Peter Weber has broken his silence about former The Bachelor producer Julie LaPlaca's shocking book claims that they had sex multiple times, including prior to filming his season's The Women Tell All special.
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"I just find it ironic that Julie is coming out with a book all about finding your truth and searching for love, when the entire time I was trying to do just that on my season of The Bachelor, with her as my main confidant and guide throughout the process, her actions said otherwise," Peter told TMZ in a statement.
The pilot added, "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)."
In the book, Julie claimed she first hooked up with Peter when they reunited to film The Bachelor: The Women Tell All special as the last few episodes of the pilot's The Bachelor season were still airing on ABC in early 2020.
"Shame crept in... How horrible of a producer could I be? I literally went and f***ed the first male contestant I produced," she writes in her book, according to Us Weekly. "That is wrong on so many levels."
The Bachelor viewers watched 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 mid-March 2020.
During After the Final Rose, Peter tried to reconcile with his runner-up, Madison Prewett, but the pair never committed to a relationship.
Julie also claimed she and Peter slept together multiple times when production halted on Clare Crawley's The Bachelorette season in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Days after one of those alleged sexual encounters, Julie recalled how photographs surfaced of Peter and Kelley Flanagan's reunion in Chicago in late March 2020.
Peter and Kelley, who finished his The Bachelor season in fifth place, ended up dating and going Instagram official in May 2020. (Peter and Kelley had an on-again, off-again relationship until their final split in early 2023).
Julie said she finally professed her love to Peter over the phone in March 2024 -- which was about four years after they last hooked up -- but they both decided their timing was always off and they should just remain friends.
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But the pair's friendship was destroyed when Julie let Peter know that she was writing this book. Julie recently revealed that Peter "blocked" and "ghosted" her.
Although Peter is clearly angry, he noted that Julie sharing her truth "by no means" makes him "a victim in all of this."
"I'm a grown man who is responsible for all of my actions, and I know that," Peter admitted to TMZ.
"That being said, going through an experience like I did involved a certain level of trust being given to people I really didn't know that much about at the time."
Peter pointed out how The Bachelor and The Bachelorette contestants are cut off from the outside world and depend on their producers to get them through confusing and difficult situations during filming.
"I have a hard time understanding how [former show host Chris Harrison] and Julie can both endorse this type of book when they know how badly they let me down," Peter said, referencing how Chris had written the forward in The Love Producer.
Peter cited "a very stern argument" he got into with Julie. He said that during filming, he was planning to give Hannah Ann a rose so that she could meet his family and Julie warned him that America would laugh at him.
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And then when Peter was ready to propose to Hannah Ann on the show, he claimed Julie and Chris "blatantly lied" to him about the model having second thoughts "in order to get a reaction" out of him.
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Peter said he later learned that Hannah Ann was definitely not having doubts about their relationship at that time.
Peter also said he spoke with Julie for about 90 minutes before her memoir was published and begged her not to include his name or off-camera details about their relationship.
But now that the book is out, Peter said he's still grateful for his experience on The Bachelor and he's "in a really good place" in his life today.
"[I hope Julie] finds the love that we all deserve," Peter concluded.
Ahead of Julie's book release on July 7, Season 21 The Bachelor star Nick Viall vented in an Instagram clip of his "The Viall Files" podcast that Julie's decision to write personal details about her complicated relationship with Peter was exploitive, "manipulative" and "gross."
Peter commented on the Instagram post, "I've moved on from this period of my life and I'm ultimately responsible for my choices."
He continued, "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."
Peter proceeded to call out Julie, claiming she had given him some manipulative, 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."
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
