Peter Weber Slams Chris Harrison for Supporting Former ‘Bachelor’ Producer’s Tell-All Book: 'Makes Me Sick'
Former BachelorPeter Weber is calling out former producer Julie LaPlaca, and ex-host Chris Harrison, over LaPlaca's upcoming book, The Love Producer.
In The Love Producer, LaPlaca addresses her rumored relationship with Weber while the pair were filming his season in 2019. Harrison, for his part, wrote the foreword for the tell-all.
Ahead of the book's release on Tuesday, July 7, former Bachelor star Nick Viall criticized it on his podcast, The Viall Files. In a clip shared to Instagram, Viall said he found it "gross" that LaPlaca was "exploiting" her experience as a Bachelor producer, arguing that she took advantage of the power she held over Weber while he was the show's lead.
Weber agreed with Viall, writing in the comment section, "I’ve moved on from this period of my life and I’m ultimately responsible for my choices. 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."
"Curious though if she mentions in the book about my last one on one with Hannah Ann [Sluss], and how in the middle of our dinner conversation during one on one producer interviews, Julie tells me 'You will look like the biggest idiot in the world to America if you give her your rose,'" the pilot added. "I find it wrong to mess with a person’s headspace like that and then go on to write a book about them. The fact that Chris [Harrison] endorsed this makes me sick."
LaPlaca first joined The Bachelor franchise as a date producer during Andi Dorfman’s season of The Bachelorette in 2014. In 2019, she started working directly with the lead for the first time for Hannah Brown‘s season.
“You’re basically with them 24/7. You’re doing all their interviews, prepping them for all their dates, and helping guide them on their entire journey,” she explained to Entertainment Weekly back in April. “The storyteller side of me was really excited when I made that shift because we’re really crafting a 20-hour rom-com.”
Brown’s season introduced fans to Weber, who became the Bachelor after being heartbroken in third place. While Weber’s season was airing, there were a number of theories on how his journey ended—including speculation that he was dating LaPlaca.
The theory took off after the pair spent New Year’s Eve together, with Harrison and ABC executive Rob Mills adding fuel to the fire by neither confirming nor denying the rumor.
LaPlaca finally shut down the speculation after the season ended, writing on Instagram that she and Weber “didn’t kiss at midnight.”
“Peter and I instantly connected,” LaPlaca told Entertainment Weekly. “He felt like an immediate best friend. My job is digging into his heart, getting him to be vulnerable—and I was doing the same. There were moments where I was like, ‘Wow, I’m more open with Peter than I was with my boyfriend of five years.’ There’s this interesting bond that people don’t see, the intimacy that the lead producers have with the people they’re with. … It got complicated and lines became blurred.”
“I will be sharing my truth that I suppressed for a while. I dealt with some shame and some fear around sharing it,” she continued. “And part of my journey was working through that and allowing myself to get to a place to be fully vulnerable—like I got so many cast members to do. Every woman should own her story and own her truth. … It’s very juicy and Bachelor Nation is going to love it.”