It’s interesting on how things can change over time. Never thought today’s podcast guest would ever be on the show if you were to rewind about 15 months, but here we are. And the ball kinda got rolling when I received the email a couple weeks ago that I’ve posted below. Holly Allen is the recent ex-girlfriend of Luke Pell, after they made their breakup announcement about a month ago after a little over a year of dating. Although, “dating” to Luke Pell he takes awfully loosely when it comes to him wanting to advance his career. Holly has a lot to tell and share, and we even talk about how she wasn’t a big fan of mine back when I wrote the Luke expose in the beginning of April last year, because Holly had just started dating him. We cover the whole timeline of their relationship, the major ups and downs they had, what the hell happened with Winter Games, and so much more. I know, it’s a lot to soak in. But please listen to the whole two hours to get a feel for how bizarre Luke’s behavior was in this relationship. I don’t expect Luke fans to like, or care, about this interview, which is fine. This interview isn’t for them because they’re not going to believe her anyway. I implore those who are neutral or read the Luke stuff last year to listen to this though and realize, frankly, this guy has some major issues. As always, if you’d like to reply to the interview, include Holly’s Twitter handle (@misshollyallen) in your replies. Which is ironic since Holly’s last tweet was basically last year around the time of the expose and from all the people who were warning her, she’d basically gotten off Twitter.
You can listen to today’s podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in by clicking the player below:
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Music written by Jimmer Podrasky
(B’Jingo Songs/Machia Music/Bug Music BMI)
Holly joins me to talk about the expose I wrote on Luke last year, how did her relationship start with him (14:20), how serious the relationship got (21:33), what Luke wanted her to do last year once Arie was announced as the “Bachelor” (31:48), were they together or not together when Luke went on Winter Games (38:10), what he told her his reasoning was for doing Winter Games (43:20), hearing from Luke for the first time after Winter Games (50:25), the Winter Games reunion finale disaster and announcing they were together shortly afterwards for damage control (54:55), their breakup announcement in June (1:03:18), how he started treating her (1:12:08), how much she found out about their relationship after the fact (1:16:00), Luke’s new girl, Amanda Mertz, being someone she used to be friends with (1:30:00), and we end with talking about what Luke will do in response to this podcast which ends up being on point (1:48:24).
Facebook – Holly Allen
Twitter – @misshollyallen
Instagram – misshollyallen
As I mentioned in the first paragraph, once the Holly/Luke breakup announcement came through the media outlets in late June, I kinda threw it out there to Holly without knowing her a, “Hey, I’m here if you wanna talk,” never thinking that she’d come on after what happened last year. But shortly after that post, I received this email from her friend:
“Hi Steve,
I’m one of Holly Allen’s close friends. I had a front seat to her relationship with Luke Pell, which is why I’m reaching out to you. I got to know him, and I have been Holly’s sounding board for the craziness that she’s endured for so long. Since she’s always been wary of publicizing their relationship and subjecting herself to public scrutiny, she constantly updated me with photos and details. I read your column about their breakup where you asked her to contact you. I don’t think that’s in her character. She’s very positive and level-headed. I know she really loves his family. And I know she is terrified of hurting people. But she has been hurt. Over and over. I couldn’t just sit back in silence. I have urged her to speak out. Many people have. I don’t think any of her friends liked Luke. We weren’t ok with how he treated her when they were together, and we are certainly not ok with how he’s conducted himself since. Holly has faced a lot of trials and tribulations in her life. She’s been through more than most. So she’s empathetic to a fault. And she stuck by Luke out of love and compassion. But she finally stood up for herself and began calling him on his behavior and then their relationship ended. He’s not used to being held accountable. His fame has given him a free pass to not have consequences for his actions. That is simply not ok.
Originally, it was Holly’s friends who convinced her to go out with Luke. She didn’t know who he was, but everybody thought they were perfect together. She’s our little country girl and Luke’s upbringing seemed to be nearly identical to hers. She’s successful in business, works as a model, but is also a hardworking ranch girl. And he seemed like such a down-to-earth Southern gentleman on TV. And she fell in love with that guy. Sadly, that image couldn’t be farther from the truth. The only thing authentic about him is his accent.
My biggest shock about Luke was his cruelty. The way he speaks about others is spiteful, hateful, and just downright mean. Holly was constantly saying “be nice”. And he was disrespectful to Holly, but that didn’t surprise me knowing what he thought of everyone else. It just seemed like he had a vendetta out for everybody. And he would openly admit to using people in the industry purely to benefit himself. Faking friendships is his forte. Maybe he also gets a high off of the control? Who knows? What I did know was that Holly deserved better. She dated the man for almost a year and a half. Never once did he get her a gift. Not even on Christmas or her birthday. Yet he begged her for months to move to Nashville. She moved in and got a job there. I think he needed her and wanted her validation. But he didn’t give it in return. He didn’t even tell her she was pretty. In fact, he started to criticize her for the way she looked and the way she dressed. He said he’d like if she had breast implants and told her she needed to work out more. He told her she wasn’t physically attractive enough for him. She’s one of the smartest and most genuine friends I have, beautiful inside and out. I hated seeing her hang on to a relationship with a man who I consider to be a vain sociopath. She saw the best in him and I can’t blame her for that. But I saw a man who is utterly obsessed with fame and values no one but himself. And he will go to any extent to keep his fame. He considered other reality shows while dating her and is still obsessed with someday being The Bachelor. He even tried to convince Holly to go on Arie’s season so that she would gain relevancy in Bachelor Nation, go back to dating Luke, and then it would help boost his fame. Of course she shut all of that down. But is this seriously the world we live in?
What I’m not ok with is this. Luke has lied about so many things. He maliciously manipulates situations to benefit himself. He hired a communications coach before going on JoJo’s season so that he’d ensure people would like him and he’d have the best chance at becoming the new Bachelor. Are you kidding me? People make mistakes. Luke doesn’t. He plans things out and manipulates people and situations. The difference is… he is in the spotlight. So he gets away with it. One stint on a reality tv show, and suddenly he isn’t held to the same standards that the rest of us are. He still has his fan base. He still has women Snapchatting him naked photos regularly (he refused to stop allowing that). He still responds to DMs of girls who adore him and shower him with compliments. He lives in a free apartment, walks around in free clothing, and gets paid more than most people’s monthly paychecks just to post a photo on Instagram. I mean, he got a DOG just so he had another revenue stream and he has gotten paid several thousand dollars to post about him. He is selfish. But he’s also blessed beyond measure, yet acts like he deserves it because he’s above everyone else. This celebrity status and narcissist mindset has hurt many people and will only continue to do so.”
That email was pretty eye opening, it got the ball rolling to open up the lines of communication, and here we are today. I applaud Holly for coming on today because she knows she’s going to get sh** for it. You’ll hear towards the end of the interview we even talk about Luke’s next turn and how you know he’ll respond to this by going on a podcast or something. And whaddya’ know. Last night Luke just so happens to post this in his IG story, one day after I said Holly was this week’s podcast guest:
Not surprising in the least bit. We called it. The damage control tour is coming, and what better way than to hop on some religious podcast. It’s all a front. The way you treat people when cameras aren’t around shows more of your character, and you’ll hear in this interview, that’s basically when Luke’s at his worst. Considering what some of his “friends” said when they came to his defense after the Stassi debacle on Winter Games…
…I can only imagine how they’re going to attack Holly. Which is why I give her credit for doing this. She knows it’s coming, but she felt people needed to know the real story, because the guy really isn’t what he’s made out to be. Far from it. As I said on Tuesday, some of the Luke Pell fans who were destroying me last April after that expose, have personally emailed or DM’ed me in the last few weeks since the Holly breakup apologizing to me for what they said while also admitting that Luke had them fooled. It’s pretty eye opening that some of his ardent supporters are now turning on him. That’s what you get I guess when you treat people like garbage.
Holly talks about a lot in this podcast, but here are some of the pictures from their relationship in chronological order, all of which she brings up at some point in the podcast:
Luke’s trip to LA to sign the papers for Winter Games (Nov 2017)
Holly’s bday trip to Temecula right before he admitted to cheating on her with her friend (Jan 2018)
In Pebble Beach with other Winter Games contestants & Chris Harrison for the golf tournament (Feb 2018)
Valentine’s Day while Luke was in LA filming the Winter Games reunion (Feb 2018)
Amanda Mertz w/ Holly in Nashville apologizing and claiming “girl code” swearing she’d never hook up with Luke again (June 2018)
Whether you choose to side with or agree with Holly or not, there’s no need to attack her. She admits she should’ve gotten out of the relationship earlier, she knows she stayed too long, she learned her lesson, and hopefully if it can help at least one person who listens to the podcast to maybe re-evaluate the relationship they’re in, then it was worth it. I appreciate Holly sharing her story and I hope you can too.
“Dr. Reality Steve” emails on Page 2…
