Latest / The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast / Telling It Like It Is with Mel Owens

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Telling It Like It Is with Mel Owens · 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.
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Speaker 2: Hey guys, welcome to the Almost Famous Podcast. Today, we
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Speaker 2: have someone very big in the franchise that we haven't
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Speaker 2: had on the podcast yet. It is Mel Owens. He's
0:15
Speaker 2: been a little bit of a controversial figure as the
0:17
Speaker 2: lead of The Golden Bachelor, and now we have him
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Speaker 2: and we have a lot of questions that we're excited
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Speaker 2: to ask him. Hey, mel it is so nice to
0:30
Speaker 2: meet you. We wanted you to come on our podcast,
0:35
Speaker 2: but you were the one who reached out and use
0:38
Speaker 2: you really you certainly showed interest in our dms that
0:42
Speaker 2: you wanted to come on. Why is it that you
0:43
Speaker 2: wanted to come on our podcast?
0:45
Speaker 3: You know, you guys, you're famous for having the Bachelor show. Right,
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Speaker 3: it's not really you know, a Bachelor show unless it's
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Speaker 3: run your on your podcast, right you guys being here
0:55
Speaker 3: for a decade, so ten years, yeah, decade, ten years?
1:01
Speaker 3: You know?
1:01
Speaker 4: So no, yeah, it's crazy.
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Speaker 3: It's not complete unless we're on your show. And plus,
1:06
Speaker 3: you know you had you had Cindy on, you had
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Speaker 3: uh my girl on, so this is like maybe sort
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Speaker 3: of complete the circle.
1:15
Speaker 2: Well it sure does.
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Speaker 4: Who else from your season. Should we have on who
1:20
Speaker 4: would be a good interview?
1:21
Speaker 3: She probably have Peg on it. Again, she's such a
1:24
Speaker 3: such a great job.
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Speaker 4: Well, outside of the people we've already had.
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Speaker 3: Who, no one that's ill one, no one, no one else.
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Speaker 4: There's nobody else on your season that you think would
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Speaker 4: give a good interview.
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Speaker 3: No, there's probably a lot of good interviews, but I
1:37
Speaker 3: wouldn't recommend anybody coming on, you know, because you know,
1:41
Speaker 3: there's there's only one winner right in its Peg, and
1:45
Speaker 3: there's you know, and then the and then the runner up.
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Speaker 3: So everybody other than that, I mean, you know, did
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Speaker 3: you see the show? Did you watch it?
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Speaker 4: Oh, yes, we watched it.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you know, I mean you pick him.
1:58
Speaker 4: Do you consider yourself a winner?
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Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean I'm happy I was on the show,
2:04
Speaker 3: and I'm a winner because I found Peg and yeah,
2:08
Speaker 3: I mean, but that's that's the truth. So yeah, I
2:11
Speaker 3: consider myself overall a winner because you know, I went
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Speaker 3: on the show to find someone, and I found someone.
2:19
Speaker 2: How did you get on the show, Well, without.
2:22
Speaker 3: Going into great detail, someone contacted me and then I
2:27
Speaker 3: followed up and then you know, we went through the
2:29
Speaker 3: necessary steps to confirm that that I would be the bachelor.
2:34
Speaker 3: They you know, obviously they it's the first time that
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Speaker 3: they didn't pick someone from the alumni group. So they
2:40
Speaker 3: reached out to me through some other people and then
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Speaker 3: we went through the whole interview process and they chose me.
2:49
Speaker 4: It's interesting, Ashley. I don't know if you remember this
2:51
Speaker 4: from our time on the show, but I was always
2:55
Speaker 4: amazed at how good the casting directors were at finding
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Speaker 4: random people and like random cities. I remember, like Sean
3:02
Speaker 4: Booth is an example, right, such a great iconic person
3:06
Speaker 4: on the show, and I think he was like in
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Speaker 4: a bar and a casting director was there and in
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Speaker 4: front of him said, would you want to go on
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Speaker 4: the show? Mel Do you have any idea how they
3:15
Speaker 4: found you?
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Speaker 3: I just told you they reached out through some other people.
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Speaker 2: Like friends of friends and side.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. Well you know, you know, as you know, because
3:25
Speaker 3: you guys are veterans of the show. Once they find people,
3:30
Speaker 3: you know, that's a network. So then they can reach
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Speaker 3: out to other people say do you know this person?
3:34
Speaker 3: Do you know that person? So you know, in business,
3:37
Speaker 3: you know, the best the best contacts are referrals, and
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Speaker 3: you know, you get to know the casting person, the
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Speaker 3: person knows you. They hey, do you know somebody? Do
3:46
Speaker 3: you know somebody? And then all of a sudden, you know,
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Speaker 3: within that network, you find somebody. So that's how they
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Speaker 3: did it.
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Speaker 2: So it wasn't like you ever like signed up or
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Speaker 2: did the send in a video or questionnaire.
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Speaker 3: I didn't. I mean, I you know, eventually you got
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Speaker 3: to go through the whole process, which is the application
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Speaker 3: of stuff. But no, I did not do that. They
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Speaker 3: located me. I was interested. I followed up. We had
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Speaker 3: the interviews, you know, I went to Los Angeles, met
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Speaker 3: with all the people, and then I was selected.
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Speaker 4: I actually before we kick off, mel, I listened to
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Speaker 4: interview you did, and you referenced somebody who I think
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Speaker 4: is Uh is well one has been one of the
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Speaker 4: most evergreen people, a part of the show. Also one
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Speaker 4: of my favorite humans I've ever met in my life.
4:37
Speaker 4: You mentioned Carrie Fetman. Carrie obviously was still a part
4:42
Speaker 4: of your season. Carrie does the wardrobe for the bachelor, Uh,
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Speaker 4: and then most of the leads and then sometimes the
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Speaker 4: women at the end, and then reversed obviously during the Bachelorette.
4:53
Speaker 4: How awesome is Carrie.
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Speaker 3: I can't say enough about that guy. That's my guy
5:01
Speaker 3: when you know, when we started the show, they you know,
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Speaker 3: they have doctors on psychologists and they sort of, you know,
5:08
Speaker 3: meet you for the first time and they're asking you
5:12
Speaker 3: questions about, you know, how is your experience going after
5:15
Speaker 3: it maybe two or three weeks. But you have to
5:16
Speaker 3: get you know, fitted, and you have to meet with
5:18
Speaker 3: different people, and you have to have the meetings with
5:21
Speaker 3: the marketing and promotions people and they go, who's your guy,
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Speaker 3: I go, carries my guy, and they were they were
5:29
Speaker 3: sort of surprised because he's not really supposed to be
5:32
Speaker 3: like the guy. But he's my guy and always will
5:35
Speaker 3: be my guy. Uh. He he treated me with respecting dignity,
5:40
Speaker 3: and I just love this guy. Love this guy to
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Speaker 3: death death. He has more insight to the show than
5:45
Speaker 3: anyone else and he shared that insight with me. And
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Speaker 3: actually he's the guy who guided me along. So I
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Speaker 3: spent most of the time with him. I woke up
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Speaker 3: every morning, you know, I went into his into the
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Speaker 3: wardrobe and we sat and spoke for probably an hour
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Speaker 3: each day. So he's my guy.
6:01
Speaker 2: They could have brought him on as your producer.
6:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know. Well, I've always said Ashley and I don't.
6:07
Speaker 4: You've obviously no Carrie. But when people ask, okay about
6:12
Speaker 4: the Bachelor experience, it's a lonely island. At times you
6:15
Speaker 4: have producers, you know that, I do think at times
6:18
Speaker 4: have your best interests, at other times do not. And
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Speaker 4: it's hard to find kind of that confidant. And I
6:25
Speaker 4: have always said Carrie femin was the confidant. He was
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Speaker 4: the one voice that I think, even now today as
6:32
Speaker 4: I look back, he never never lied to me, never
6:35
Speaker 4: swayed me, but listen. And I think he deserves a
6:39
Speaker 4: lot of credit for the show being good for as
6:41
Speaker 4: long as it's been good, because I do think he
6:43
Speaker 4: carries a lot of that weight of just being just
6:46
Speaker 4: being a friend.
6:47
Speaker 3: He knows what works and what doesn't work, not only
6:50
Speaker 3: you know, wardrobe wise, but the tenor and the flow
6:55
Speaker 3: and the pace of the of the show. And you know,
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Speaker 3: he doesn't give away secrets either, you know, he just
7:02
Speaker 3: he just gives you, you know, ideas and suggestions, but
7:07
Speaker 3: he doesn't give it away. And that's I think one
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Speaker 3: of the most important parts of Carrie being Carrie that
7:12
Speaker 3: he has a lot of insight, but he doesn't give
7:14
Speaker 3: it away.
7:15
Speaker 2: Well, what was his insight on Peg and Cindy when
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Speaker 2: you were at the end with them.
7:20
Speaker 3: I'm not going to tell you because that's between me
7:22
Speaker 3: and Carrie, and Carrie's the one is given the insights.
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Speaker 3: So but he did though, he offered his opinions, and
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Speaker 3: I'm a guy who listens to opinions and takes takes
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Speaker 3: him to heart, and what he was telling me was true,
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Speaker 3: and I just had to make up my own decision
7:42
Speaker 3: as we worked through the show. But that's between Carrie
7:46
Speaker 3: and I.
7:47
Speaker 4: Now we did, let's dive it a little bit to
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Speaker 4: the show. We did have Peg on Peg came on
7:51
Speaker 4: in the podcast last week. She said that you're more
7:54
Speaker 4: of a talker than the show portrayed you'd be. Is
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Speaker 4: that true?
7:58
Speaker 3: Yeah? Why not? I mean, of course, But did you
8:01
Speaker 3: see the any any parts of our instagram when we traveled?
8:05
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, you see? Okay, So you know, I mean,
8:07
Speaker 3: you know, you've seen me with my friends, You've seen
8:10
Speaker 3: me with Peg, You've seen me with you know, different cities, cities,
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Speaker 3: cities I've been in, cities I've never been in. We
8:15
Speaker 3: went to Toronto and spent like four or five days
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Speaker 3: there and then that was a new city for me.
8:21
Speaker 3: Then I've been to Rio, you know, over forty times. Right,
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Speaker 3: one of my best friends lives there. So you see
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Speaker 3: me interacting with different people in different environments. So you know,
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Speaker 3: this stuff is really not new to me as far
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Speaker 3: as you know, interacting with people. I'm an attorney. You know,
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Speaker 3: I've been an attorney for over twenty years, and I
8:39
Speaker 3: you know, played professional football, played at Michigan, so you know,
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Speaker 3: I'm a likable guy. I talk and I'm talking to you,
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Speaker 3: so we're all good.
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Speaker 2: You Well, Peg was actually telling us about your first
8:55
Speaker 2: encounter with her daughter and her mom. Can you tell
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Speaker 2: us describe that experience of hometowns because she alluded that
9:03
Speaker 2: she was frustrated that it didn't appear on TV the
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Speaker 2: way it fell in real life.
9:07
Speaker 3: Well, again, I'm not the editor, I'm not the storyteller,
9:12
Speaker 3: and you know that's, you know, way way above my expertise.
9:18
Speaker 3: I'm on the show. I'm just being myself. And you
9:21
Speaker 3: know everybody will tell you all the time, hey, just
9:24
Speaker 3: be yourself, and I was just myself. I had nothing
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Speaker 3: to hide because they do such a great vetting job.
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Speaker 3: And we went to the hometown and PEG's daughter was
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Speaker 3: there with her boyfriend, Cole and it was a pretty
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Speaker 3: light moment. You know, these people are fun and PEG's
9:42
Speaker 3: mom is a ardent Bachelor fan, so she was, you know,
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Speaker 3: really excited and you know, to have to host and
9:50
Speaker 3: to meet me and likewise, and her brother was there
9:52
Speaker 3: and her best friend from from high school and they
9:56
Speaker 3: had a gift for me. And it was a artificial hip,
10:01
Speaker 3: you know, a play on my podcast that I had
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Speaker 3: did earlier, and it was funny and it was apropos
10:07
Speaker 3: at the time, and it was laughing. I was laughing,
10:10
Speaker 3: and I knew that was going to get on the
10:12
Speaker 3: show because we're going back and forth about the hip
10:15
Speaker 3: and you know, you know, hopefully you won't need it
10:17
Speaker 3: later on. And it was you know, it was like
10:19
Speaker 3: maybe five or ten minutes and it never got on.
10:23
Speaker 3: So and it was funny. That was really funny, and
10:26
Speaker 3: it was appropriate too. But again, I don't I don't.
10:29
Speaker 3: I don't edit the show.
10:31
Speaker 4: You don't edit the show, which I mean, I think
10:34
Speaker 4: so many cast members from the past would wish they
10:37
Speaker 4: had some say in the editing process. But you have
10:40
Speaker 4: watched now this season back and you've moved on now
10:43
Speaker 4: into this new relationship, into the real world. But watching
10:47
Speaker 4: the show. What was your overall like sentiment as each
10:51
Speaker 4: episode aired? Were you happy with how things were being shown?
10:55
Speaker 4: Were you ever frustrated? Do you wish things would have
10:58
Speaker 4: been shown differently?
11:00
Speaker 3: Well, of course, you know it's it's when you know
11:03
Speaker 3: you replayed, replay anything back, whether you know like you know,
11:06
Speaker 3: I'm in trial a lot. I played professional football, and
11:10
Speaker 3: you watch film and you go back and you dissect
11:13
Speaker 3: it and you wish you did some things differently. But overall,
11:17
Speaker 3: I'm happy with the way it turned out because I
11:20
Speaker 3: was there to find someone, and I found someone, and
11:24
Speaker 3: you know how they portrayed it is what they wanted
11:29
Speaker 3: to do. And I'll give you I'll share one thing
11:33
Speaker 3: with you. Before the show even aired, we had we
11:39
Speaker 3: had dinner with one of the producers and with one
11:42
Speaker 3: of my best friends from from college and I played
11:46
Speaker 3: with him and we've been friends for over almost fifty years.
11:50
Speaker 3: And he was telling the producer, hey, man, you gotta
11:53
Speaker 3: lot Melby Mill you know you got You're gonna have
11:56
Speaker 3: a great show. And then he looked the guy talk
11:59
Speaker 3: and talk and talk and talk, and he goes, well,
12:01
Speaker 3: at the end, I got a show to produce. So
12:04
Speaker 3: he took all his all his information, all suggestions. But
12:07
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, it's ABC show and
12:09
Speaker 3: they can do whatever they want. So you know, you know,
12:12
Speaker 3: even when I run it back, you know you can
12:14
Speaker 3: run it back. But I always say this after I
12:18
Speaker 3: have done it, and I told and I told, I
12:19
Speaker 3: told all my friends this, I go. The show continues
12:23
Speaker 3: even though it's over. The show continues. You know, you
12:27
Speaker 3: have a Like you said in one of your interviews,
12:30
Speaker 3: you have a public facing persona now so people are
12:34
Speaker 3: watching you. And I've had one before. I played at Michigan,
12:37
Speaker 3: I played with the Rams, played in the NFL. I'm
12:39
Speaker 3: an attorney. So the show the Bachelor continues even though
12:45
Speaker 3: my show's over. It has it has a life to
12:48
Speaker 3: it as yours does because now you're doing all these
12:51
Speaker 3: other things because of the show. So just because the
12:54
Speaker 3: show itself is over doesn't mean the actual show is over.
12:57
Speaker 3: So I'm fine with the way it turned out, and
12:59
Speaker 3: I'm can hinuing the journey.
13:11
Speaker 2: I know that you want to definitely emphasize your relationship
13:15
Speaker 2: with but as a podcast, we do need to. We
13:18
Speaker 2: would like to dig a little bit into your relationship
13:20
Speaker 2: with Cindy, if you don't.
13:21
Speaker 3: Mind Okay, we'll be careful, be careful.
13:24
Speaker 2: Why is that?
13:25
Speaker 3: Yeah?
13:26
Speaker 4: Why be careful?
13:26
Speaker 3: Because I heard I heard your podcast with her.
13:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's why we want to talk about it specifically.
13:33
Speaker 3: Because actually, I know you're a big fan.
13:36
Speaker 2: We do. I do love Cindy.
13:37
Speaker 3: Yes, you're you're a big fan, and I think you
13:40
Speaker 3: always will be a big fan of hers. And that's good,
13:43
Speaker 3: that's good. But you know I was there actually, so
13:45
Speaker 3: we can we can, we can dig in and I'm
13:48
Speaker 3: happy to dig in.
13:49
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm I love hearing all sides of this story.
13:52
Speaker 3: Let's dig in.
13:53
Speaker 2: All right. So Cindy was your runner up, but it
13:57
Speaker 2: seemed like you kind of knew, especially listening to your
14:00
Speaker 2: podcast last week with She's All Batch, that you pretty
14:03
Speaker 2: much were hoping it was going to be pegged the
14:05
Speaker 2: entire time. But you still seemed quite upset when Cindy
14:11
Speaker 2: decided to leave on her own. Why was that?
14:14
Speaker 3: Well, Look, when I don't care what situation you're in,
14:17
Speaker 3: if you're in a situation where you're in a new situation,
14:22
Speaker 3: whether it's in you know, a meeting, a business meeting,
14:25
Speaker 3: a party, or whatever, and people are new, you're going
14:28
Speaker 3: to gravitate to people that you either are like minded
14:32
Speaker 3: with or you you think they're interesting. So same on
14:36
Speaker 3: the same is on the show. You know, there's there's
14:38
Speaker 3: twenty three women, and you sort of gravitate to the
14:41
Speaker 3: person that you have the most things in common with,
14:45
Speaker 3: or you think you do, like that's your profile, Like
14:48
Speaker 3: I like this, I like that, I like the way
14:50
Speaker 3: she acts, like the way she talks. You know, so
14:52
Speaker 3: you know you're gravitating to a couple of people. And Ben,
14:55
Speaker 3: you know this, but you you know you I saw
14:57
Speaker 3: your show, right, I saw bits of parts of it.
15:00
Speaker 3: You know, you gravitated to a couple couple of girls, right,
15:04
Speaker 3: and that's just natural. But I came in with open mind,
15:07
Speaker 3: in an open heart to see whatever was going to
15:10
Speaker 3: happen was going to happen. So, you know, unfortunately, you know,
15:13
Speaker 3: you got women to go and uh you know, so
15:17
Speaker 3: when they go, they go, and then the ones that
15:19
Speaker 3: are left over, the ones that are the ones that
15:20
Speaker 3: you concentrate on. And obviously you know Peg one, but
15:23
Speaker 3: I was, you know, looking at her, I go, this
15:25
Speaker 3: girl fits my my profile better than the other ones.
15:28
Speaker 3: But I had an open mind and open heart, and
15:31
Speaker 3: like I told you before, when she quit, we got
15:35
Speaker 3: a show to make. You know, there's a responsibility to
15:37
Speaker 3: make a show. And you know, if you know one thing,
15:41
Speaker 3: you know in the contract you can quitting time you want, right, but.
15:46
Speaker 4: They can quit or leave. But you can't.
15:48
Speaker 3: You can't. Oh you can't. No no no no, Ben
15:50
Speaker 3: Ben Ben Ben. I'm an attorney and I gave my
15:53
Speaker 3: contract to my attorney. I said, hey, man, look at this.
15:57
Speaker 3: He goes. Now, he goes. This is weird. Man, he goes.
16:00
Speaker 3: You know you can walk anytime I was telling you
16:03
Speaker 3: so you you you think you can, you think you can't.
16:08
Speaker 3: You can, But that's beside the point. But the point
16:11
Speaker 3: is this is that there's a show to make, and
16:14
Speaker 3: you know we have responsibility to do it. Now she
16:17
Speaker 3: can walk, and she walked right. And I don't even
16:20
Speaker 3: know in the Bachelor of history of other people, I
16:22
Speaker 3: think some one of the shows someone found each other
16:25
Speaker 3: and left.
16:26
Speaker 2: So many people have left early. I mean the lead
16:29
Speaker 2: found the well, there is Claire there. I was thinking
16:34
Speaker 2: the debate whether or not you could talk to Claire.
16:37
Speaker 2: Claire might say that it wasn't up the.
16:38
Speaker 3: Instances where you where you where you where you leave.
16:42
Speaker 3: So there's a show to make. And you know, look,
16:48
Speaker 3: self doubt crept into her mind, right, she she sort
16:51
Speaker 3: of figured out she wasn't going to be the person
16:53
Speaker 3: or that. You know, even it's one percent, you have
16:55
Speaker 3: self doubt and then you also and that panic sets in,
16:58
Speaker 3: and then you have to find a way to get
17:00
Speaker 3: yourself out of it. And the easiest way to avoid
17:03
Speaker 3: that sort of embarrassment is you walk, and then you
17:06
Speaker 3: reframe it as a power move, right, But at the end,
17:11
Speaker 3: you quit. So she had the progntive to quit, and
17:15
Speaker 3: she did. And that's but here's the thing to make
17:18
Speaker 3: sure everybody knows, I walked her out and this didn't
17:22
Speaker 3: make it on film. She told me just before real
17:25
Speaker 3: she goes, hey, let's keep in touch. It's like, I
17:28
Speaker 3: found that was weird, but yeah, whatever, well.
17:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I wonder too if there was a
17:37
Speaker 4: in her mind kind of Meggie wouldn't even ask her,
17:39
Speaker 4: so what was going through in that moment. Maybe she
17:42
Speaker 4: had expected everybody to leave based on how she was
17:46
Speaker 4: feeling kind of what she was thinking. But I find it.
17:51
Speaker 4: I think it's interesting. I don't even think about this
17:53
Speaker 4: until now. When we had PEG on she emphasized how
17:56
Speaker 4: important that overnight was for the two of you that
17:58
Speaker 4: you too, we're able to talk about things without cameras,
18:01
Speaker 4: and I and I one hundred percent agree. I think
18:03
Speaker 4: those overnights are so vital to getting to understand where
18:07
Speaker 4: the person's actually at. But Cindy never had that overnight,
18:10
Speaker 4: So I guess the question would be, do you think
18:13
Speaker 4: things could have gone differently if she would have stayed
18:16
Speaker 4: and had the overnight to discuss, you know, what you
18:19
Speaker 4: were wanting in this relationship, what you're desiring, how you
18:22
Speaker 4: are actually feeling without the cameras there to kind of
18:26
Speaker 4: invade the space.
18:28
Speaker 3: Well, like you said, the overnight's you know they call
18:32
Speaker 3: fantasy suitets, but you know, and that's a hypothetical. It
18:37
Speaker 3: never happened. She said like like she wasn't going to
18:41
Speaker 3: go because she has a you know, there's like an
18:46
Speaker 3: insinuation or something about something sexual happening, and she has daughters.
18:51
Speaker 3: But that's a little disingenuous because she was around, she
18:54
Speaker 3: was rolling around with me in Malibu and the sort
18:56
Speaker 3: of half naked, and she could have said no to that.
19:00
Speaker 3: So that part of like, I'm not going to go
19:02
Speaker 3: to the fantasy street because something could have happened. Look, like,
19:06
Speaker 3: you know, it doesn't happen that way. And look, she
19:10
Speaker 3: didn't want to go because she had that self doubt
19:13
Speaker 3: and and she's not going to go because it's going
19:15
Speaker 3: to complicate things more. And the closer she got to
19:18
Speaker 3: the end, the more pressure she would have felt. So
19:21
Speaker 3: the easiest way was to quit. And she got up
19:23
Speaker 3: and walked out, and you know that's her prerogative.
19:26
Speaker 2: You keep saying that you didn't like the fact that
19:28
Speaker 2: she quit, but I think that and yes, she was
19:32
Speaker 2: doubting herself, but that was because you weren't you. You
19:35
Speaker 2: were pretty clear without words that she was not the one,
19:41
Speaker 2: Like I think she was just like, ah, you know
19:43
Speaker 2: what I for out of my own self respect, don't
19:46
Speaker 2: need to give time to somebody who obviously doesn't want
19:49
Speaker 2: to give time to me.
19:50
Speaker 3: Well that was that, That was her her thoughts. And
19:53
Speaker 3: again that's when the self doubt creeps in.
19:55
Speaker 2: But isn't that the truth?
19:56
Speaker 3: Though you didn't worry when she when she it made
20:00
Speaker 3: it real easy. It made it real easy because remember,
20:04
Speaker 3: there's another person there, and it's Peg. Peg could have
20:07
Speaker 3: said no to me, Yeah, so then Cindy still would
20:11
Speaker 3: have been there.
20:12
Speaker 2: But then what would you have done well, Well, I.
20:14
Speaker 3: Don't know, Ben, what'd you do? Man? You said you
20:17
Speaker 3: said you love two women, right, and then you.
20:19
Speaker 4: Got down an opposite problem.
20:23
Speaker 3: Issues, right, So you're asking about hypotheticals and yeah, Cindy
20:29
Speaker 3: wanted to leapfrog, and she goes, hey, peg asigned, I
20:32
Speaker 3: know there's someone here, but I got to know what's
20:34
Speaker 3: going to happen. So it doesn't work that way. You know,
20:36
Speaker 3: there's a.
20:37
Speaker 2: Format you follow, so I want to know because I
20:40
Speaker 2: felt like as a viewer, she was asking, like I
20:44
Speaker 2: think she wasn't asking to know what was going to
20:47
Speaker 2: happen the next day. At the proposal moment, I think
20:50
Speaker 2: she was asking, how do you feel about me? Like
20:54
Speaker 2: she just wanted to know how you felt about her,
20:57
Speaker 2: not necessarily what the ending would be, because in this situation,
21:01
Speaker 2: it could turn out to be like Ben, where it's
21:02
Speaker 2: like you do love two people and you have to
21:06
Speaker 2: make it. You're going to end up making a decision,
21:09
Speaker 2: but you still have true feelings or both. So I
21:14
Speaker 2: think she was just asking, do you have any true
21:17
Speaker 2: feelings for me?
21:19
Speaker 3: Actually, that's incorrect. She wanted to know about her where
21:22
Speaker 3: she stood if she was going to basically be the winner.
21:26
Speaker 3: I'm smart enough to know what the question was. And
21:30
Speaker 3: she wanted a leap frog they tell me, now where
21:33
Speaker 3: are we? And she also said something you know, like
21:38
Speaker 3: you know, you gotta take a leap of faith. I
21:40
Speaker 3: told her, I go, My life doesn't work that way.
21:42
Speaker 3: I actually got I actually got a reputation, a resume,
21:45
Speaker 3: a job, kids, And she wants me to take a
21:48
Speaker 3: leap of faith. That the thing is, she wanted me
21:50
Speaker 3: to take a leap of faith to her. And I
21:53
Speaker 3: didn't know anything about her, but with me, she knew
21:56
Speaker 3: everything about me, not everything, but she knew a lot
21:58
Speaker 3: more about me. She goes, hey, take take a leap
22:00
Speaker 3: of faith towards me. I didn't know what kind of
22:02
Speaker 3: car she drove. I didn't know if she had any
22:04
Speaker 3: brothers or sisters. I didn't know if if her mom
22:06
Speaker 3: and dad were alive. I didn't meet any of her friends.
22:09
Speaker 3: Are you are you serious? I'm to take a leap
22:11
Speaker 3: of faith and marry somebody and I don't even know
22:14
Speaker 3: that person.
22:15
Speaker 4: Was that what the question was?
22:16
Speaker 3: Though?
22:16
Speaker 4: Like I mean, I guess I don't remember the exact language.
22:20
Speaker 4: Do you think the question was more pushing, like let's
22:23
Speaker 4: get married? I mean peg last week, I guess convinced
22:27
Speaker 4: me that, Hey, what you guys are doing is awesome.
22:30
Speaker 4: You know, you're dating your love, you're traveling, you're having fun,
22:34
Speaker 4: you know, and that works, and I think it does work.
22:36
Speaker 4: I honestly, I've told Ashley so many times during the show,
22:39
Speaker 4: I wish it would not end an engagement unless it
22:42
Speaker 4: was the real deal, unless the two of them were like,
22:44
Speaker 4: I cannot wait to propose to you. If not, you
22:47
Speaker 4: just you do. You go off and you date and
22:49
Speaker 4: you figure things out. Do you think Cindy was actually
22:52
Speaker 4: not just asking you, hey, is there a chance that
22:55
Speaker 4: we could be together into this, but actually saying I
22:57
Speaker 4: want to be together and I want to get married.
23:00
Speaker 3: Or she wanted to get married for sure. You remember
23:02
Speaker 3: the big l and you loved you know, do death
23:06
Speaker 3: do us part? She she was looking for the answer
23:10
Speaker 3: about getting married, right, just like when you got on
23:14
Speaker 3: one knee right with your girl Lauren, right and you
23:17
Speaker 3: call the dad up and you're all giddy about it
23:19
Speaker 3: and you go, you know, I want to wake up
23:20
Speaker 3: every night with every morning with you.
23:23
Speaker 4: Is that what I said? That that was That's not
23:26
Speaker 4: a dream anymore.
23:27
Speaker 3: No, it's not you know, it wasn't and you were
23:31
Speaker 3: together for you know, like thirteen months, and then there
23:34
Speaker 3: wasn't any eleve anymore. So you know, love comes in
23:37
Speaker 3: different in different different ways for different people. And she
23:41
Speaker 3: she wanted to get married. She says, well, you know,
23:43
Speaker 3: I you know, I'm expecting to get married. And she goes,
23:46
Speaker 3: I can't wait two years. Remember that these are the
23:49
Speaker 3: words she was using. I can't wait two years. I go,
23:51
Speaker 3: you know, my boys were still in school and and
23:54
Speaker 3: so they're going to be you know, with me for
23:56
Speaker 3: another year or two for sure. And so to me
24:00
Speaker 3: she's I want to get married. I go, well, I
24:02
Speaker 3: don't even know you, you know. And it made it
24:04
Speaker 3: really easy when she quit. So then you have to
24:07
Speaker 3: go through the whole speech about you know, you know,
24:11
Speaker 3: letting the person go.
24:12
Speaker 4: So it worked out, but I mean that does raise
24:15
Speaker 4: in the question. I mean, all season, we obviously, as
24:18
Speaker 4: you mentioned, Ashley was a huge fan of Cindy. We
24:21
Speaker 4: were also a massive fan of Peg. We really enjoyed
24:24
Speaker 4: the last I mean, I don't know if we knew
24:27
Speaker 4: too many of the women, but the last like three
24:29
Speaker 4: or four that were there at the end we just
24:31
Speaker 4: really thought were fun and fascinating. We really didn't know
24:35
Speaker 4: how this whole thing would shake out. But when did
24:39
Speaker 4: you know Peg was the one? Then? Because we were
24:43
Speaker 4: we were mixed. I think on how this would actually
24:45
Speaker 4: end and who was right for you and not, so
24:48
Speaker 4: when in your mind it go, no, Peg is the
24:50
Speaker 4: one I want to end up with.
24:51
Speaker 3: At the end of this, we got a show to make, okay,
24:54
Speaker 3: So I'm not going to give it away because that's
24:57
Speaker 3: not the show there's it's you know, it's reality TV.
25:01
Speaker 3: But you got to make a show as well, and
25:04
Speaker 3: you can't. You can't at contrary to what the premise
25:08
Speaker 3: of the show is. All the time, you have a
25:11
Speaker 3: lot of leeway to do what you want. So I
25:13
Speaker 3: just can't just go there, Hey, by the way, it's Peg,
25:15
Speaker 3: we're leaving right. I could at the coliseum, I could
25:19
Speaker 3: have said, hey, Peg, you know, like I've already chosen you.
25:21
Speaker 3: I go this is this is this this thing, and
25:23
Speaker 3: go that's not how that's not how it works.
25:27
Speaker 4: But contractually, you could have.
25:28
Speaker 3: Right, I could have. I could have. I could have,
25:31
Speaker 3: But I told you, we got to show to make, okay,
25:33
Speaker 3: So you know, and I understand, and I understand the
25:35
Speaker 3: contract too, and and but anyway, so let's get back
25:38
Speaker 3: on track here. So when when I saw Peg, I go, oh,
25:42
Speaker 3: this this girl is a is someone I could I
25:44
Speaker 3: could be drawn to because of her attitude, her energy,
25:49
Speaker 3: you know, what she did in her life, and then
25:52
Speaker 3: she was retired, and also she had connections to Orange County.
25:54
Speaker 3: So all these things were drawing me toward her. Plus
25:58
Speaker 3: when I got up when she got out of the
25:59
Speaker 3: car and later on, you know, I had a crush
26:01
Speaker 3: on her. I go, okay, this is the girl. You know,
26:04
Speaker 3: this is the girl. This is the one that I
26:06
Speaker 3: probably would choose. But again there's after a Peg, there's
26:10
Speaker 3: ten other other women that came out. So I had
26:12
Speaker 3: opened mind, open heart, and again Peg has to choose
26:16
Speaker 3: me as well. But you know, as you go through
26:19
Speaker 3: the show, like you Ben, you know, there's thirty women
26:23
Speaker 3: and you sort of were drawn to like four and
26:27
Speaker 3: then two, So well what about all the other ones? Well,
26:31
Speaker 3: like your buddy said, just fire them, man, just you know,
26:34
Speaker 3: make it quick, quick and easy. Right, you got you
26:36
Speaker 3: got advice from your buddy, say, hey, man, just make
26:38
Speaker 3: a clean get you know, cut them, you know, fire
26:41
Speaker 3: them and move on. So you you you also have
26:45
Speaker 3: an idea of who you're going to choose, because that's
26:48
Speaker 3: the way life is. It's not like, oh, you know,
26:50
Speaker 3: all twenty three are in play. They're not because you
26:53
Speaker 3: you let I think we let six go the first night,
26:57
Speaker 3: and like you said, you don't even know their names.
26:59
Speaker 3: I did, actually, but you know, it's hard to you know,
27:02
Speaker 3: like I didn't get to know them because for some
27:04
Speaker 3: odd reason, they weren't part of the profile I moved on. So,
27:08
Speaker 3: you know, was it Peggett right at jump? No, but
27:12
Speaker 3: I did at the end hope that it was her,
27:14
Speaker 3: but she had to choose me as well.
27:18
Speaker 2: This is a little bit off the conversation that we're
27:21
Speaker 2: on currently. But you didn't talk about your divorce a
27:25
Speaker 2: ton on the show, little like you said that you
27:28
Speaker 2: were divorced. Normally we get a little bit more of
27:30
Speaker 2: a background story. Was that something that you were clear
27:33
Speaker 2: with the producers ahead of time? You were like, I
27:34
Speaker 2: don't want to talk about the past too much.
27:37
Speaker 3: No, I guest. I was upfront with him because I
27:41
Speaker 3: had a great relationship with the producers, and I was
27:45
Speaker 3: completely honest, and you know why, I actually I have
27:49
Speaker 3: nothing to hide, sir. I'm sixty seven years old. I'm accomplished.
27:53
Speaker 3: I've lived. I've lived a lot of my life. I
27:55
Speaker 3: have a dream life. I'm not ashamed of anything I've done.
28:00
Speaker 3: I got divorced, things happened. They asked me about it
28:03
Speaker 3: because they want to know your background is what they
28:06
Speaker 3: really want to know, because they don't want any surprises.
28:09
Speaker 3: And I told them everything, and you know, and I
28:13
Speaker 3: don't know where the question is going about sharing it
28:16
Speaker 3: with anybody, but they already knew that the answer to
28:20
Speaker 3: all those questions.
28:21
Speaker 4: So I was up front, well, yeah, but I think
28:23
Speaker 4: the question and Ashley tell me if I'm wrong. You know,
28:27
Speaker 4: because you were the first they chose that has not
28:30
Speaker 4: been a part of the franchise previously. We usually get
28:34
Speaker 4: the an understanding of the lead before they're the lead,
28:38
Speaker 4: right you're on the Bachelorette. You know, you get to
28:41
Speaker 4: know their insecurities, you get to know a little bit
28:43
Speaker 4: of their history, a little bit of the things they've
28:45
Speaker 4: been through, and then they become the lead and you're
28:47
Speaker 4: rooting for them because you're like, goodness, this guy, you know,
28:50
Speaker 4: he's been through it, he is accomplished, he's done all
28:52
Speaker 4: this stuff. It's going to be so fun for him
28:54
Speaker 4: to find that partner to continue life with. You didn't like,
29:00
Speaker 4: we didn't have that with you. You came onto the show,
29:03
Speaker 4: we knew nothing about you. If you weren't listening to
29:06
Speaker 4: the podcast.
29:06
Speaker 3: Then Ben Ben, come on, man, come on, what would
29:10
Speaker 3: your boy Signetti google me?
29:13
Speaker 5: Yeah, but you're asking, Yeah, I got more things on
29:23
Speaker 5: the internet about me and what I've done all the
29:27
Speaker 5: way through.
29:28
Speaker 3: So to say you didn't know anything about me, that's
29:30
Speaker 3: that's that's not true.
29:32
Speaker 4: No, mel I actually would push back on that and
29:34
Speaker 4: say that most fans of this show are watching the show.
29:39
Speaker 4: Like I know, we see the headlines, we are on
29:41
Speaker 4: social media, we're hearing the podcast all those things because
29:44
Speaker 4: we're deeply involved in it. I do think we're still
29:47
Speaker 4: a small demographic of the viewership. The people that are
29:51
Speaker 4: watching it at the nursing homes, the families that are
29:53
Speaker 4: gathering together to do like their big Monday night watch parties.
29:58
Speaker 4: I don't assume that most of them are investigating the
30:01
Speaker 4: show too much. I actually think they're watching the show
30:04
Speaker 4: to get all the information they feel like they'll need
30:07
Speaker 4: to be a fan of the show itself, and so
30:10
Speaker 4: I think most seasons do a good job at presenting
30:14
Speaker 4: who the characters are that people are going to be
30:18
Speaker 4: watching for the entirety of the season. And I think
30:21
Speaker 4: with you, Mel, you kind of just dove into it.
30:23
Speaker 4: And maybe the expectation of the show was to google you,
30:27
Speaker 4: but I don't assume that most people would do that,
30:29
Speaker 4: especially when we're talking about the Golden franchise.
30:31
Speaker 3: Well, it's available, that's a tool they can use. And
30:36
Speaker 3: there's twenty three women and I sat down with every
30:39
Speaker 3: single one of them, and I listened to every single
30:41
Speaker 3: one of these questions and I answered him honestly. So
30:45
Speaker 3: if they asked me a question, I answered it. And
30:50
Speaker 3: the producers they also can tell a story because you know,
30:54
Speaker 3: they have the background, they do the checks, they do
30:56
Speaker 3: all the b rolls. They came to they came to
30:59
Speaker 3: my home town in California, They went to University of
31:03
Speaker 3: Michigan Film, They went to Detroit where I grew up
31:06
Speaker 3: in my neighborhood. There's a couple guys that that I
31:11
Speaker 3: grew up with that were there. There's a lot of
31:14
Speaker 3: rich history there that they that they used. And you know,
31:18
Speaker 3: if if if I was when I'm watching a show back,
31:21
Speaker 3: I go, wow, they did a really really good job
31:22
Speaker 3: of showcasing my history. Now I get everything, No, but
31:26
Speaker 3: then that's for the contestants and the producers to bring out.
31:30
Speaker 3: So I didn't know I did. I knew less about
31:35
Speaker 3: the contestants, and they knew about me and the people
31:38
Speaker 3: that are watching. If they want to, you know, dive
31:40
Speaker 3: into it more, they can dive into it more. That's
31:43
Speaker 3: what That's what the internet, in the in the social
31:47
Speaker 3: media is about. And don't sell them short. They use
31:50
Speaker 3: it too.
32:02
Speaker 1: Well.
32:02
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be super frank here. One of the things
32:04
Speaker 2: you can find out on the internet is that your
32:06
Speaker 2: ex wife is now married to a woman. And I
32:09
Speaker 2: am interested as to how that didn't become a storyline
32:13
Speaker 2: because it sounds like something the producers would definitely find interesting.
32:17
Speaker 3: Well, you find it interesting, but I really don't care
32:21
Speaker 3: quite frankly.
32:22
Speaker 2: But it was like never something that you talked about
32:23
Speaker 2: on camera.
32:25
Speaker 3: What do you mean on camera?
32:27
Speaker 2: Like on camera when you would talk about your past relationships,
32:30
Speaker 2: like I feel like that's a big part of your past.
32:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, they they wanted they wanted to know how long
32:37
Speaker 3: I was married, you know, the kids, and then once
32:42
Speaker 3: my wife went on on her own journey, Ashley, I
32:47
Speaker 3: don't care. I just I just don't care. I didn't
32:50
Speaker 3: follow her story. I didn't follow her her love relationship.
32:55
Speaker 3: I just wish the best for her, and I hope
32:58
Speaker 3: she's happy. But what she does in her own personal
33:01
Speaker 3: life has nothing to do with me on the show
33:03
Speaker 3: at all. Zero.
33:05
Speaker 4: It was something that we mentioned and respected, because I
33:09
Speaker 4: do agree. I'm surprised that the show didn't try to
33:14
Speaker 4: exploit it or use it or have you talk about
33:16
Speaker 4: it in a more open dialogue, but we did say
33:21
Speaker 4: that it was respectful. How close to your chest you
33:25
Speaker 4: kind of kept that relationship because that wasn't necessarily your
33:28
Speaker 4: story to tell, and like, as you just said it,
33:31
Speaker 4: it's a story. Her story continues on past you, like
33:35
Speaker 4: her life has gone on past you, just like years.
33:37
Speaker 3: A part of the show, part of the show.
33:40
Speaker 4: That's what I'm saying. I'm agreeing with you.
33:43
Speaker 3: That's good.
33:44
Speaker 4: It wasn't It wasn't necessarily I think it would have
33:47
Speaker 4: felt a little bit I don't know dirty if they
33:50
Speaker 4: would have like used that moment for you to bad
33:53
Speaker 4: mouth or not that you would have, and I think
33:54
Speaker 4: I respected the fact that you didn't do that. However,
33:59
Speaker 4: she did speak out on you and for as respectful
34:04
Speaker 4: I guess as you were of her, it did feel like,
34:07
Speaker 4: you know, the closest person in your life that would
34:10
Speaker 4: know how you walk through love and how you are
34:12
Speaker 4: in relationship would be your ex wife, and she did
34:16
Speaker 4: speak out on you. How did you handle that and
34:20
Speaker 4: not kind of go back at her as an attorney,
34:23
Speaker 4: as somebody who also you know, believes injustice and wants,
34:27
Speaker 4: you know, the story to be told straight. How did
34:29
Speaker 4: you not kind of double down and say, yeah, but
34:33
Speaker 4: here's her story.
34:34
Speaker 3: Because I have morals and I, like you, I have
34:39
Speaker 3: faith right in principles, and me bashing somebody is not
34:44
Speaker 3: going to help me. I moved on. I got my girl,
34:48
Speaker 3: I found PEG. That's my enjoyment. So to put somebody
34:53
Speaker 3: else down is not going to help me at all.
34:55
Speaker 3: It's just not quite. Frankly, I really don't care. And
34:59
Speaker 3: she could anything she wants about me, but I, you know,
35:02
Speaker 3: has no bearing whatsoever on my life. Zero.
35:05
Speaker 4: Well that's beautiful. I mean, that's good. That's good to
35:07
Speaker 4: hear because I think it is a lesson that so
35:09
Speaker 4: many contestants in the future and also contestants in the
35:13
Speaker 4: past could learn from because the back and forth the
35:17
Speaker 4: dragging down, the trying to get one up is a
35:21
Speaker 4: consistent theme, and you know culture today, and I do
35:26
Speaker 4: think it was. I just wanted to understand why you
35:29
Speaker 4: didn't do it, and I think it's very.
35:31
Speaker 3: Funny because that doesn't you know, it doesn't enter my
35:35
Speaker 3: mind at all. I'm about, you know, positive energy, going forward,
35:39
Speaker 3: living my life. I've had a dream life. I'm not
35:43
Speaker 3: going to let anybody or anything tear me down. When
35:47
Speaker 3: there's there's no consequence to that, there's nothing there for
35:50
Speaker 3: me to comment on. I wish everybody their happiness and
35:55
Speaker 3: hope they find their true peace and happiness and love.
35:58
Speaker 3: I really do.
36:00
Speaker 2: I want to get into your love in a second
36:01
Speaker 2: about the melding of your families. But I do have
36:04
Speaker 2: a one semi spicy question I asked. I gotta ask
36:08
Speaker 2: you first. On the She's All Batch podcast last week,
36:11
Speaker 2: you said that you used one word answers to a
36:16
Speaker 2: lot of the questions in your interviews and such, because
36:20
Speaker 2: you are being asked boring questions. I guess I'd love
36:24
Speaker 2: for you to elaborate on that.
36:27
Speaker 3: Look, if you're going to ask me a question like
36:29
Speaker 3: I've been upfront with you right when you asked me questions. Right,
36:34
Speaker 3: if the question is, are you know require a one
36:37
Speaker 3: word answer, I'm going to give that to you. And
36:40
Speaker 3: if they don't make sense to me, I don't I
36:41
Speaker 3: don't have to answer. I don't have to uh So.
36:46
Speaker 3: One of the one of the answers that I gave
36:50
Speaker 3: when when Peg was asking at the beginning, she was
36:53
Speaker 3: going on about what kind of guy, uh she was
36:56
Speaker 3: looking for, and she goes, what about She goes, what
36:59
Speaker 3: kind of you know? What are you looking like? I'm
37:01
Speaker 3: looking for you like you word? They love that one?
37:05
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, that's the love that one.
37:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're like the other ones. And you know, if
37:09
Speaker 3: the if the question is, if the questions don't warrant
37:12
Speaker 3: you know, a bigger explanation, I'm not going to give
37:15
Speaker 3: it to you. And again, I'm under no obligation to
37:19
Speaker 3: answer a question that that requires more words other than
37:22
Speaker 3: than than the words I give you.
37:24
Speaker 2: When you said that, were you referring to the producers
37:27
Speaker 2: questions or the women's questions in conversation not the producers.
37:33
Speaker 3: I answered every every question.
37:34
Speaker 2: That okay, all right?
37:36
Speaker 3: You know everybody's like, oh, they're going to grill them.
37:39
Speaker 3: They're going to grill them right, And then I saw
37:41
Speaker 3: you with was it JoJo's brothers? Yes, that was good.
37:48
Speaker 3: That was that they were good, and your little tongue
37:51
Speaker 3: tied there two player, you know you didn't come up well, yes,
37:56
Speaker 3: I mean Benn.
37:57
Speaker 4: Then I thought, I let me finish. We can compare
37:59
Speaker 4: and contry as experiences. I think at that point there
38:03
Speaker 4: was an understanding that I wasn't. I was respectful enough
38:08
Speaker 4: to not expect the women to have to ask questions
38:13
Speaker 4: where I wouldn't explain myself in as much detail as
38:15
Speaker 4: I could. That was a different situation that was at
38:18
Speaker 4: the very end with a family who was protecting a
38:23
Speaker 4: loved one. I get it. But I wasn't one word
38:25
Speaker 4: answering them. I wasn't disrespectful.
38:27
Speaker 3: Actually, you didn't come up with any answer because you're
38:30
Speaker 3: looking at the guy and you were just listening to him,
38:34
Speaker 3: and at the end you had a thing that's you're
38:36
Speaker 3: going to find. I'm using that as an example because
38:41
Speaker 3: you were the lead too, and so you know when
38:44
Speaker 3: they go, oh, you know, you know Cindy's daughters like like,
38:47
Speaker 3: I'm an attorney. I sit in depositions and trial where
38:50
Speaker 3: like it's for real, right, they're probing for real, and
38:54
Speaker 3: they're looking for any type of doors to open to
38:58
Speaker 3: go into based on what you say. So I'm listening
39:03
Speaker 3: to what they say and I'm answering the questions, so
39:08
Speaker 3: you know, and you know, if they if they had
39:10
Speaker 3: follow up questions, they would they could ask follow up
39:13
Speaker 3: questions that I would have answered, but they left it
39:15
Speaker 3: alone after that.
39:15
Speaker 4: So, but you're an intimidating figure, mel I mean, I
39:19
Speaker 4: want to push on you a little bit. From a
39:21
Speaker 4: person who's been there to a person who's been there,
39:23
Speaker 4: they're nervous. And if you're in a situation where there's
39:27
Speaker 4: somebody that you're nervous to be around and you're trying,
39:30
Speaker 4: to goodness gracious figure out how to break through and
39:34
Speaker 4: connect at some level, and you're kind of giving them
39:38
Speaker 4: a cold answer, They're going to just continue to get
39:42
Speaker 4: more and more nervous and more and more disconnected from
39:44
Speaker 4: you because you are in this situation and authority figure.
39:48
Speaker 3: But I'm in their hometown and it's their their territory,
39:52
Speaker 3: and they could have done their own research and ask questions.
39:55
Speaker 3: They know more about their mother than I do, and
39:59
Speaker 3: they can ask me questions. So yeah, you know, you
40:03
Speaker 3: can get tongue tied a little bit. But you know,
40:05
Speaker 3: come on, you know they're adults there. I think they're
40:08
Speaker 3: all in their thirties, so it's not like they were
40:11
Speaker 3: like teenagers.
40:14
Speaker 4: Yeah. I think it's just going to be become. That
40:17
Speaker 4: was your that was how you view the situation. That's
40:20
Speaker 4: how you walk through being the bachelor. And I think
40:22
Speaker 4: that's what makes the show unique. Bese Every lead, bachelorette,
40:26
Speaker 4: bachelor's experience is going to look different based on how
40:30
Speaker 4: you kind of approach the situation.
40:32
Speaker 3: Uh.
40:33
Speaker 4: And I think that's what the show, why the show
40:35
Speaker 4: can exist for twenty plus years is because as much
40:38
Speaker 4: as the formula and maybe say the same, the characters
40:41
Speaker 4: are different. The characters change, their personalities are different, and
40:44
Speaker 4: that's why the show stays interesting. You know, you did
40:49
Speaker 4: end up with Peg at the end of this it
40:52
Speaker 4: was somebody that you were excited about from the beginning.
40:55
Speaker 4: To end up with it sounds, uh, and that that
40:58
Speaker 4: relationship has grown. You weren't interested in marriage because you
41:04
Speaker 4: didn't think you knew the people, and I would probably agree.
41:07
Speaker 4: I agree with that. Ninety nine percent of the time
41:09
Speaker 4: people should come off the show and date. Sometimes it
41:12
Speaker 4: does work. We have great examples of people that we
41:14
Speaker 4: know and we love. Who said, goodness, gracious, I fell
41:17
Speaker 4: in love with dude during the show. Marriage is the
41:20
Speaker 4: only option here, and it's worked for him. But you
41:24
Speaker 4: didn't feel like you knew them well enough to make
41:26
Speaker 4: that commitment. And as we talked to PEG, it seems
41:30
Speaker 4: like you guys have something really great going. What have
41:32
Speaker 4: you learned about her now since the show has finished?
41:37
Speaker 3: You know, obviously it's continuous. I've known her about six
41:41
Speaker 3: months and she's everything that I thought she would be
41:44
Speaker 3: plus more. You know, Obviously you find out that she's
41:49
Speaker 3: very compassionate and very energetic, and very loving and committed
41:56
Speaker 3: to the people that she cares about, and it's at
41:59
Speaker 3: a really high level. And she's done so much in
42:02
Speaker 3: her life and in her background where you know, she's
42:07
Speaker 3: been in a spot where you know, she actually, you know,
42:09
Speaker 3: had to save people, and you learned a lot from
42:12
Speaker 3: those situations where you're you're never gonna, you know, say maybe,
42:16
Speaker 3: or back down from helping someone. So I knew she
42:21
Speaker 3: was great, I just didn't know how great she was.
42:24
Speaker 3: And she's just really a beautiful person and I'm very
42:27
Speaker 3: lucky to have her in my life.
42:29
Speaker 2: Have your kids met yet?
42:30
Speaker 1: Oh?
42:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, they met her in Antiga.
42:33
Speaker 2: Oh no, I mean, like, have the kids met yet
42:36
Speaker 2: her daughter and your sons her daughter?
42:40
Speaker 3: I think so, because I met I think at after
42:44
Speaker 3: the final rows.
42:45
Speaker 2: Okay, do you guys have any like family vacations planned?
42:48
Speaker 3: Well? Maybe maybe. I mean, we're just starting this journey.
42:52
Speaker 5: You know.
42:53
Speaker 3: We came out of it, I think in November December.
42:55
Speaker 3: Then wech the Ohio State game, you know, Michigan Ohiose State.
42:58
Speaker 3: Then we went to Toronto in the reo. We're going
43:01
Speaker 3: to the Super Bowl. So we're doing a lot of
43:02
Speaker 3: stuff on our own and my you know, my boys
43:04
Speaker 3: are in school and so they don't have a lot
43:06
Speaker 3: of time where we're gonna get together right now. So
43:09
Speaker 3: it's about it's about Peg and I right now. You know,
43:11
Speaker 3: PEG's daughter has her own life, and my boys, you know,
43:14
Speaker 3: have theirs, and so we're just trying to find out
43:17
Speaker 3: about each other right now.
43:19
Speaker 4: My final question for you, you went, you started this
43:22
Speaker 4: process as the Golden Bachelor, open to finding somebody. Now
43:28
Speaker 4: you're six months into dating Peg in the real world
43:30
Speaker 4: outside of the show. Did the show give you everything
43:34
Speaker 4: you hope for?
43:36
Speaker 3: Everything? You know? You know, you know, the way you
43:39
Speaker 3: talk about the show is the way I talk about
43:41
Speaker 3: the show. You know, it gave you a a platform,
43:45
Speaker 3: you know, like to be a more public facing person.
43:48
Speaker 3: I had that in some respect where I already been
43:50
Speaker 3: out there, but I was on the show to find someone.
43:54
Speaker 3: And I was skeptical at the beginning because it's just
43:58
Speaker 3: I just didn't didn't think it would be possible to
44:01
Speaker 3: find someone that you know, matched my personality. But you know,
44:05
Speaker 3: I got to find one person and and I found her,
44:10
Speaker 3: and the show was everything I thought it was. I
44:14
Speaker 3: would do it, you know, one hundred times over. Everybody
44:17
Speaker 3: that was involved with it was great, great to me,
44:21
Speaker 3: and you know, in the process lives on and and
44:24
Speaker 3: I'm happy for it.
44:26
Speaker 2: If you were skeptical and you didn't have marriage on
44:29
Speaker 2: the mind, why did you decide to be the Golden Bachelor?
44:33
Speaker 3: Well, I just told you, you know, I wanted to
44:36
Speaker 3: find somebody, and I hadn't been dating. You know, I
44:40
Speaker 3: had a couple of dates here, and there would be
44:41
Speaker 3: people that I basically knew, but it wasn't like I
44:43
Speaker 3: was out there flipping through you know, the the the
44:47
Speaker 3: applications looking for people or going on dates, blind dates
44:50
Speaker 3: or anything. So I was in a spot where I go,
44:53
Speaker 3: you know what, I I you know what, now's I
44:55
Speaker 3: think it's a time for me to go out and
44:57
Speaker 3: and and do this. And it was a unique opportunity.
45:01
Speaker 3: And if you look at my history, I've been very
45:04
Speaker 3: lucky to do a lot of unique things and this
45:07
Speaker 3: is just another thing that was very unique. And it
45:11
Speaker 3: fit my profile at the time because I go, I'm
45:15
Speaker 3: not dating and maybe I can find somebody and I did,
45:19
Speaker 3: so from that standpoint, it was great.
45:23
Speaker 2: My final question is of all the adventures that you
45:26
Speaker 2: that you and Peg have done over the past six
45:28
Speaker 2: months and all your experiences from the show, what's been
45:31
Speaker 2: your favorite memory with Peg thus far.
45:34
Speaker 3: Well, there's a whole bunch of them, and I'm not
45:36
Speaker 3: going to talk about when I saw her on the unicycle,
45:38
Speaker 3: you know, you know at the mansion, which I was like,
45:42
Speaker 3: why did they grow upring a unicycle?
45:44
Speaker 2: That wasn't even more We heard that she hasn't taught
45:47
Speaker 2: you how to use it yet, No, you know.
45:49
Speaker 3: But I'd be great at it because you know, I
45:51
Speaker 3: have balance and you know, athletic and stuff. Right. But anyway,
45:55
Speaker 3: so my my, what makes me smiles, like when we're
45:58
Speaker 3: going to Rio, and she was going, well, well, you know,
46:02
Speaker 3: what's it like, you know, we're going on for a
46:04
Speaker 3: long time. You know, what are we going to do?
46:06
Speaker 3: And I know she was nervous about it. Right South America.
46:10
Speaker 3: You know, it's in the southern hemisphere. You heard about
46:12
Speaker 3: Oh it's dangerous, it's you know, it's Brazil. And I
46:17
Speaker 3: knew she was going to love it. But I just
46:19
Speaker 3: let her ease into it. Right. I go everybody that
46:22
Speaker 3: I've ever you know that that knows about it, who's
46:26
Speaker 3: come down there. It's extended everybody. So we were there
46:31
Speaker 3: for maybe fifteen minutes. She was going, I'm staying here
46:35
Speaker 3: for forever. I love that about her, right, that she
46:39
Speaker 3: has all that energy. And she just was like so
46:42
Speaker 3: happy that you know, she found a place, you know,
46:46
Speaker 3: with me, and I was able to share it. And
46:49
Speaker 3: you know, now that's our new favorite place, my new
46:52
Speaker 3: favorite place, but her new favorite place.
46:54
Speaker 2: All right. Well, I love that, And I hope that
46:56
Speaker 2: you guys have more experiences like that. We are very
46:58
Speaker 2: happy for you, and I hope we see these adventures
47:00
Speaker 2: and Instagram posts from you for the next thirty years.
47:06
Speaker 2: Stay tuned alrighty well, thanks for joining us so much. Mel,
47:09
Speaker 2: We really appreciate your time. Thike with that.
47:12
Speaker 4: That's been an interview with the current or former whatever
47:16
Speaker 4: you want to say, Golden Bachelor, Mel Owens. We have
47:20
Speaker 4: more content coming your way here at the Almost Famous Podcast,
47:23
Speaker 4: including a breakdown of the Mel and Peg interviews.
47:27
Speaker 2: And so until next time, I've been Ben, I've Been Ashley.
47:30
Speaker 2: See you guys.
47:32
Speaker 1: Follow the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcasts on
47:35
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.