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Watch: Former Bachelor Producer Julie LaPlaca Finally Tells the Truth About Peter Weber | E! Hot Goss
It’s Julie LaPlaca‘s turn to tell all.
The former Bachelor producer is sharing new details about her behind-the-scenes romance with season 24 lead Peter Weber, even revealing the surprising marriage comments the Bachelor Nation star’s mom Barbara Weber allegedlymade before the pair’s brief 2020 fling.
According to Julie, her relationship with Pilot Pete didn’t take flight until after he had given his final rose to season 24 winner Hannah Ann Sluss.
“After we’re done filming, he gets engaged and then the show starts airing in January,” Julie recounted during an exclusive interview with E!’ Hot Goss hosts Eyal Booker and Lonnie Marts IIV. “But in that in-between time he was doing press, so I went with him to Times Square for New Year’s Eve. Our families met. Suddenly, people started saying, ‘Are you sure you two don’t end up together?’ These seeds started to be planted.”
Noting they were still just friends at that point as she and Peter “got along really well” off camera, everything changed when he called off his engagement to Hannah in January 2020. Following the breakup, Peter’s mom encouraged her son to start courting his TV producer.
As Julie recounted, “Barb said to my dad, ‘I want you to know I give Peter and Julie my full blessing to marry one another. Aren’t we gonna be the best in-laws?'”
And Barb wasn’t alone, as fans began picking up on social media clues suggesting Julie and Peter—who also had a brief reunion with contestant Madison Prewett after his split from Hannah—were more than just coworkers.
“All of a sudden, the whole world was rooting for us to end up together,” Julie continued. “Then I’m like, ‘Am I actually denying something that could be quite real, or am I getting caught up in this fantasy that I create?'”
Julie LaPlaca/Instagram
Of course, it was only natural that feelings had developed between the two as they were basically together 24/7 throughout production.
“Naturally you know them very well,” the 41-year-old confessed to Hot Goss. “It gets complicated because your job as a producer, oddly there’s not many boundaries. Our job is to get super close with them, our job is to have wine with them.”
Eventually, she and Peter acted on their feelings for each other. But the day after her first physical hookup with Peter, Julie recalled thinking “oh f–k.”
Ultimately, their dating ended as quickly as it began and the messiness of their business-meets-pleasure situationship marked a turning point for Julie’s career.
“Looking back, I really don’t have regrets,” she admitted. “It was honestly what probably led me to leave the show. It led me down a super helpful, spiritual journey.”
Julie LaPlaca/Instagram
As for what Peter thinks of Julie going public with intimate details about their courtship? Let’s just say her 2026 memoir The Love Producer, in which she chronicled their fling, caused some turbulence for the airman.
“I’ve moved on from this period of my life and I’m ultimately responsible for my choices,” the 34-year-old commented on Instagram last month in response to the book. “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.”
However, Julie insisted Peter was more supportive of her book than his statement made it seem.
“My guess is Peter probably has some unresolved wounds from the show that are probably coming back up through all of this,” she shared. “When I called him four years later to finally have a vulnerable conversation with him, I’m like, ‘Listen, there’s probably a resentment you hold towards me as a producer and now that I’m out of that world if you want to talk about it I’m happy to.'”
“He said, ‘No, no, no, no, I respect the hell out of you,” Julie continued. “He even said the best part of the season is me.”
Peter certainly isn’t alone when it comes to mixing business and pleasure. Keep reading for more reality TV stars who dated their producers.
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