Former Bachelor and Bachelorette producer Julie LaPlaca claims in her new book, The Love Producer, that she was once considered as a possible season lead.
In her debut memoir, available Tuesday, July 7, Julie, 41, recalls receiving a phone call from Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss after filming wrapped on Peter Weber’s 2020 season.
“We arranged to have a secret meeting when I returned to L.A., because my immediate bosses, according to [Mike], were against the idea and didn’t think it would work,” she writes. “But he was the boss of the bosses and loved it.”
After telling her family about the potential opportunity, Julie rushed to tell Peter, who told her they “totally manifested this.” (Julie claims Peter was “campaigning” for her to be the star of her own journey to find love while working together on his season.)
Despite her excitement over the possible offer, Julie also felt “a bit of sadness” over Peter’s excitement in the midst of her budding feelings for the former Bachelor.
“As you know, I had already started writing the hypothetical love story in my head of Peter and me jetting off into the sunset together,” she writes. “Becoming the Bachelorette would mean this scenario couldn’t happen. So, I began the day dreaming about another version … Peter showing up mid-season to profess his love and join the cast.”
Ultimately, the offer didn’t pan out and Clare Crawley was chosen to lead season 16 of The Bachelorette instead. (Tayshia Adams famously took over the role when Clare, now 45, got engaged to Dale Moss in the fourth episode.)
“I couldn’t hold back the tears,” Julie writes of being denied the opportunity.
As Julie remembers it, execs concluded that the audience wouldn’t “believe a producer’s love story” because she knew “too much of the behind-the-scenes of the show to make it feel authentic.”
In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly ahead of her book’s release, Julie argued that she would have been able to separate the two experiences.
“I think I do a pretty good job of being in what I’m in, right?” she told Us. “So I do think if that opportunity had presented itself, I would have fully, like, surrendered to the process and just allowed for everything to come my way, and trust that it was coming for a reason.”
Julie continued, “I’m sure, of course, I would probably want to make sure the producers were always happy, and I think I would trust them. I think, you know, when you have a good relationship with them, I think that’s always important, and it’ll help you going through the process. So, I think I would fully surrender to it, and allow myself to get dolled up and go on the dates and be vulnerable.”
Seven years after joining the franchise — and after her off-camera fling with Peter — Julie eventually walked away from her producing job. While she initially “didn’t watch” the shows “at all” after her exit, she found a way to appreciate the love stories again.
“I was going through a big, like, grieving process … but I started watching again for The Golden Bachelor, and actually, it was so fun to watch,” she told Us. “I really liked that, because it felt like it took the show back to the essence of what it was back in the early days [and] the love story was the heart of it. The drama was silly, sincere drama — not crazy, overly produced drama. And so I enjoyed watching it, and yeah, I tune in now and then.”
