ABC exec Rob Mills breaks it down for ET.
Bachelor Nation is still talking about Tuesday night's explosive finale, which saw Hannah Brown get engaged to Jed Wyatt, break things off after finding out about his girlfriend scandal, and then ask out her runner-up, Tyler Cameron, for a drink. But on Monday night, fans were wondering about the ex-girlfriend drama of another man: Peter Weber.
The 27-year-old pilot was surprisingly sent home by Brown on Monday night's episode following their apparent two times in the windmill. But instead of addressing the breakup claims leveled against Weber by his ex-girlfriend, Calee Lutes, weeks earlier (she claimed to ET that Weber suddenly ended their serious relationship to appear on the show), his time in the hot seat rehashed his relationship with Brown, and ended on a lighter note: her revealing their two times in the windmill was actually four.
Host Chris Harrison previously said he planned to address Weber's drama like he did Wyatt's, so what happened? Rob Mills, ABC Entertainment's Senior Vice President of Alternative Series, Specials & Late-Night Programming, set the record straight during a phone interview with ET's Lauren Zima.
"[It wasn't addressed because] it sort of took away from this is a guy who still has some serious feelings for Hannah and wanted to talk about that and get that closure," he said. "And then it felt like a weird left turn also."
Mills said that he and the producers spoke with Weber about the claims leveled against him. "He was really above board and said, 'Yeah, this is the story, it's true in the fact that we absolutely were dating and it was serious. And I asked her to come out and move out here, and she didn't want to,'" he recalled. "He ended this relationship. 'We'll see what happens, I'm gonna go on Bachelorette and maybe we can discuss things then.' This was over in his mind," he explained.
"He had applied for the show well before he was dating this girl. He was a guy who really sort of loved the show and wanted to apply. I think it was probably a year and a half ago he had applied, and he was in the database and we had reached out to him. The place was right. He was newly single, but he was single. So, it didn't seem like there was really that much to talk about," Mills continued. "I'm glad that now the show's over and he's able to talk about it out in the press."
In her interview with ET, Lutes said she felt "betrayed" by Weber, who cut things off after having met her family, asking her to move in with him and professing his love for her. "He absolutely betrayed me. He interviewed for a reality dating show while simultaneously planning a future with me. I trusted him entirely and he pulled the rug out from under me," she said. "Also, if all of this wasn't bad enough, I've had multiple people reach out to me and tell me that he was seeing other women while we were exclusive."
Weber broke his silence on Lutes' claims on Tuesday, telling People, "The show had absolutely nothing to do with me ending that relationship." "It's obvious that I hurt someone that I really did care about," he added. "That was never my intention. And for that I'm sorry. Breakups suck!"
Though Weber's drama wasn't as serious as Wyatt's (his ex-girlfriend, Haley Stevens, came forward in June, revealing they were still in a relationship while he was on the show... and getting engaged to Brown), Mills agrees that perhaps the best course of action for contestants on the show is to give their exes a heads up that they'll be appearing on it.
"I think it's a really good point. Look, even Peter might agree," he shared. "I think that everybody, no matter what, even if it ended badly or didn't end badly... it's always kind of hard to see somebody dating somebody [on TV]. It's just human nature."
"Already you see it on social media, so national television's gotta be tough. So I think that's a really good point and I think it's something worth instilling in the cast. Get your ex a heads up," he advised.
Join ET's Bachelor Nation Facebook group here.
RELATED CONTENT:
