A former producer for "The Bachelor" has detailed the sharp reaction from lead Peter Weber when she informed him of her plans to publish a memoir about their relationship.
Julie LaPlaca, who worked on the show for seven years, said she told Weber about her book, "The Love Producer," after completing her first draft. According to LaPlaca, Weber, who was the Bachelor in Season 24, "panicked, threatened to sue, and blocked me." She added that she then attempted to connect him with her representatives so he could read an early copy, but he "ghosted me."
Weber, a pilot featured on the show in 2020, expressed his frustration about the book's upcoming release in an Instagram comment. "What I’ll say is this; I asked Julie on multiple occasions to please keep private, intimate details, private. This wasn’t about a tv show anymore," he wrote.
LaPlaca stated that she believes Weber's reaction stems from "fear and ego instead of a place of love" and that she wishes he had read the book to see her perspective. "I think Peter is coming from a place of fear and ego instead of a place of love . . . I wish he had read the book and can see that I’m coming from my heart," she said.
LaPlaca's role as a supervising producer involved close contact with the Bachelor, including interviews, date preparation, and constant proximity. The memoir recounts their first sexual encounter in 2020 at Weber's parents' home, where he was living at the time, following the airing of an episode from his season, which had been filmed in 2019.
"Peter reached up and turned the lights off, just like in the fantasy suites. The rest is what happens when the cameras stop rolling, and stays between Peter and me," LaPlaca wrote in her book, though she omitted explicit physical details of that encounter and two subsequent ones to honor her feelings for Weber. She noted that she eventually confessed her love to him years later.
During the airing of Weber's season, LaPlaca faced intense online backlash. After posting an Instagram photo from New Year's Eve 2019, where Weber also appeared, internet sleuths deduced they were together, leading to hostile comments directed at LaPlaca. "I had people comparing me to Harvey Weinstein . . . telling me I need to get cancer and die . . . telling me I was ugly . . . There are some mean trolls out there," she recalled.
At one point, "Bachelor" creator Mike Fleiss reportedly contacted LaPlaca about the possibility of her becoming "The Bachelorette." She described this as a potential "Cinderella story" that she was disappointed not to see materialize.
Ultimately, LaPlaca resigned from the "Bachelor" franchise after seven years without disclosing her relationship with Weber to her employers. She cited fear and paranoia as primary reasons for her departure, noting the toll the reality TV producer lifestyle took on her health, including constant eye twitching, hair thinning, and disturbed sleep.
LaPlaca, now a certified life coach and hypnotherapist, stated that while she might have continued working for the show had she not fallen for Weber, she believes the events unfolded as they were meant to.