Well yesterday sure was a giant shitstorm, no? I thought today I’d be talking about the spoiler announcement of Zach being the next Bachelor, and that’s taking a double backseat to the breaking Erich’s ex story from yesterday along with the new details I found out about the Rachel & Tino break up. I cover it in the Daily Roundup, and took that segment from the Daily Roundup and cut and pasted it into the intro of my podcast today with BB live feed recapper, Taran Armstrong. If you’re not a podcast person (even though you should be), I have a cliff notes version below of what I said about each situation in the podcast. So scroll down past the two podcast links today if you want to get an idea of what’s going on. Bottom line, neither relationship looks good. One we know is done. The other? Lets just say I can’t imagine things are all peaches and cream there either. After that, a great first podcast appearance from Taran Armstrong, who covers the BB live feeds. Such a good talk with him and he will definitely be on again next summer. Great perspective about the Taylor bullying, the Kyle eviction, and how Michael played the game among other things. Thanks again to Taran for coming on. Enjoy…
You can listen to today’s podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in by clicking the player below:
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts,RSS, Stitcher, Spotify
Music written by Jimmer Podrasky
(B’Jingo Songs/Machia Music/Bug Music BMI)
(SPOILERS) I begin by playing back my Erich ex conversation I had last night & news on the Rachel/Tino breakup from my Daily Roundup earlier today. Then Taran joins me (31:26) to discuss all aspects of this season of “Big Brother.” Does he like the live feeds? How does he think the Kyle situation was handled? What about the Taylor bullying? Who does he think can win? Does he like any of the twists this season? And much, much more.
Twitter – @ArmstrongTaran
Instagram – @taran_armstrong
Today’s Daily Roundup has now been posted and my conversation with Erich’s ex last night, more on the Rachel/Tino breakup, Zach as the Bachelor, and meeting Kaitlyn at her wine launch yesterday.
You can listen to that podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in here:
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts,RSS, Stitcher, Spotify
Music written by Jimmer Podrasky
(B’Jingo Songs/Machia Music/Bug Music BMI)
If you don’t have time or don’t want to listen to either podcast today, here is the cliff notes version of what I reported in them.
My Conversation with Erich’s ex:
-First, to even know why I bothered contacting her, here was the statement and the text messages she released yesterday to @BachelorNation.Scoop:
-Once those were floating out there, I kept getting asked, “Is it legit?,” “What have you heard?” etc. I hadn’t heard anything before yesterday other than rumblings that there was an ex that was going to speak. But until yesterday, there hadn’t been any proof of anything. Once those were released, I contacted her myself because I wanted to dive more in depth.
-Even though she didn’t release her name or face to the IG account, the first thing I asked her was if she wanted her name used or not. She said it was ok because she was already starting to get hate DM’s since somebody posted her name in the comments. Her name is Amanda Kaylor, and her IG is @amandakaylor.
-They met in January of this year on Hinge. Amanda is a single mom and on numerous occasions, Erich spent time with both her and her son. In fact, the whole last week the 3 of them were together.
-He bought her a dozen roses 2 days before he left for filming with a note that said “I’ll never stop thinking of you.” Also had purchased a dozen roses earlier that week.
-His text on March 10th was the first time he’d ever mentioned anything about the “Bachelorette” to her. Going by the fact that the men for Rachel/Gabby’s season was first posted on Wednesday, March 23rd, that was less than 2 weeks before he first mentioned it to her. Meaning he had clearly been in talks with production while they were dating and never mentioned it.
-When he told her about it on March 10th, he expected her to be cool with it. She was not, as you could see in her text response later that afternoon.
-They spent every single day in March together until the last time they saw each other, which she believes was March 12th. At that point, she’d basically told him she wasn’t cool with him doing the show, and that she wasn’t going to wait for him, and ended it.
-Erich did the show, filming ended mid-May, and the only contact he’s had with her was the text he sent the night before the premiere on July 10th, which wished her the best, said he thinks about her all the time, she deserves the best and hopes she finds happiness and love. She understands that was not a text to try and win her back because there hadn’t been any contact from mid-May until then, and hasn’t been any contact since. That text was seemingly something to soften the blow for what was to come since he knew he’d ended up with Gabby, and she told me she believes it was all about making sure she didn’t say anything publicly. It didn’t make any sense to her otherwise why he would’ve sent what he did when he did.
My take: Absolutely shady behavior by Erich and just another example of a guy from this show not being able to be honest with a woman. Did he tell her he loved her? No. Was she his girlfriend? No. Did the relationship only start in January? Yes. I’ve heard all the attacks against her so far, and so has she, and to me none of those hold water. He hung out with her and her son on numerous occasions, asked about her son all the time, and has receipts showing those as well. It shouldn’t matter there was no label and it was only 2.5 months. He was talking to the show behind her back, didn’t tell her until less than 2 weeks before he left, and expected her to be cool with it and wait for him. If Erich addresses this either before the ATFR or at the ATFR and tries to downplay her, she has more receipts to show how much he was into her.
Nobody is accusing Erich of trying to get with her post-show. This was all pre-show. On a smaller level, yeah, I could see where this is eerily similar to Jed. Leading a girl on, telling her all the things she wants to hear, knowing you’re going to leave and go on a show. Not cool at all. And we know that if Erich never ended up with Gabby in the end, he absolutely would’ve tried to go back to her. It’s what he asked her before he left. She does not deserve any hate for this. She has the right to tell her story because Erich made her feel special, told her the things she wanted to hear, then just bolted and expected her to be cool with it. All while a child was involved. Makes no difference that the child probably won’t remember Erich at all when he’s older. That’s not the point. What he did was pretty shitty, and if people can’t see that, I feel bad for them.
The last I’d heard is that Gabby and Erich were still together, but that was last week. I have no idea if/what this revelation from Amanda will do to their relationship. But if the Nate story that I posted got addressed on WTA, I gotta believe this HAS to be brought up on the ATFR in some way. If it lead to a breakup or what, I don’t know. But no way if you’re Gabby and you’re hearing this, whether for the first time yesterday, or if Erich had already given her a heads up, this doesn’t massively bother you. She’s focusing on DWTS now. She’s going to be even more popular once it airs. After the blackface scandal, and now this, is this really a guy she wants to bend over backwards for? Her life, her choices, but man, he just seems untrustworthy at this point at the very least.
Rachel/Tino Breakup:
-I reported last week that Rachel and Tino had broken up post show but didn’t have any details as to why. All I’d heard was that at some point, there was a lull in the relationship, they’d stopped talking or communication was poor, and I was hearing something along the lines of a Ross/Rachel from “Friends” kinda deal. I now have a little more clarity as to what happened.
-At some point after the engagement, Rachel told Tino when she moved to LA she wanted to give back the ring and just date. Why it got to that point with Rachel, I’m not sure. That’s not what Tino wanted, but apparently never told her that wouldn’t work for him because he was afraid he’d lose her.
-After she told him this is when the relationship was murky, communication was poor, and during a night out, Tino kissed another girl. There wasn’t sex, and it wasn’t an ongoing thing. I only say that not to excuse it, because there is no excuse for cheating and breaking trust, but only because yesterday’s reports were Tino “cheated,” but didn’t have any details behind it. That’s one detail I do have, and that it was he kissed another girl. Whether Rachel believes it was only that probably will be brought up. Or anyone else believes that as well, since I’m guessing most don’t. I tried to find out who the girl was. Was told she wants nothing to do with this story, so, I don’t know her relationship with Tino, if it was an ex, a random, or someone he knew from his past. He told her it was a one time kiss. Rachel found out because Tino told her.
-At that point, Rachel ended it with him. That’s the argument we see in the promos. Was told Tino knows he screwed up, has apologized, but Rachel is checked out of the relationship. Doesn’t seem to be any reconciliation coming at the ATFR. My guess based on what I heard is that if Rachel would’ve given it another chance at the time, Tino would want that, but he understood why Rachel made the decision she did. He broke her trust with his actions when he should’ve told her immediately. Not to mention he shouldn’t have cheated in the first place.
-On the ATFR, I’m sure we’ll get a clearer explanation from Rachel as to why she went from wanting the engagement so bad on the show, to saying she wanted to give the ring back and just date. I’m sure there’s more to it. That’s probably the $1 million question at this point. And it kinda explains maybe why Tino’s dad loves going scorched earth on Facebook with all his takes every week – his son’s engagement didn’t work out on the show. Someone needs to take his Facebook privileges away from him for the time being. It’s not helping matters. Doubt I’ll find out any more before Tuesday night when we see both couples live. Needless to say, this could actually be the most dramatic ATFR we’ve ever seen. And that’s no hyperbole.
Send all links and emails to: steve@realitysteve.com. To follow me on Twitter, it’s: www.twitter.com/RealitySteve. Instagram name is RealitySteve, or join my Reality Steve Facebook Fan Page. Talk to you next week.
