LaPlaca says Peter’s mom Barbara Weber was supportive of their relationship after his engagement to Hannah Ann Sluss ended

NEED TO KNOW

• Julie LaPlaca claims Peter Weber’s mother, Barbara, gave the pair her “full blessing” to marry after his engagement to Hannah Ann Sluss ended
• The former Bachelor producer says their families became close after filming season 24 wrapped
• Her latest comments come weeks after detailing her alleged relationship with Weber in her memoir, The Love Producer

Julie LaPlaca revealed a surprising detail about her relationship with former Bachelor lead Peter Weber, claiming that his mother, Barbara Figarola Weber, once gave the pair her “full blessing” to marry after his engagement on the show ended.

The former Bachelor producer, 41, recalled how she and Weber, 34, grew closer after filming wrapped on season 24 while speaking with E! News, saying their families became intertwined as the reality dating competition prepared to air.

“After we’re done filming, he gets engaged and then the show starts airing in January [2020]. 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. Suddenly, people started saying, ‘Are you sure you two don’t end up together?’ These seeds started to be planted,” LaPlaca explained.

“And then he called off his engagement a few weeks later,” she added.

According to LaPlaca, things became even more complicated after Weber’s split from Hannah Ann Sluss, when Barbara allegedly shared her hopes for the pair’s future with LaPlaca’s father.

“Then our families have met. My dad like went up to teach him golf one day and then after his engagement was done, Barb says 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. “So you could see where it gets confusing for a girl who dreams of her happy ending.”

LaPlaca, 41, said the encouragement from Weber’s family — combined with growing speculation from those around them — left her questioning whether their relationship was destined to become something more.

“All of a sudden, the whole world was rooting for us to end up together,” LaPlaca 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?’”

LaPlaca’s latest comments come weeks after she detailed her relationship with Weber in her memoir, The Love Producer, which was released on July 7. In the book, she writes that the pair developed an emotional connection while filming season 24 of The Bachelor in 2019 before their relationship allegedly became physical after production wrapped.

Weber, 34, has publicly pushed back on LaPlaca’s decision to share details of their relationship. Responding in the comments of The Viall Files’ Instagram post about the memoir, he said he had asked LaPlaca “on multiple occasions” not to include “private, intimate details” in the book.

“I’ve moved on from this period of my life and I’m ultimately responsible for my choices,” Weber wrote. “This wasn’t about a TV show anymore.”

He also alleged that during filming, LaPlaca urged him not to give Sluss, 30, a rose during one of their final one-on-one dates, recalling that she warned he would “look like the biggest idiot in the world to America” if he did.

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“I find it wrong to mess with a person’s headspace like that and then go on to write a book about them,” Weber added, before criticizing former Bachelor host Chris Harrison for writing the memoir’s foreword.

However, LaPlaca claimed Weber was supportive of the book in her E! News interview.

“My guess is Peter probably has some unresolved wounds from the show that are probably coming back up through all of this,” she told the outlet. “When I called him four years later to finally have a vulnerable conversation with him, I’m like, ‘Listen, there’s probably a resentment you hold towards me as a producer and now that I’m out of that world if you want to talk about it I’m happy to.’ ”

“He said, ‘No, no, no, no, I respect the hell out of you,” LaPlaca said. “He even said the best part of the season is me.”

LaPlaca’s recollection of Barbara’s alleged support for their relationship comes just days after Peter’s mother publicly rallied behind her son following the release of The Love Producer. Barbara shared a photo of Peter on Instagram alongside the message, “Lift the NDAs Let Peter Tell HIS Story!”

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