Usually, when a season of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette begins, it’s the first time the leading man or woman will be meeting the contestants vying for their heart.
However, this was not the case in Season 24 of The Bachelor when Kelley Flanagan got out of the limo and headed toward Peter Weber.
The two had already met prior to the season at an event where they were both in attendance, and they had talked and hung out.
However, after shockingly being sent home before hometown dates, Kelley and Peter have both spoken out about how Bachelor producers hindered the relationship.
What did Kelley Flanagan say about Bachelor producers?
Back when she appeared on the Almost Famous podcast, Kelley had revealed to co-hosts Ashley Iaconetti and Ben Higgins, “The first couple of weeks I saw him look at me differently compared to when we got on our one-on-one, and I could tell 100 percent that like producers were in his head.”
Kelley continued and said, “Because, on the one-on-one, nothing happened between us, but he had this, like, demeanor toward me that was so p****d off and I was looking at him, like, ‘What the h**l were you told?’ because nothing happened here for you to have this attitude.”
She went on to say it was at that moment that she knew something was going on with production and behind the scenes, and this infuriated her.
Kelley relayed that the producers were putting thoughts into Peter’s head, and he was almost not able to make his own decisions.
What did Peter have to say about this?
Moreover, when Peter was a guest on the Here for the Right Reasons podcast, he also stated that the two were given less and less time together as the show was filmed.
Peter even claimed, “On our one-on-one in Costa Rica, we had, like, two seconds of off-camera time, off-mic time. We were walking this hot tub, like, in this waterfall thing and I had heard that she wasn’t necessarily cooperating the best with production and I’m like, ‘Listen, just trust me to do what they’re saying, like, I want to see more and want to spend more time with you and they’re not letting that happen.’”
He went on to say, “’So you just got to make them happy so you know we can give this a shot.’ I don’t think she got the fairest chance or whatnot on the show if I’m being honest. And I think production would say the exact same thing.”
What happened after The Bachelor between Kelley and Peter?
While Peter went on to choose Hannah Ann Sluss as his winner, the pair were already broken up by After the Final Rose because he wanted to try and reconcile with his runner-up, Madison Prewett.
When that didn’t work out either, Peter and Kelley actually reconnected during the worldwide pandemic in April of 2020 and were quarantined together.
In fact, the duo had been planning to make a move together to New York City. However, they broke up before that could happen.
While there was a brief second chance and reconciliation a couple of months later, they had a messy break-up that time, and the twosome ended on bad terms.
The Bachelorette premieres Monday, July 11, on ABC.