This article was originally published on Crafting Your Home. A human contributor also wrote and edited the post.
Julie LaPlaca is adding another layer to the long-running story surrounding her alleged relationship with former “Bachelor” lead Peter Weber, this time claiming that Weber’s mother, Barbara Weber, didn’t just approve of their connection but allegedly gave the pair her full blessing to marry after Weber’s engagement to Hannah Ann Sluss came to an end.
The former “Bachelor” producer shared the claim during an interview with E!’s “Hot Goss” podcast, part of a broader rollout tied to her new memoir, “The Love Producer,” which chronicles her years working behind the scenes on the franchise and her account of a relationship with Weber that allegedly turned physical after his season wrapped production.
The memoir has already sparked significant tension between LaPlaca and Weber in the weeks since its July 7 release, and her latest comments about Barbara have only added another layer to an increasingly public back-and-forth.
LaPlaca Says Barbara Gave Her “Full Blessing” to Marry Peter
According to LaPlaca, her connection with Weber did not become romantic until after filming wrapped on his season, and he had already given his final rose to Sluss.
“After we’re done filming, he gets engaged and then the show starts airing in January,” LaPlaca recounted on “Hot Goss.” “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.”
That New Year’s Eve trip, LaPlaca said, marked the beginning of speculation that would follow her and Weber for years. “Suddenly, people started saying, ‘Are you sure you two don’t end up together?’ These seeds started to be planted,” she said.
Once Weber and Sluss’s engagement publicly ended, LaPlaca claims Barbara made her feelings about the two of them unmistakably clear. “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 gonna be the best in-laws?’” LaPlaca recalled.
LaPlaca said the encouragement from Weber’s family, combined with the public speculation swirling online, made her start to question whether her relationship with Weber was meant to become something more permanent.
“All of a sudden, the whole world was rooting for us to end up together,” she said. “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?’”
Peter Fires Back Against the Memoir’s Revelations
Weber has not responded directly to LaPlaca’s claims about his mother’s alleged blessing, but he has made clear in multiple public statements that he takes issue with significant portions of the book overall.
Commenting on an Instagram post about the memoir last month, Weber wrote, “I’ve moved on from this period of my life and I’m ultimately responsible for my choices. 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.”
Weber also used the comment to push back on LaPlaca’s professionalism during his season, alleging she had influenced one of his most consequential decisions on the show.
“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,’” he wrote. “I find it wrong to mess with a person’s headspace like that and then go on to write a book about them.”
Speaking to TMZ separately, Weber described LaPlaca’s decision to publish intimate details about their relationship as “unforgivable,” adding that he had a recorded conversation in which he had asked her directly to leave him out of the project.
LaPlaca has pushed back on that characterization, telling “Hot Goss” hosts that she believes Weber’s anger stems from unresolved feelings about his season rather than anything specific to the book itself. “My guess is Peter probably has some unresolved wounds from the show that are probably coming back up through all of this,” she said.
For her part, LaPlaca has maintained that writing the book was about reclaiming her own story rather than exposing Weber.
Speaking previously to “The Ben and Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast,” she denied allegations from Weber and former “Bachelor” star Nick Viall that she had acted inappropriately during filming, saying, “I’ve let men hold me back a lot in the past, and I just won’t let them do that anymore.”
She has also said she offered both men advance copies of the book to read before publication, which she claims they declined.
A Family Divided Over Whose Story Gets Told
Barbara Weber has not addressed LaPlaca’s specific claim about giving her blessing for a potential marriage, but she has been vocal in recent weeks about supporting her son through the fallout from the memoir.
On July 11, she posted a photo of Weber to Instagram with the caption, “Lift the NDAs Let Peter Tell HIS Story!” tagging her husband, Peter Weber Sr., and fellow Bachelor Nation alum Renee Halverson-Wright in the post.
The message suggested Barbara believes non-disclosure agreements tied to the franchise have kept her son from sharing his own account of events in as much detail as LaPlaca has shared hers.
LaPlaca has claimed in her memoir that Barbara was actively “praying” for her and Weber to end up together during the period in question, a detail that lines up with the full-blessing story she has now shared publicly.
Whether Barbara’s current public support for her son signals a shift away from that earlier encouragement, or simply reflects a mother defending her son amid renewed scrutiny, remains something only the Weber family can speak to directly.
Ultimately, the situation remains one of competing personal accounts. LaPlaca is sharing her perspective through her memoir and subsequent interviews, while Weber has challenged the publication of intimate details and disputed parts of her portrayal of their relationship.
Barbara Weber’s alleged blessing comes solely from LaPlaca’s recollection of the conversation with her father, and Barbara’s own recent public comments have focused on encouraging her son to share his own version of events rather than confirming or denying the specifics of what LaPlaca has described.
As “The Love Producer” continues to generate conversation across Bachelor Nation, it appears unlikely that this will be the last word from either side.
LaPlaca has continued doing press for the book in the weeks since its release, while Weber’s public statements suggest he has no plans to let her characterization of their relationship go unchallenged.
For now, fans are left weighing two very different accounts of the same chapter in Bachelor history, with Barbara Weber’s alleged blessing serving as just the latest detail fueling the ongoing back-and-forth.
The dispute has also drawn in other figures from Weber’s Bachelor era, further complicating an already tangled narrative.
Nick Viall, who has remained close with Weber since their overlapping seasons, publicly accused LaPlaca of manipulative behavior toward Weber during filming, characterizing her actions as inappropriate given the power dynamic between a producer and a lead still processing an intense, isolating experience.
LaPlaca has firmly rejected that framing, maintaining that whatever developed between her and Weber came from a place of genuine emotional connection rather than any deliberate manipulation on her part.
The stakes of the disagreement go beyond a simple he-said, she-said. LaPlaca has claimed that Weber threatened legal action against her prior to the book’s publication, a claim Weber has not directly addressed in his own public statements.
Whether that tension escalates further as the book continues circulating remains to be seen, though both parties appear to be sticking firmly to their respective positions for now rather than seeking any kind of public reconciliation.
For fans who have followed Weber’s Bachelor journey since his season aired in 2020, the resurfacing of the LaPlaca storyline offers a strange sense of closure paired with fresh uncertainty.
The rumors about a producer romance were never fully addressed at the time beyond a vague non-denial from an ABC executive, and years later, LaPlaca’s memoir has finally filled in many of the details fans had long speculated about.
Whether Barbara Weber’s alleged blessing was ever seriously considered by either Peter or Julie as a real possibility, or was simply an enthusiastic mother’s hopeful comment in a specific moment, remains something only the people directly involved can truly answer.
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