Ben Higgins and Ashley.
I bring you infamous.
Sometimes roses are red flags.
Welcome to almost Famous. It is another episode of Infamous. We want to step back to season thirteen of the Bachelorette when Rachel Lindsay was the Bachelorette, and you might remember our guest, the Bachelor that never was, the Bachelor that got away. In my opinion, he was known for his little gap tooth smile and the little silver flex in his hair. It is Peter Craus. Peter, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you very much. Prian, more gret now than ever, and the gap toooths are still there.
Yeah, you're not sal You're like you are. You're actually the definition salt and pepper.
Now i'd say, oh yeah, I'd say I'm more salt than pepper at this point.
When did you start doing gray eighteen?
I was eighteen years old when I saw my first gray hairs.
Yeah, I feel like I was around that age.
Yeah, this first time I've seen you with some gray and your beard. Oh dude, I'm getting welcome to the party.
Jared's beard is the first to go too. I don't know what it is. He's so great there, Peter, we are so excited to talk to you. And I have to just air this before when you started dating your girlfriend, Hannah, Is that how you say your name Hannah?
Hannah? Oh, it is a traditional old plunciation, but yeah, spelled Ana.
Okay.
So I met her ten years ago to this month, and we started following each other on Instagram.
Yeah.
I was at an event. It was a very small, like girls only sort of.
Uh.
I think it was the premiere of the Bachelorette. It was like a viewing party for it at the W Hotel in Fort Lauderdale. And she and I were talking sports broadcasting because we had both gone to school for that and she was, you know, on TV for it. Yeah, she was like really making her way down there and uh yeah. So and I've been following her ever since, like she just comes up with my feed. Still I still like have always like kind of engaged. It had
been for some reason, just interested. And then all of a sudden, I saw you two start posting about each other. I was like, what in the small world is this you met on Riya Riyah Raya right right now?
Yeah? Well and she knows, I mean she's told me the same story. I'm impressed. You remember the exact details of it. That's impressive.
Oh she has, Oh my god.
Yeah. And then really then you actually met her at one point too. You probably don't even know. That's because I didn't know it. We were in Vegas. The last time I saw you was in Vegas, like eight something like that.
I do the same thing.
Twenty eighteen.
Yeah, Sorr, yeah, twenty eighteen. Yea, twenty eighteen.
I was trying to think back. I was like, goodness, this is we're now were really going to make me feel awkward.
Fast forward from then eight or ten years. Yeah, you know. So she was there on a bachherette party and we were at a pool. We had just gotten done surfing at the pool, and she and her friends apparently walked up to us and introduced themselves and chatted with us for a little bit, And so I had met her. I don't remember this interaction mattered for they just said hi and that was the end of that. Moved on with their lives plan.
At Hollywood twenty eighteen.
I know, Wow, good memory.
Yeah, but you didn't remember this, so I'm not like in trouble or not remembering this interaction. No, And you've been together for how long.
Now, it'll be a year next month.
Goodness, is this the first major relationship since the show, like major relationship.
First one that I'm sharing publicly, I would say.
Which means like you have some confidence in her.
Right, Oh, yeah, We'll be engaged by the end of the year. I'll married next year, kids by the end of next year, I would guess. Yeah, that's so cute.
No, I love it.
I'm not surprised by this at all. My sister I told her that I was interviewing you today and she was like, he deleted all the pictures on his Instagram from his life before he met Hannah. You have to talk to him about that.
Well. That started with, so, I have a new business entra going on, and I'd gotten off on Instagram at one point. I just was sick of dealing with it and the new business venture. I wanted to announce with like just a clean slate and just have everything be pertaining to that. And then she announced our relationship on Instagram and I just felt bad that she was doing it and I wasn't. So I decided to just announce
my return to Instagram, I guess early. And so now it's just pretty much she and I is my entire Instagram.
There was no life before he Let's be honest.
Yeah, that's what's so romantic about it.
And that's why I said everything starts with this, Like the whole moment starts now in.
The attitude of keeping things healthy, let's start talking about the Bachelorette.
Also, nothing healthier than that now.
Well, she was obviously a big Bachelor fan, having met us all in individually before.
Oh yeah, she, like many girls in this country, watched I'm sure her fair amount growing up. Yeah, and she watched my season, Ben, she watched her season, Ashley, she watched you.
Yeah, there's a level to that. My wife has never seen it. There's moments, very few where I'm like, ah, it'd be fun to talk about some of this with her. That's not exactly like a great thing for you know, your spouse to have watched, But there are some moments where I'm like, this could be a fun or maybe we could sit down and watch it together, but just not type her type of thing.
Yep.
And as a result, it's really not a part of our relationship. Ever, we never talked about it, which I also like, there's benefits to that too.
She does still watch Golden Basher, I'll tell you that.
Yeah, oh Golden Yeah, big.
Yeah, Georgia, I haven't watched any of it, but she's still a fan.
Well, we're gonna dive in. The infamous episodes are all about kind of uncovering what is or what was behind the scenes that maybe we didn't see, that maybe it was portrayed in a way that it really didn't happen, or maybe it did, and you just bring light to a situation and saying, yeah, this is exactly how I went down when I watched it back it was this but before we die, been to your time on the Bachelor app which is always fun. We have had some
great interviews. There was one other public relationship that we have to get cleared up that our fans have written in and asked about. The NICKI I think her name is what Nicky or Bella?
Nicky Bella?
Yeah, was that ever really TV thing?
No, they reached out to me through They may have even been amy, to be honest, I feel like our producer. Yeah, I think it was like connections and connections. I don't remember what it was, but they said there's a show called Toto Bella's They would love for you to come on and go on a date with Nikki, would you be up for And I said, hell yeah, Like she's gorgeous, she's hard working, and she's intelligent. Like this is absolutely someone i'd go on a date with, even outside of
the show. So why not. We went on one date, date went well. A week or two later, I sent her flowers and this special candy that she had talked about during our date, and we chatted back forth a little bit, but nothing ever came of it. I guess that was the end of that. Literally nothing more than that, which I was more exciting for you guys, But that was.
Not kind of exciting. I mean, you got dumped.
That's romantic, I think.
I say it's romantic. You say he is tough.
It was great, Like it didn't suck by any means. It's a great date. It was fun. I guess a week or two of interaction and that was it.
Well we can dive into that, but we have other things to talk about, like you know, Rachel Lindsay, all right, so your big thing on the show was that you weren't going to propose at the end, especially We're like, I'm not going to propose to you, Rachel, like, I would love to be with you, but this is just ridiculous. We've known each other.
For eight weeks.
Was it before the show or during the show that you decided that a proposal at the end of it wasn't going to be for you.
The last conversation I have with friends before I went on the show was I'd see you guys in two weeks. The thought of proposal was and even ever in my mind going onto the show, I looked at it as this is a great fun, exciting and different, unique opportunity that very few people get, and I'm single, and I could potentially find love in the process. Hell yeah, let's
do it. Like it was just a fun experience, and when it started to get serious, like oh, this is actually potentially going to like the long haul, engagement became more of a conversation as like, Okay, this needs to be taken more seriously. And she and I started having conversations pretty early on about like this does and an engagement, But I don't want to think that was to like at least a third of the way through it, maybe half of the way through it. And as much as
I was falling for her. In those moments, I knew that it wasn't enough real life experience to say, Okay, I can definitively commit the rest of my life to this person. It seemed like on my side of things like that just kind of made sense. If I'm going to be with someone for the rest of my life, I want to know what they're like in more scenarios
in real life. And so we started having more and more conversations about it, and then it wasn't until I think the last few weeks of the show that I was like, this is just not going to end in engagement for me. It's not that it wasn't ever an option, it's just now I really know at this point, only having a couple weeks left, like the next date after our biggest conversation about it was the engagement ceremony. Like Jesus, we're just having the biggest conversation about it now, and
I'm supposed to get engaged to you next. This is this is not a legitimate possibility for me at this time.
Let's sit in this moment then for a second. I'm sure, knowing you, you were not easy to be produced, which I think is a credit to you. I actually say that in a complimentary way. I think both sides. Doesn't say that about me. I definitely don't say that about Ashley. She is so easy to get produced. But I think
there's good to both. Like one is a trusting person like Ashley who says, hey, like I believe you have my best interests in mind, I don't want to believe you don't, And as a result, I am going to follow you your lead and kind of do whatever you ask of me. And as a result, you have an Ashley, which is an amazing human. I love her dearly, but we also have you, I think, on the other side, who says I'm not going to trust anything you say
to me. There is nothing you could input wisdom into me at this time that I would follow, And as a result, I think I know best which is good and bad, and this is how I'm going to communicate it. So if you can give the fans kind of underneath the hood of in those moments leading up to that conversation, I'm sure you told somebody, hey, I'm not going to get engaged at the end of this, and they probably panicked or maybe they didn't, but explain it to us.
Yeah, where should I start. First place I start was early early on in the show, like our very first week, I want to say. I was having conversations pretty regularly with producers, as you guys know you would do throughout the entirety of the show, and during just like a normal conversation with one of them I won't say who it was, I brought up some pretty important and personal stuff about my family and had all the trust in the world of these people. I thought, Okay, this is
a good person. We can communicate and my thoughts are safe with this person. And then like two three days later, we were in one of the confessionals whatever we call it, and while on camera, she brought it up and wanted to get an answer relating to it, or just like a sound bite relating to it, and I just paused for a second, was like, oh, this is not what I thought it was. This is a scheme to get me to say something that can be used for the
betterment of those behind the camera. And that's when the whole script flipped for me. It was like, Okay, this is now serious. I have to be intentional about what I say and do. I can still try very best to be myself in this situation. But at the end of the day, they have a product that they're trying to produce, and that product is built off of a certain scenario or result that they choose to have, and I am nothing but a pawn in that scheme. So be myself but be guarded. That's what it kind of
came down to. And I found that more and more throughout time.
Did you call that producer out in the moment or do you just keep that internal?
No?
No, no need to, Like, why show your cards? If I know what they're doing, They're they're just going to find other ways to manipulate played dumb when you have to or else they just try to become smarter in that situation. So let them. Let them do what they had to do. And I just went about my way trying to engage my relationship more and more with Rachel without giving the soundbites that they needed for the show to carry on.
It's an exhausting and being in it, that's it. I mean, I've been in that mindset on the show before. It's a really tiring mindset because your whole life is being filmed and you're always thinking, like if I say this one sentence, it could be used against me, and so I'm always on guard. It makes it a lot less fun. I always say, if I had to do the show again, I'd have more fun. I had very little fun during the experience on both seasons because I was always so guarded.
Are you saying then, that, as you went into this huge conversation with Rachel about where your relationship was going to go, engagement or no engagement, dating, not dating, did any producer have any idea that you were about to say what you said?
Well, I mean there's all sorts of different tactics used throughout to get a result. And another producer, again I won't say a name, but a very high up producer in the show multiple times told me that I was in love, Like you're in love, You're in love, Just admit that you're in love, Peter, You're in love. Come on to say it, like trying so hard to just coax me into saying something that at that time I didn't yet believe. And it's like, if you just want
that result, what's the point. I'm not going to say it. So when time's right, I'll say it. And then once it finally did come out of my mouth, because I actually started to feel it for her. The script basically changed on their side of things. They must have decided at that point, like, oh, we need to actually stick with this different scenario. So now we're going to start to tell you say, you know, stick to your guns.
You don't have to get engaged yet. So then also I started to hear those echoes through the chambers of just stick to your guns. You don't have to get engaged if you're not ready for it yet, Like you're being true to yourself, be true to yourself. It was the most manipulative experience on that side of things, and that all was fine. I kind of got used to what that was and was able to just internalize it
all myself. But then the hardest part was they had a therapist on staff who was almost parroting what their messages were. So that's where I actually found the most discomfort in the whole thing. Was a person that I was coming to for like a safe space started to become just another part of the process.
It feels a little Truman.
She oh, yeah, very much so, and she started getting me like insights how Rachel was feeling. I'm like, you can't do that. That doesn't seem appropriate. I thought this was like a safe space. What are you giving to those that I've said? So overall, the whole thing was pretty uh, for lack of a better term, growth in that way.
But all that aside, like the situation with Rachel and the relationship I was developing with Rachel was always a really great experience, Like she and I had a lot of connection, a lot of fun together, just yet overall enjoyment of each other's company. It was very easy to be with her. It wasn't until like the end of the show really started to be in the focal point of like, Okay, this is this is actually happening, Like we're actually moving into marriage is the next step, Engagement
is the next step. Even upon meeting the family, it all still so seemed so light and fun for the most part. But then I was like, Okay, yeah, you're getting engaged in like four or five days, I want to say, at that point a week.
Yeah, people like remember this moment, the moment that you and Rachel had your big argument at the end, because from what we saw, it really seemed like you were the one that she wanted. But at the same time, she seemed to be putting again. The way that they edited it made it seem like she apparently wanted the engagement more than true love, and you even said, Okay, fine, go have a mediocre life. When you look back at
this moment, what's your interpretation of it all? What really happened and how was it different than what we saw.
I think the entire show needs to be put in context first, and that is it is not a real life situation to start, so to expect real life responses is impossible. The way that we handle ourselves in the situation, I think was the best we could do in the moment that we were in. The emotions were high. We were isolated with only connection to people within the show. We had no family to really draw upon, our friends to draw upon. There was a lot of stress. She
was the first ever black bachelorett. The amount of stress alone from that, I can't imagine how challenging the entire situation was. Then, to think that this could end without an engagement, where the show is so dependent on the engagement being the end result, I can't imagine how much stress it felt. So I'm sure it was extremely challenging for her. For myself, it was. I didn't want to hurt her. I genuinely wanted to see where the rate or the relationship went, and seeing her as heartbroken as
she seemed at the time was extremely challenging. So I also wanted to make her happy, and so at the very end I even said like fine, like let's just let's get engaged, Like, if that's what you need, I'll do it. That was like the final fifteen minutes or so of the conversation, I want to say, and then she always said no, Like that just felt like it was like a secondhand thought at that point, and it kind of ruined the whole situation, which obviously I wouldn't
want to get engaged in that I guess scenario either. Yeah. Yeah, but this is tough for me to talk about right now. I haven't talked about this in a very long time. I guess. I'm so sorry. No, that's all right, it's probably good to bring it up. The situation itself was just hard like that. I don't think there's any right or wrong to it. What I said in that moment was very hurtful and inappropriate, and I wish I hadn't
said it, but I did. So I have to own it, like I did say those words, which I won't even repeat because I think they're really gross, and I tried to apologize for it, but that only means so much when it's in front of millions of people and you're already hurt and feeling betrayed. I'm sure by someone who could say that to you.
Let me dive in here, because for clarity's sake, you can go any the direction. When you said those words, I'm assuming you're referencing a statement about what life could look like afterwards. Were you meaning that directly towards Brian or just in general, like, hey, you and I could have something great and the other option here. I don't know if it's going to go the way you want it to.
I think I felt that I knew in that moment that I could provide a very healthy, happier relationship with this person. And whether that was true or not, I can't tell you, but in that moment, it's what I felt, and the relationship that I had built with her to that point seemed like it would be a lot of fun to be in after that time, and I knew Brian for just what I knew of him within that show, and during that time I knew he wasn't a person
that I enjoyed spending time with. Personally. There's nothing against him, just he wasn't the type of guy I wanted to hang out with. So I just said exactly I was feeling in that moment, which was, I think you're going to be in a very different life with this person than you will be with me. And if that means mediocre, then that means mediocre to me in that moment. Probably not the choice words I would use now, but I did at that time.
This is an awkward question, and I'm so sorry that I must ask it, But when they announced that they were getting divorced, did part of you think I knew that one wasn't going to last.
No, actually the exact opposite. I was surprised, but I figured if they were able to make it through all that hardship that they experienced after the show, because it seemed like so many people turned on them and there was so much dramatization of the downfall the relationship prior to it, even not you succeeding, I figured, if they can make through that, they can make it through anything.
So I was very surprised when I saw that happen, and I was very sad by the fact that so many people were championing the fact that it did happen. I think it was disgusting. I think people have enough challenge in life that they don't need everybody else jumping on them when they falter, and so that was sad to see.
It's been eight years. As you said, I remember the conversation, I remember the moment. I remember a lot of that season, and I remember this being one of the moments that you feel as a viewer, like you feel it. I
think it's one of the last moments. There's a bit few, but one of the last moments where I remember sitting on the couch being like, I am in this conversation with them on the couch and I'm feeling both directions remind us the audience's response, because I think twenty twenty, you know, hindsight is us saying this your mindset made sense, like how were you going to get engaged? And if you weren't okay with that, but you still in a day like that makes sense for the show in the format.
But I'm sure viewership wanted an engagement, and I'm sure the responses were probably not outrageously supportive towards you, or maybe they were. I don't remember.
I think we create our own uh. I don't know if it's an echo chamber, but you know, it's my social media. No one else sees it but me, So I see all the responses that are on it, and even on the show, producers would say, don't look at the good or the bad. Neither one of them is beneficial. And it's hard not to when you're getting blown up by thousands of comments and likes and things like that.
And it's also cool to see. I mean for anybody, I think if all of a sudden you gained one hundred thousand followers, you'd be very curious what is happening in the situation? Who are these people? What do they want? And so I saw all the good, and I saw all the bad and all the negative comments, and I would say it was hindsight twenty twenty, realizing that it
was a lot more good than bad. But the bad voices seemed to ring a lot louder, and so a lot of people that were saying negative comments were much more adamant in getting their point across. It was read it became the worst place in human creation in my opinion, people that just like all of a sudden, I would get an influx of negativity and I'm like, where's this
coming from? And then someone would drop comment like Peter, you're getting blown apart and read it, and so I'd open up Reddit and sure there was this story about my life that I had no clue about that was going off, and everybody was just designing it to turn that into this like it was like a wave of hatred would come on my page and as soon as it came on, it would be gone. And it's just this wave back and forth, back and forth for like four or five years. And so it all started with
oh my god. I mean, you know, at some point, like halfway or two thirds of the way through the show itself, when I started to realize like, oh, this is going to be a roller coaster, like people are going to come in and hate you for anything, and that was all find and good. I eventually started to find a way to just kind of move past it
or ignore it. But then I think when it really got to like a point where I just didn't want to deal with anymore, was when it started affecting my business, Like people started commenting and leaving one stars and things on my business and yeah, it's like, what is the point of this. This is based off of the show that has no place in reality, and you're affecting my real life now, Like it was an experience for me.
It was a fun experience for me. I know I didn't end in the way that many people wanted to, But at the end of the day, everybody on here is just a human trying to figure out their own For you to come and attack someone because they didn't do it in the way that you did, you would never do that in real life, why are you doing it here? So eventually I just turned it off. That was it.
Well, So you mentioned that you've gotten comments on social media ever four to five years after, and that is because Peter, you stuck with people. People wanted you to be the lead more than I think of anybody of anybody that never became the lead. Like that's why I said at the beginning of the show, like you were the bachelor that just never was. You were the one
that caught away from the franchise. We know, we know that they wanted you to be the lead, but it was your decision not to be And I know that some people say this. Lots of people like to be like, oh, you know, God asked didn't want to do it, But I never really believe those people. I do believe you.
All the conversations about it started while I was still on the show in therapy. The therapist was the first one who ever brought it up. So as we were getting to the final couple weeks of the show, the therapist on the show is the one who said, would you think about being the Bachelor? And is this really happening right now? Like, is this a conversation you're bringing up in this situation. No, I guess I hadn't thought about it, but something i'd have to think about should
this not work out. And then in our overnight Rachel and I, she brought it up and I just had this conversation with a therapist was like, is this like a running thing? So I I don't know. I was just like, I guess I'd have to think about it if it came to be, and jokingly I was like, they'd have paid me a lot of money part of
my language. But then it was right after it, so we were in real Hot Spain when everything ended and I was stuck there for a few days while they, like Brian and Rachel went on like their honeymoon date basically, and the producers approached me there in that space within forty eight hours twenty four hours, I don't even know what. It was at a coffee shop and they like, okay,
would you think about being the Bachelor? I'm like, what, I just spent twelve hours laying on a floor crying with my lead producer, Megan as she played the same song thirty six times, and like you're asking me this now, Like I don't know. Guys like, okay, let's just let's sit on it, think about it. We'll see you when you get back to the States. And then it started pretty quickly when I got back to the States, like the I don't know what you call it, the courting
of me to be bachelor. It was flying me first to Good Morning America in New York. I took a red eye out there, and that was I don't know, like the day after the final airing of the show, and they kind of walked me around town with another one of the lead producers and just said like would you do this? We think you'd be perfect for it. They were like, take me out to night's lunch, they bought me a nice watch, like it was just a
very interesting experience and obviously like courting me. And then it was flying out to Mike Flie's house out in Malibu and sitting down there and having a longer, deeper conversation about it, and then upon conversations like, Okay, I can see how much this can affect someone's life. If I'm really going to do this, it's really got to be worth it financially, because they could ruin my life, Like, so I'd have to start from square one if this
doesn't go well. I don't have money, Like I gave up a lot of what I was doing to go
on this show. And then ever since I had to kind of like divot, and so I made a request and it was later agreed upon, and then there was more negotiations about what I would hope to have done on the show to like benefit me and my relationships, and those were eventually all agreed upon, and then we went to announce the me becoming the bachelor, I guess on the finale of Paradise, And so I was sitting in the trailer, they were pressing my suit and it
kept being like, Okay, the suit's not ready yet. Okay, suit's not ready yet. And then it was okay, we're just not going to do it now. Let's do it tomorrow on Ellen or something like that, or Jimmy Kimmel, whatever it was first and I was like, okay, well, let's do it the next day on Jimmy Kile. And then it was okay, let's fly back out to Good Morning America and do it there. And at that point the contract still wasn't fully signed, and I was sitting
in the airport to go to Good Morning America. The contract was finally signed, and the other producer who's again name I won't mention, was sitting with me, and as the flight was literally boarding, she turns me and she says, Okay, we're gonna go back to the hotel. It's not going to happen this time, like we're not going to announce you just yet. And so we went back to the hotel and then one of the other like top producers comes in and says, you know, we're gonna send you
home for the weekend. It was what is that at that point Labor Day, right? Is that our Memorial Day? Yeah? Yeah, one of those. We'll send you home for the holiday weekend. Think on it. And then right before they left the room, like do you want to do this? I said, straight to his face, No, but I'm going to because I think it would be foolish not too. It would be a dumb opportunity to miss out on if it's here
for me. And so I went home and I thought of it all weekend and text Mike Place on Sunday saying, Okay, I'm ready. I'm all in. Let's do it like I'm one hundred percent there. And because all that while I was like, I was back and forth, this is the right decision, is not? I was almost going to be announced while still thinking like, I don't think I even want to do this myself. I'd seen just too much, I guess at that point, but it also was too afraid.
I was. I was terrified. And he texted me He's like, okay, we've actually decided to go a different direction. I'm sorry. And then the very next morning they announced, Sorry, so Ari.
Was the bachelor got announced? And replace okay that I was gonna ask that.
Noep, what was I mean to.
Kind of close everything up here. There's a level two where you know, I don't I think it would have been an incredible Bachelor. I don't think it would have been easy on the producers or easy on you, because I think you would have pushed back, and I think you would have kind of put your stakes in the ground at places, and I think it could have become a very exhausting experience. But I do think you could you you would have had the potential to, you know,
find somebody. But I also just think you'd be a great person to watch lead a show. I think the I actually think the people that are like you lead the show in the best of ways.
Thanks.
But you find this text out you're saying publicly you don't know if you really want to do it or not, but it's a good opportunity, and who knows, you could have found your wife. It's happened, but now you found her in a different way. But back then, was it disappointing to read that text? Like it feels like in my memory you in a sense disappeared after this kind of scenario is happening behind the scenes. I don't remember like hearing from you Aton publicly once this happened.
Yeah, I think the emotions were mixed. It was a sigh of relief that I didn't have to think about it anymore. It wasn't a thing. But that continued to go on for years after thact. Anytime it was, you know, time to select a bachelor again, I came back up. Producers even reached out to me a couple of times. I was supposed to going to Winter Games with you. Yeah, and then at the last minute that got fix made.
They just decided, like literally the day before I supposed fly out, like we've decided to go a different direction. I thought that would have been fun. I'm glad it didn't go because I realized have been really bad at all the sports and fall.
I'm glad you didn't go either, because I really like Ashley and Jared together.
That was good. Yes, it was relief and yeah, enjoyment.
So you, guys, I do you feel like they were kind of playing you with knowing that Ari was like a backup and they knew that he would be more easily produced, and he was always in the back of their head because you did ask for certain caveats in the contract. Do you mind me asking what did you ask that would benefit the relationships during the show.
Well, for the first one is I saw how Brian and Rachel were just getting an on slide of negativity in every interview they showed for months after it was one of the main questions was, well, how could you have looked so interested in Peter and then right away gone and engaged Brian. So I wanted to I guess a more helpful approach to the relationship afterwards, like champion
the relationship, not the downfall of the other. Like give me some support, give the relationship some support afterwards, don't just let it go off on its own, like it seemed like she was just kind of thrown out to the wolves by herself with Brian, and they weren't really supporting her after they got the product that they needed. And then they were supporting me like they're, you know,
trying to get me to be the bachelor. I was almost getting more support and as like that is not fair to anybody, So I'd asked for that during the show, I'd asked that there was more unexpected visits to the house or to the locations that the women were inside. I could see people in their natural environment, Like, what are you doing when you're not on this date that you've prepared twenty four hours for? You know, are you hanging out with the other girls, are you on your own?
Are you reading books? Are you working out? Are you kind to everybody? Are you whatever? I just want to see people in their natural environments. And that was That was the two main things. I also wanted therapy sessions
televised or not. I didn't care in the last couple of weeks for the top couples if you want me obviously, and then the the other person, but in like three different scenario it's like, Okay, we're a couple now, so let's go to couples counseling in the last few weeks of this show to see if we actually do get along or is this just fluff that we're experiencing right now? Is this just the excitement of the show that makes
us think, so we're attracted? And so all those things were in some capacity agree to.
Those are really good asks.
I love those.
But I but now back to the question that I started asking about Ari. You think he was lingering for a while, You think that he was more producible.
I can only say as a business owner. Now you have to line up a lot of things because failure is always an option, and if you're not prepared failure, you failed as a leader, and as the leader of a show, they had to have a backup. They're probably talking to four or five six people at all times. You guys, remember when we first went onto the show, when there was one hundred and fifty people in the
final casting stages or something like that. And then what I was told is that even on the last couple of days before the show started, there was like five or six extra people waiting in the wings that just didn't ever go on to the first episode.
I think that was the year they asked me to come back, that there's.
People that make waiting sense.
Yeah, no, yeah, they asked. I think that was the year they called and said, hey, would you do it again?
Yeah, because there would have been too wait, two bachelors, but no, it was Nick. You would have been you, then Nick, then you again.
Yeah. Yeah, I think that was that. So I must have been like your c team, Like they've probably had a list of board They said, Peter one, Ari two, Been three, We're going to destroy Ben if he comes back again, and that sounds like you guys are psycho. No, I'm not doing this again, Peter. Inclosing here, we obviously are this whole conversation out with talking about your new relationship with Hannah. You have made the statement that we're going to hold you to because even if you were
doing it, and just do you still said it. You're gonna be engaged by end of the year, have kids by in the next year, be married, and at some point within that too.
Got receipts.
Yeah, she's gonna play this podcast for you.
I hope, well, I hope she doesn't listen to the rest of it. You may not, after.
All that she's a You had mentioned that at one point she was a fan of the show. As you enter into this whole next season of life that will have less and less to do with your time on the show and everything we talked about today, you start this whole new life as somebody. Are you glad now that you did it? Do you look back on it and say, yes, it was an opportunity you are thankful you said yes to Or do you wish this would have never existed?
I feel like life as it is right now would not exist in the slightest sense if it weren't for the show. I can go off a list of things that have benefited from me being on that show. So my business at the time was in home personal training. Because of the show, I couldn't go into people's homes anymore. It just became too awkward, and so I started doing boot camps. Those boot camps led to me being all over the country for four or five six hundred people at a time, all the while saving up money to
open my first gym. And then when the gym opened, things were great, but then the pandemic hit and had I not had social media, my gym would have closed within the first two three months because I had the reserves to back it up. I was losing tens of
thousands of dollars a month. So the social media alone from the show benefited me once again, the social clout, if you will, that allowed me to open certain doors and create certain partnerships even now because of the name that follows me, because I feel like I did manage to hold myself to a high standard throughout and people saw me as like, Okay, you stuck your guns, you were brave in a difficult situation. We can know and
trust you to support our businesses. Now I'm working with multimillion dollar, one hundred million dollar investments on some of these properties I'm working with, and they're putting my name on the side of it, and so it benefited from that. And then I look at going on to Raya, and while it took me seven years on Raya to eventually delete it seven times and pick it back up the
last time to meet Hannah, it worked. I met Hannah through Raya, which I never would have gotten had it not been from Blue Check that came from the show.
Yeah, you wouldn't have gotten on Raya because it's a kind of elitist type of dating app where you have to like sort of have ties to the entertainment industry.
Yeah. I had twelve hundred followers before I went on that show. That was that was it. I was not going on Raya by any means. Yeah, all that say like it was a great opportunity that while it had a lot of difficulties, it benefited me long term.
No doubt, it definitely did. And I appreciate you tying the threads and the lines together for us because I think that's always you know, I've loved the producers back in the days that we were on the show, and I think some of them are really great. I think others of them were not so great, But I do hold a lot of them with a lot of respect because, if anything, they're brilliant and they're good at what they do.
And I'm always I always think even in the most difficult scenarios, for a lot of the people that come on the show, the outcome can be of benefit if you allow it to be. And you definitely did, and you just tied so many different ways together. Kind of that it's on Instagram now, like the butterfly effect, right, Like the things that had to happen for you to be where you're at today. Well, it's beautiful and we
appreciate you being here today. On The Almost Famous Podcasts, breaking down one of the most, if not the most iconic memories and moments in Bachelorette history. Peter, thanks for joining the Almost Famous podcast.
Thanks for having me, guys.
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