After spending years behind the camera, former Bachelor and Bachelorette producer Julie LaPlaca is ready to share her own story in her new book, The Love Producer.
“It was a long journey to get here, you know?” Julie, 41, shares in an exclusive interview with Us Weekly before her book hits shelves Tuesday, July 7. “After I left the show, I dealt with a lot of shame and a lot of wounds that I had to confront.”
Following a career in daytime television, Julie had a front-row seat to some of the most dramatic Bachelor Nation journeys to date, working on seasons featuring Ben Higgins, Hannah Brown and Peter Weber, the latter of whom she had her own “fantasy suite” with in the real world after filming.
“Interestingly, the whole experience at The Bachelor and everything that happened was really then the catalyst for me to go on this deeper healing journey and understand my patterns and my blocks in love and relationships and, you know, fear of using my voice and sharing my truth, and so it was a long, healing journey to get here,” she tells Us. “For a while, I was trying to hide behind fiction. For a while, my body was in fight, flight, freeze mode after leaving a show that I’d been at for seven years … and then I ultimately, on my spiritual journey, really got the guidance that was important to share my truth and share my heart, and the hopes to help other women on their journeys as well.”
While at first it was “really hard” to work through some of her feelings of shame surrounding her relationship with Peter, 34, writing her side of the story was “super healing and cathartic.”
“I hid behind fear for a really long time, and when you’re living in a state of fear, it’s really not a good place to be,” she continues, noting that she’s “relieved” fans will finally get to read her perspective. “It’s like there’s been this weight on my shoulders. I think for a while I had, like, a scarlet letter on my back and … it’s super freeing [to leave that behind]. … I’m really glad that, through the writing process, and through sharing my words and my truth with the world, that everyone will know my story, and that I could just put that chapter behind me and step into this new chapter.”
Seven years into her Bachelor Nation stint, Julie — who writes in The Love Producer that she was once asked about becoming the Bachelorette herself — decided to leave the reality TV world behind. The career shift inspired a journey into hypnotherapy, Reiki and other forms of energy healing as Julie chased her own happy ending.
Before departing from the Bachelor franchise, Julie experienced an extreme burnout, which manifested through shocking physical symptoms. Now, her life feels much more peaceful.
“I get normal hours of sleep. I am able to work out regularly. I’ve really gone into a beautiful routine,” she tells Us. “When you’re in the chaos of entertainment in the entertainment industry, it becomes so normalized — this go, go, go, work, work, work [mentality]. Twenty-hour days were totally normal. I didn’t think twice when chunks of hair were falling out of my head, and I was waking up in these piles of sweat. It was just normal, and … I’m still uncovering that it’s not normal, and for my own health and wellness, and mind, body, soul connection, it was important to make those changes.”
Still, pressing pause on her producing career wasn’t an easy choice to make. “It was hard to leave that industry. I constantly wondered, you know, if it was a big mistake,” she says. “Especially when you’re tied to such a big show like The Bachelor, and everyone’s like, ‘That’s the coolest job ever, it’s a dream job.’ … [But] then you’re like, ‘Is it though?’”
The job also seeped into her personal life, with rampant speculation surrounding the nature of her connection with Peter. Following his season 24 journey — Peter was briefly engaged to final rose winner Hannah Ann Sluss before attempting to date his runner-up, Madi Prewett — his friendship with Julie led to a handful of romantic encounters.
While the story Julie shares isn’t all rosy, she has nothing but love for the time she spent with Peter — and how it helped her begin her path to healing.
“I’m finally in a place where I feel really free, and I’m excited for everything that’s unfolded. … He was a big catalyst for me, like, leaving and embarking on my own healing journey, and diving deeper into understanding my patterns with men, you know, why did I always go for Peter Pans, if you will,” she tells Us. “And so, I’m super grateful for him.”
Having been through her own transformation, Julie is ready to be a guide for other women to “help them embody their leading lady energy” and break through their own barriers. This December, she’s hosting her very first retreat at Playa Escondida in Mexico, where Bachelor in Paradise is filmed.
“I’ll be inviting women to come to Paradise with me,” she says. “I’ll be your love producer, and I’m going to bring different love producers that have helped me on my journey, so we’ll have various healers and teachers to do a bunch of different workshops to actually break through those blocks, so you could really attract the love you want from the inside out.”
The Love Producer hits shelves Tuesday, July 7.
