Peter Weber’s Bachelor Producer Says They Got Involved While His Season Aired. He Isn’t Denying It, but Says She Broke His Trust

In her new memoir “The Love Producer,” Julie LaPlaca writes that the emotional bond she formed with Peter Weber while producing Season 24 of The Bachelor turned physical in early 2020, after his off-camera breakup with Hannah Ann Sluss and while the season was still airing. She was his main producer and confidant throughout filming, and she frames what happened as lines that blurred without crossing what she calls clear ethical boundaries.

Weber isn’t disputing that it happened. In a statement to TMZ, he said, “I am by no means a victim in all of this. I’m a grown man who is responsible for all of my actions.” His objection is that she published it against his wishes. He says he asked her, in a recorded conversation before the book came out, to leave his name and their private moments out, and that she declined.

Julie LaPlaca spent seven years producing The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. On Season 24, filmed in 2019 and aired in early 2020, she was the producer assigned to guide Peter Weber through the process as his main confidant.

Her memoir, “The Love Producer,” came out July 7 through BenBella Books, with a foreword from longtime host Chris Harrison. In it, she writes that an intense emotional bond formed during filming, describing Weber as one of her “soulmates” and saying the lines between them blurred. She writes that it turned physical in early 2020, after Weber’s off-camera breakup with Hannah Ann Sluss and while the season was still airing on ABC. She says contact faded as he began dating contestant Kelley Flanagan. She frames the relationship as blurred lines that never crossed what she calls clear ethical boundaries, and the book as her own account of searching for love.

Weber responded the same day the book came out. In his statement to TMZ, he said he finds it “ironic that Julie is coming out with a book all about finding your truth and searching for love, when the entire time I was trying to do just that on my season of ‘The Bachelor,’ with her as my main confidant and guide throughout the process.” He does not deny the relationship. “I am by no means a victim in all of this,” he said. “I’m a grown man who is responsible for all of my actions, and I know that.”

His issue is trust. He said the experience “involved a certain level of trust being given to people I really didn’t know that much about at the time,” and that he has “a hard time understanding how Harrison and Julie can both endorse this type of book when they know how badly they let me down.” He says he had a recorded conversation with her, roughly 90 minutes long, before publication, asking her to leave out his name and their private moments. She declined.

He says he’s since moved on, is in a good place, and hopes she finds love.

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