Former 'The Bachelor' producer claims Peter Weber's mom Barb approved of them getting married

Former The Bachelor producer Julie LaPlaca has claimed Peter Weber's mother Barbara Weber was onboard with the pair dating -- and even getting married -- as The Bachelor's 24th season was airing on ABC.


Peter filmed The Bachelor's 24th season under Julie's direction and guidance in late 2019, and then his season aired in early 2020 on ABC.

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"After we're done filming, he gets engaged and then the show starts airing in January," Julie recalled of Peter's marriage proposal to Hannah Ann Sluss during an interview with E! News.

"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."


Julie claimed she and Peter were still just friends at that point, although they had developed a pretty strong friendship and emotional connection.

In her new book, The Love Producer -- which hit shelves in early July -- Julie alleges that she and Peter had sex after he called off his engagement to Hannah Ann in January 2020.

The day after they had sex, Julie admitted that she thought "oh f-ck" to herself for letting a professional relationship turn intimate.

Julie said this sexual encounter happened when she and Peter reunited to film The Women Tell All special -- presumably in February 2020 -- while the last few episodes of Peter's The Bachelor season were airing on ABC.

Once Peter and Hannah Ann split, Julie said Barb encouraged Peter to pursue her romantically.


"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 going to be the best in-laws?'" Julie recounted to E! News.

Peter, however, tried to reconcile with his The Bachelor runner-up, Madison Prewett, during the live taping of The Bachelor: After the Final Rose in early March 2020.

But Peter and Madison's romance never took off, leaving room for Peter and Julie to act on their spark.

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Julie claims in her memoir that she had sex with Peter multiple times in March 2020, only days before he began dating his The Bachelor fifth-place finisher, Kelley Flanagan. (Peter and Kelley proceeded to date on and off until their official breakup in 2023).


"All of a sudden, the whole world was rooting for us to end up together," Julie explained.

"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 recalled how she and Peter were together every day during production, which strengthened their bond over time.

"Naturally you know them very well," Julie said.

"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."


Julie writes in her book that she finally professed her love to Peter over the phone in March 2024 -- which was about four years after their last hook up -- but they both decided their timing was always off and they should just remain friends.

However, any friendship Julie and Peter had was ruined when she told him about her book. Peter allegedly blocked Julie, who also said Peter threatened to sue her prior to its publishing.

While Julie says Barb prayed for her and Peter to end up together, Barb definitely feels differently now.

Several days after The Love Producer hit shelves on July 7, Barb took to Instagram to defend her son.

And on July 11, Barb urged ABC and The Bachelor production company to lift their non-disclosure agreements with Peter so he can share his truth in response to Julie's shocking claims.


Barb posted a photo of Peter smiling and wrote, "Lift the NDAs Let Peter Tell HIS Story!"

Barb also tagged her husband, Peter Weber Sr., and Renee Halverson-Wright, who competed on the first season of The Golden Bachelor in 2023, in her upload.

Not only did Peter star on The Bachelor, but he also previously competed on Hannah Brown's season of The Bachelorette.

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Julie produced both seasons before leaving her position with ABC in 2021.

Although Julie has said in interviews that she wanted to share her heart and healing journey in her book to help other women going through similar situations, Peter told TMZ that Julie's actions are "unforgivable" and extremely disappointing.


"To have her laugh in my face while I was very vulnerably expressing my reasons for wanting to be left out of this book was unforgivable. (And yes, she knows I have the conversation recorded)," Peter told the website.

Before Julie's book was publicly released, former The Bachelor star Nick Viall accused Julie of grooming, manipulating and seducing Peter -- which he dubbed "gross" and "wrong" behavior -- when the pilot desperately needed her support as a trustworthy friend and therapist via Instagram.

Peter commented on the Instagram post and said he's responsible for his own choices, but he also vented, "I asked Julie on multiple occasions to please keep private, intimate details, private. This wasn't about a TV show anymore."

Peter also claimed Julie had given him some manipulative and bad advice during filming.

"Curious though if she mentions in the book about my last one on one with Hannah Ann, 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,'" Peter alleged.

"I find it wrong to mess with a person's headspace like that and then go on to write a book about them."


In response to Peter and Nick's backlash, Julie denied that she groomed Peter or even made a mistake by hooking up with him during the July 7 episode of "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast."

Julie also alleged that she had offered both men a copy of her book to read and understand what was in her heart but they both "ghosted" her and formed their own opinions.

"It's really interesting to see the power of a man with a mic and the assumptions people form just based off of one person's words. So yeah, it's been interesting," she said.

Julie admitted to Ashley Iaconetti and Ben Higgins that she's "not shocked" Peter is so upset with her.

"I think he's operating from a place of fear, and understandably so. All I can do is send him love... I think he came into my life for a reason, and I'm grateful for what the situation with him led me to," Julie shared.

"So I'm at peace with not staying friends. I feel bad he's so upset, but I think I knew, intuitively, that I needed to share this story. It's not just a Tell-All about Peter; it's about my journey and my story that he was a character [in]."


She added, "I've let men hold me back a lot in the past, and I just won't let them do that anymore."

Julie also insisted to E! News that Peter was actually more supportive than his statements in the media have made him seem.

"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,'" Julie recalled.

"He said, 'No, no, no, no, I respect the hell out of you.' He even said the best part of the season is me."

Julie also revealed in her book that she was in talks to star on The Bachelorette for Season 16 -- at the time she was hooking up with Peter -- but the position ultimately went to Clare Crawley.

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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski