The Bachelor bachelorette Kelley Flanagan says the show's producers manipulated Peter Weber while filming Season 24 and kept her away from him -- to the point where she alleges producers locked her in a closet for several hours!
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Kelley, 27, therefore made a surprise appearance during Peter's solo interview with Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti on the Tuesday episode of their Almost Famous In Depth podcast.
"I saw [Peter] has such a good heart and was being manipulated every which way. It just kind of pissed me off," Kelley claimed to Ben and Ashley.
"I wasn't the best contestant for the show, and I think everyone knows that. On the show, I could see him being manipulated, and I was just like, 'Can you stop? Make your own decision. Stop.'"
Kelley apparently believes producers talked Peter out of his feelings or desire to be with her, or at least planted seeds of doubt.
"As far as our relationship [went] on the show, the first couple of weeks I saw him look at me differently compared to when we got on our one-on-one, and I could tell a hundred percent that, like, producers were in his head," Kelley explained.
"Because on the one-on-one, nothing happened between us, but he had this, like, demeanor toward me that was so pissed off. And I was looking at him, like, 'What the hell were you told?' because nothing happened here for you to have this attitude."
"And so right then and there, I knew something was going on behind the scenes, and I was like, 'This is bulls–t,'" Kelley noted.
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Kelley explained quite a bit happened during her one-on-one date with Peter that wasn't shown on television.
"I just called it out. I was like, 'Can I just speak freely?' And [Peter] was like, 'Go ahead.' And I was like, 'Peter, they don't let me see you. They locked me up in a closet for three hours last week, and they won't let me see you,'" Kelley alleged.
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"I said, 'You clearly know they push some people forward and they don't push others forward.' I was like, 'You've been in my position before. What do you want me to do?'"
The confident and outspoken attorney continued, "It's just I saw him, like, things were getting in his head that he wasn't able to make his own decision and it just kind of pissed me off."
(Last year's The Bachelor star Colton Underwood seems to agree producers left Peter out to dry and "set him up for failure.")
Since Peter previously said Hannah Ann Sluss -- whom he got engaged to at the end of his The Bachelor season -- didn't challenge him enough, Ashley asked Peter if he had found his "challenger" in Kelley.
"I swear I'm nice too!" Kelley interjected with a laugh.
"The short answer, yeah," the commercial pilot replied. "I'm just very grateful for her throughout all of this and all the patience she has given me."
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During an appearance on Nick Viall's The Viall Files podcast this week, Peter confirmed he's not dating Kelley right now but there's definitely hope for them down the road.
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"I could definitely see that in the future. I'd be extremely lucky and very happy if that happened... I think the world of her."
During The Bachelor's live finale on March 10, Kelley, who was sitting in the audience, watched an indecisive Peter break off his engagement to Hannah Ann and then reconcile with his supposed true love, Madison Prewett, whom he officially split from on March 12, just two short days after the finale aired.
"Of anyone, I'm the last person that needs to rush into any kind of relationship. I just had an engagement that didn't work out. I just was trying to pursue things with another woman that didn't work out," Peter admitted on The Viall Files.
"That's why, right now, I'm just taking it really, really slow."
As The Bachelor season aired earlier this year from January to March, rumors swirled that Kelley and Peter were secretly dating, but she later put that speculation to rest and confirmed that was not the case.
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Kelley -- who is apparently Peter's mother Barbara Weber's favorite from The Bachelor's 24th season -- told Us Weekly last month after the finale Peter needed to "figure out his own stuff."
"I met Peter outside of the show and he was so sweet, he was amazing, and I think that the show may have gotten to him a little bit," Kelley said at the time.
"Right now, I think it's time for him to just reflect on himself and figure out... what he wants [and who] Peter Weber really is... Right now he should just focus on himself and do his own thing."
For as long as Kelley remains single, she'll apparently be a hot commodity in Bachelor Nation.
Not only did The Bachelorette alum Mike Johnson hint that he's interested in Kelley, but she was also previously linked to Nick, who starred on The Bachelor's 21st season.
Kelley and Nick posted a photo with each other from a party Chris Harrison hosted in Los Angeles in March on Instagram and Chris commented on the picture that the pair looked "so cozy" together at the event.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
