ABC / John Fleenor

Former 'The Bachelorette' producer says Hannah Brown "made my life really difficult"

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/01/2026

Former The Bachelor producer Julie LaPlaca has suggested The Bachelorette alum Hannah Brown was difficult to work with.

Years after leaving her The Bachelor position in 2021, Julie wrote a book, The Love Producer, sharing juicy behind-the-scenes details about her time producing love stories for The Bachelor franchise.

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And while promoting her new book, she opened up about her strained relationship with Hannah.

"She made my life really difficult," Julie admitted during a recent appearance on the "She's All Bach" podcast.

Julie said she was hired to help brainstorm and plan dates for The Bachelor franchise starting with Andi Dorfman's The Bachelorette season in 2014.

Julie was later promoted to work directly with the show's leads, starting with Hannah's The Bachelorette season in 2019.

Julie explained how her job required her to basically spend 24/7 with the leads and guide them through their entire journey.

"I would say we had a love-hate relationship," Julie recalled of working closely with the former beauty queen and Alabama native on The Bachelorette's fifteenth season.

"It was my first time with a lead and all I really wanted to do was connect with her. To me, I go into everything I do, I'd like to think, from an authentic place of just wanting to connect. That's my approach, but I know producers have different approaches."

Julie said she was excited to build a friendship with Hannah at the start of the season, but things didn't turn out as she expected.

"To me, I was like, 'Yay! I'm a girls' girl, let's hang out and talk about boys. Let's have fun!' And we did, we had a lot of fun, but we went through a lot of growing pains," Julie explained.

Julie went on to confess it was "hard" serving as Hannah's producer and the experience took an "emotional" toll on her.

"I don't want to say anything bad about her. I think she was going through a lot as the lead herself, and you can never predict what that situation is going to be like," Julie shared.

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Julie noted "it wasn't easy" throughout.

"We had our highs and lows -- and highs and lows," Julie recalled with a laugh.

"But by the end, I felt like she was like a younger sister to me... And outside of the show, I rather enjoyed hanging out with her. She was kind of fun and silly and goofy, like me. And so, yeah, I adore Hannah."

It was during Hannah's The Bachelorette season that Julie was introduced to Peter Weber, who was one of her bachelors.

After Peter finished Hannah's season in third place behind runner-up Tyler Cameron and winner Jed Wyatt, ABC selected him to star as The Bachelor's Season 24 star.

Teasing the July 7, 2026 release of The Love Producer, Julie confirmed that she definitely had a close relationship with Peter -- and that maybe they got a little too close.

Before Peter's The Bachelor season even premiered in January 2020, spoilers were circulating about how his season ended, including a theory that he was secretly dating his producer, who ended up being Julie.

Peter and Julie added fuel to the speculation when they celebrated New Year's Eve together as a promotion for the show's 24th season.

Julie previously told Entertainment Weekly, "The intimacy that the lead producers have with the people they're with... It got complicated and lines became blurred."

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When asked about her current status with Peter on the "She's All Bach" podcast, Julie revealed, "We're not talking."

But Julie insisted she is "okay" with that.

"Sometimes the universe, you have to shed certain people. Once I told him about the book, we stopped talking," Julie said.

"I just [called him] and gave him a heads up about it and his reaction wasn't great. He's gotten a lot of not-great press in the past, and so he automatically went into fear-mode in terms of what I'm doing."

Julie even alleged that after she offered Peter an advance copy of her book to read, he "blocked" her.

Julie, however, said that she spoke from the heart in her book.

"I had to go through a lot of pain and healing. I dealt with a lot of shame and a lot of hurt and a lot of fear," Julie concluded.

Viewers saw Peter get engaged to Hannah Ann Sluss during his season finale, but the pair ended their relationship before the live The Bachelor: After the Final Rose special aired in March 2020.

During After the Final Rose, Peter tried to reconcile with his runner-up, Madison Prewett, but their romance never really got off the ground post-show.

Peter eventually began to date his The Bachelor fifth-place finisher Kelley Flanagan in May 2020.

Peter and Kelley had an on-again, off-again relationship until they officially split -- once and for all -- in early 2023.

Julie chose to leave her position with The Bachelor franchise after Matt James' season aired in 2021.