the explanation of why they're getting divorce. I don't
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  Speaker 2: know if that's really my business or any of our businesses.
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  Speaker 2: But we are invested in their love stories, so we
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  Speaker 2: do want to know what happened here. And I think
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  Speaker 2: the question of what happened here for me is also
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  Speaker 2: confusing because their love story brought so many people hope.
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  Speaker 2: I got to do a segment with Gary that was
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  Speaker 2: never shown on television, but we kind of did the
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  Speaker 2: watch party segment where we went on a bus and
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  Speaker 2: stopped in at people's homes and talk to people about
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  Speaker 2: what they're experiencing watching The Golden and there were tears,
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  Speaker 2: there was hope, there was joy, There was Hey, if
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  Speaker 2: you can do it, Gary, I want to do it too.
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  Speaker 2: There was this belief that no matter what age you were,
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  Speaker 2: that love could still exist and could still be found
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  Speaker 2: and I'm worried, or I guess I'm concerned, or I
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  Speaker 2: guess I know that their divorce so quickly after getting
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  Speaker 2: married will probably make people take a step back. But
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  Speaker 2: here's the truth to it. I still believe what they
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  Speaker 2: showed on television, and what so many of them showed
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  Speaker 2: on television, so many of the contestants, is that love
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  Speaker 2: can still be found no matter what age you are at.
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  Speaker 2: I don't want that to be forgotten here. I think
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  Speaker 2: that's where this whole thing gets so hard for me,
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  Speaker 2: because I know that so many people really truly were
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  Speaker 2: invested into their love story and invested into this story
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  Speaker 2: in general, and I don't want people to forget that, Yes,
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  Speaker 2: loves can still be found. If you talk to any
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  Speaker 2: of the women who came off the show, they believe
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  Speaker 2: in love more than ever. In fact, I'll mention Susan
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  Speaker 2: and Kathy here. I've gotten to speak with them multiple times,
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  Speaker 2: and as recently as two weeks ago. Kind of heard
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  Speaker 2: some rumblings at that time that things were not good
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  Speaker 2: for Gary and Teresa, and so we got to have
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  Speaker 2: a conversation about what did the show teach you? And
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  Speaker 2: both of them said that it taught them that love
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  Speaker 2: can still be found, that this next chapter of life
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  Speaker 2: can be the most exciting chapter yet for them. And
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  Speaker 2: so if you're invested into their love stories, if you're
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  Speaker 2: invested into this separation and this divorce that they're entering into,
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  Speaker 2: please do not forget that love can still be found
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  Speaker 2: no matter what age you are in, that the next
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  Speaker 2: chapter can be the best chapter in your story, in
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  Speaker 2: your life. I also think we should look here now.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe you know the main characters of the Golden Bachelor
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  Speaker 2: was Gary and Teresa because they were obviously the ones
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  Speaker 2: who got married national television. Gary was the lead, Teresa
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  Speaker 2: was obviously the one that he chose and that she
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  Speaker 2: chose him at the end. But I think now the
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  Speaker 2: way I'm seeing it is it kind of levels the
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  Speaker 2: playing field a little bit to where the main characters
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  Speaker 2: are everybody that was on the show, These women who
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  Speaker 2: have came off of The Golden Bachelor and are now
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  Speaker 2: representing all new things. They're representing wisdom, they're representing the
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  Speaker 2: kind of this newfound fame and how to handle it
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  Speaker 2: when you have so much experience in life so that
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  Speaker 2: you don't get sucked up. And maybe the relevancy of
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  Speaker 2: it all but you just enjoy the ride. I'm learning
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  Speaker 2: from them, and I think we now we all can.
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  Speaker 2: I think the cool part would be as we watch
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  Speaker 2: the contestants now hopefully go out and date and go
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  Speaker 2: out and explore new relationships, and then we move on
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  Speaker 2: to now the Golden Bachelorette, we can start to we
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  Speaker 2: can continue to learn from them and continue to invest
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  Speaker 2: into their stories and continue to believe that something good
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  Speaker 2: is in the future for all of them. Now, I
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  Speaker 2: kind of want to close here by by also saying
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  Speaker 2: what is by talking about what like what I believe
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  Speaker 2: the future of the Golden Show is. I don't think
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  Speaker 2: this derails it. I do think the divorce makes us
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  Speaker 2: take a step back and maybe have a little bit
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  Speaker 2: of hesitancy when we watch the Golden Show and we're
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  Speaker 2: kind of waiting to see if there's actually love that
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  Speaker 2: is going to be found, and what the wedding looks like,
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  Speaker 2: what the commitment looks like, what these new relationships will
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  Speaker 2: look like, because I think you build off of what
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  Speaker 2: your first example is. For example, Tristan Ryan from The Bachelorette,
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  Speaker 2: we got to see their love story unfold, and now
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  Speaker 2: twenty plus years later, they're still together and they have kids,
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  Speaker 2: and we now believed in The Bachelor and The Bachelor
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  Speaker 2: I think in large part because we saw their commitment
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  Speaker 2: to each other and we saw what came from that,
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  Speaker 2: and so I do think now there'll be more hesitancy.
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  Speaker 2: But I also believe that the Golden Show can still
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  Speaker 2: be really great, and I think success is still going
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  Speaker 2: to come from so many couples, and I'm still going
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  Speaker 2: to be invested now as much as I was before.
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  Speaker 2: I am confused with all of this. Why they got
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  Speaker 2: married so quickly. I mean, I think there's some financial
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  Speaker 2: benefits from that. I do believe they at the time
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  Speaker 2: believe this was the right thing to do, that this
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  Speaker 2: was going to be a relationship with that lasts. I
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  Speaker 2: don't think either of them were entering into that marriage
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  Speaker 2: being like, hey, we'll get married, but yeah, a couple
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  Speaker 2: months later, like it doesn't really matter, we can separate.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think either of them were things that, but
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  Speaker 2: I do believe coming off the high of the show,
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  Speaker 2: coming off the experience of the show, coming off the
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  Speaker 2: press tours, getting to travel together, having this kind of
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  Speaker 2: upour honeymoon moment right after the show probably made them feel, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: this is amazing, Let's get married. I just never think
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  Speaker 2: that's smart. If you go back into my experience, obviously,
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  Speaker 2: there was some hesitancy coming right out of the show
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  Speaker 2: to get married right away. If you see Joey and
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  Speaker 2: Kelsey season obviously, Joey and Kelsey were talking about, Hey,
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  Speaker 2: we'll have a long engagement. You have to kind of
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  Speaker 2: redate to kind of re establish a foundation outside of
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  Speaker 2: the show, because the show, once it's over, it's over,
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  Speaker 2: and you go back to regular life. The show moves
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  Speaker 2: on to the next lead, to the next season, and
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  Speaker 2: you move on to whatever the next chapter holds, and
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  Speaker 2: so you have to redate, re establish Jojo and Jordan
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  Speaker 2: are a great example of that. Matt and Rachel are
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  Speaker 2: a great example of that. So many of the healthy
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  Speaker 2: couples we see today have re establish a foundation outside
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  Speaker 2: of the show, and I don't think Gary and Teresa
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  Speaker 2: ever gave it time to do that. I think they
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  Speaker 2: got wrapped up in the whole thing too quickly, which
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  Speaker 2: honestly is a little surprising because I thought they would
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  Speaker 2: go about this whole thing very differently than any couples
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  Speaker 2: we've seen in the past. All Right, So those are
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  Speaker 2: my thoughts I'm sad. I wish divorce wasn't their best
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  Speaker 2: option or the option they felt like was necessary. Maybe
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  Speaker 2: it's a better way to say that. I wish they
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  Speaker 2: could have worked through some things. I wish they would
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  Speaker 2: have given it some more time to work through some things.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe it was just getting to a place where they
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  Speaker 2: knew this was going nowhere good fast, and so they
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  Speaker 2: had to get out, both of them. I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: We don't know enough. Again, from everything I've read and
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  Speaker 2: in the interview, the only really reasoning for this is
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  Speaker 2: they just couldn't figure out the family dynamics. I don't
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  Speaker 2: think I'm satisfied with that. I know there's more, but
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  Speaker 2: as I said earlier, I don't know if I'm owed anymore.
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  Speaker 2: So it comes from a place of assumption. I just
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  Speaker 2: wish divorce was not the option they felt like was
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  Speaker 2: necessary at this time. I wish that two of them
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  Speaker 2: could have found something beautiful together. I was wishing and
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  Speaker 2: hoping that the Golden Bachelor was going to lead to
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  Speaker 2: an amazing love story that we'd be able to celebrate
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  Speaker 2: for years to come. But we're not. And so now
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  Speaker 2: we move on and we hope that the next season
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  Speaker 2: works and we hope that the contestants find love again.
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  Speaker 2: And we hope that Gary and Teresa can find love
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  Speaker 2: again because I know and I do believe both of
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  Speaker 2: them desired it. Love is a beautiful thing when it's
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  Speaker 2: at its best. This show is about love. When it's
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  Speaker 2: at its worst, it's about drama. And so the Golden Bachelor,
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  Speaker 2: as we continue, I hope, continues to be about love
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  Speaker 2: and we don't lose sight of the incredible life change
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  Speaker 2: that so many on the show and viewers of the
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  Speaker 2: show have had because they've witnessed people later in life
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  Speaker 2: make commitments to try to find love again. So we
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  Speaker 2: watch hopeful Now. I watch with a little hesitancy, but
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  Speaker 2: I still have a lot of anticipation, excitement and anticipation
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  Speaker 2: towards the next season of The Golden Bachelorette and hoping
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  Speaker 2: hey that love truly will be found.
• 13:26
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