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This is the Ben and Ashley I Almost

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Famous podcast with iHeartRadio.

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We've had the unique opportunity here in the Almost

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Famous podcast to have some voices,

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some wise voices, some voices who have been through

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the Bachelor franchise for a bit share

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their thoughts on the recent announcement of

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the Golden Bachelor, Gary

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and his wife Teresa's divorce.

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So I was going to jump in for a second and

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kind of share my thoughts. It's this

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was this was a

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difficult announcement. I think for so

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many of us to kind of understand. That's why

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it's everywhere if you google this

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divorce. All the

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major media

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companies and journalists are covering

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this. I think we're

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shocked, because we're saddened. I'm

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shocked. I guess I can speak for myself personally,

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because I really believe the two

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of them we're gonna make it. For

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multiple reasons. Let me touch on those.

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One. I thought their age was

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going to allow them kind of this next chapter

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in life, and they were really going to invest

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during this next chapter into this new

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love and this new relationship they found. Quite

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honestly, this could come off wrong.

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I didn't think there was enough time to

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necessarily have major

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disagreements, major

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disagreements, especially ending in a separation.

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I also thought they were gonna have a lot of fun together. Obviously

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both of them have done very well in their life.

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From all we know, they're both financially

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sustainable, and so they had

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a ton of opportunity to go

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off and to travel, or to

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spend time on the lakes, or to

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go out to dinners and to just enjoy

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kind of this next chapter. And

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so for me, I took all

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those into consideration without knowing the two of them

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very personally, been

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able to meet him a few times, and thought this

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could be something special.

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Obviously, now shockingly

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they are announcing that they're going to divorce. I

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also think the fans here

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are a little bit confused because

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we don't have a lot of information. As so many

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who have came on here now the podcast today

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and been interviewed, they've shared that we

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just don't know enough. Yeah.

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I believe it was Trista who said that, you

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know, if love truly

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exists, then you can figure the rest

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out. So many

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of us who listen to this, who have been in a committed

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relationship or in some type

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of relationship that

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we've had to make tough decisions for understand

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that the decisions are tough still, yes, but

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they're going to get made because there's

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love behind them. So

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if it's just a matter of where you move

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and what family you're closer to, then

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I would say this is confusing,

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especially because Gary, yes, has family

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fairly close, but he's

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they still have to drive. I mean, I believe

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he has some children

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that are you know, five plus hours

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away. That's you

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know, a flight from

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the East Coast to Indiana.

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I and you're retired. I guess

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I should say that he's retired, and so there's

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time to fly, there's time to travel. I've

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lived in Colorado,

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my family's lived in Indiana for

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the past eleven years, and

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I don't see them, maybe as regularly

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as I would if I lived

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in the same hometown or within an hour's drive,

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But I see them often. My

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dad just retired last year, and

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before that, you know, there was weeks

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every year that I would go home, or there was weeks

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that they would come here. There

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was flexibility in that, and so I

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never have felt like I

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cannot see my family when I desire to see

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them or when they desire to see me. And spend time

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with Jessica and I and

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so I want to believe their excuse.

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I do. I mean, I think their reasoning

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that it was hard to kind of figure out where they're going to be for their

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family is fair, but I

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don't believe it's everything. And honestly,

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I don't know if they owe us everything in

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the explanation of why they're getting divorce. I

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don't know if that's really my business or any

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of our businesses. But we are invested

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in their love stories, so we do want to

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know what happened here. And

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I think the question of what happened here for me is

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also confusing because their love story brought so

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many people hope. I

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got to do a segment with Gary that was never shown

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on television, but we kind of did the watch party segment

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where we went on a bus and stopped

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in at people's homes and talk to

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people about what they're experiencing watching The Golden

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and there were tears, there

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was hope, there was joy, There was

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Hey, if you can do it, Gary, I want to do it

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too. There was this belief that

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no matter what age you were, that love

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could still exist and could still be found

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and I'm

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worried, or I guess I'm concerned,

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or I guess I know that their divorce so

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quickly after getting married will probably

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make people take a step back. But here's the

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truth to it. I still believe what they showed

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on television, and

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what so many of them showed on television, so

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many of the contestants, is that love

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can still be found no matter what

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age you are at. I

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don't want that to be forgotten here. I think that's

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where this whole thing gets so hard for me, because

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I know that so many people really

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truly were invested into their

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love story and invested into this story

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in general, and I don't want people

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to forget that, Yes, loves can still be found.

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If you talk to any of the women who

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came off the show, they believe

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in love more than ever. In fact, I'll

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mention Susan and Kathy here. I've

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gotten to speak with them multiple times, and

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as recently as two weeks ago. Kind

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of heard some rumblings at that time

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that things were not good for Gary

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and Teresa, and

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so we got to have a conversation about what

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did the show teach you? And

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both of them said that it taught them that love

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can still be found, that this next chapter of

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life can be the most exciting chapter

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yet for them. And so if you're invested

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into their love stories, if you're invested into

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this separation and this divorce that

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they're entering into, please do

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not forget that love

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can still be found no matter what age

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you are in, that the

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next chapter can be the best chapter

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in your story, in your life.

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I also think we should look here now. Maybe

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you know the main characters of the

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Golden Bachelor was Gary and Teresa

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because they were obviously the ones who got married national

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television. Gary was the lead,

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Teresa was obviously the one that he

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chose and that she chose him at the end. But

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I think now the way

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I'm seeing it is it kind of levels the playing

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field a little bit to where the main

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characters are everybody that was on the show, These

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women who have came off of The Golden Bachelor

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and are now representing all

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new things. They're representing

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wisdom, they're representing

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the kind of this newfound fame and how to handle

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it when you have so much experience

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in life so that you don't get sucked up. And maybe

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the relevancy of it all

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but you just enjoy the ride. I'm

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learning from them, and I think we now we all can. I

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think the cool part would be as we watch the

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contestants now hopefully

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go out and date and go out and explore

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new relationships, and then we move on to now the

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Golden Bachelorette, we can

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start to we can continue to learn

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from them and continue to invest into their

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stories and continue to believe that something

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good is in the future for all

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of them.

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Now, I kind of want to close here by

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by also saying what is by talking

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about what like what I believe the future of

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the Golden Show is. I don't

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think this derails

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it. I do think the

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divorce makes

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us take a step back and

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maybe have a little bit of hesitancy

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when we watch the Golden Show and we're kind of waiting

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to see if there's actually love that is going

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to be found, and what the wedding looks like, what

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the commitment looks like, what these new relationships

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will look like, because I think you build

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off of what your first

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example is. For example,

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Tristan Ryan from The Bachelorette, we

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got to see their love story unfold, and now twenty

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plus years later, they're still together and they

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have kids, and we now

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believed in The Bachelor and The Bachelor

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I think in large part because we saw

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their commitment to each other and

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we saw what came from that, and

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so I do think now there'll be more hesitancy.

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But I also believe that the Golden

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Show can still be really great,

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and I think success is

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still going to come from so many couples,

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and I'm still going to be invested now

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as much as I was before. I

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am confused with all of this. Why they got married

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so quickly. I mean, I think there's some

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financial benefits from that. I

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do believe they at the time believe this was

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the right thing to do, that this was going to

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be a relationship with that lasts. I don't think

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either of them were entering into that marriage being like, hey, we'll

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get married, but yeah, a couple months later, like it doesn't really

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matter, we can separate. I don't think either

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of them were things that, but I do believe

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coming off the high of the show, coming

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off the experience of the show, coming

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off the press tours, getting

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to travel together, having this kind

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of upour honeymoon moment right after

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the show probably made them feel,

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yeah, this is amazing, Let's get married.

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I just never think that's smart.

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If you go back into my experience,

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obviously, there was some hesitancy coming right out of the show

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to get married right away. If you see Joey and Kelsey

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season obviously, Joey and Kelsey were talking about, Hey,

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we'll have a long engagement. You have to kind of

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redate to kind

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of re establish a foundation outside of the

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show, because the show, once it's over,

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it's over, and you go

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back to regular life. The show

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moves on to the next lead, to the next

10:46

season, and you move on to whatever

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the next chapter holds, and so you have to redate,

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re establish Jojo and Jordan are a great example

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of that. Matt and Rachel are a great example

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of that. So many of the healthy

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couples we see today have re establish

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a foundation outside of the show, and I

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don't think Gary and Teresa ever gave it time

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to do that. I think they got

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wrapped up in the whole thing too quickly,

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which honestly is a little surprising because

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I thought they would go about this

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whole thing very differently than any couples

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we've seen in the past. All

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Right, So those are my thoughts I'm

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sad. I wish

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divorce wasn't their best option or

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the option they felt like was necessary. Maybe it's

11:28

a better way to say that. I wish they could

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have worked through some things. I wish they would

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have given it some more time to work through some things.

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Maybe it was just getting to a place where they knew

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this was going nowhere good fast, and so

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they had to get out, both of them. I don't

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know. We don't know enough. Again, from

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everything I've read and in the interview, the only

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really reasoning for this is they just

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couldn't figure out the family dynamics.

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I don't think I'm satisfied with that. I know

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there's more, but as I said earlier,

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I don't know if I'm owed anymore. So

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it comes from a place of assumption. I

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just wish divorce was not the option they

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felt like was necessary at this time.

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I wish that two of them could have found something

12:10

beautiful together. I was wishing and

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hoping that the Golden Bachelor was

12:15

going to lead to an amazing love story that

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we'd be able to celebrate for years to come.

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But we're not. And so now we

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move on and we hope that the next season

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works and we hope that the contestants find

12:27

love again. And we hope that Gary and Teresa can find love

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again because I know and I do believe

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both of them desired it.

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Love is a beautiful thing when

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it's at its best. This show is about love. When it's

12:41

at its worst, it's about

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drama. And

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so the Golden Bachelor, as we continue,

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I hope, continues to be about love and

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we don't lose sight of

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the incredible life change that

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so many on the show and

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viewers of the show have had because

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they've witnessed people later

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in life make

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commitments to try to find love again. So

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we watch hopeful Now. I

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watch with a little hesitancy, but

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I still have a lot of anticipation, excitement

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and anticipation towards the next season of

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The Golden Bachelorette and

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hoping hey that love truly

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will be found.

13:26

Follow the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous

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