Bachelor Peter Weber on Being 'in Quarantine' with Kelley Flanagan: We Have 'Good Chemistry'
Bachelor Nation, we’re finally getting some answers about Peter Weber and Kelley Flanagan.
The pilot has been staying with his ex-contestant in her Chicago apartment since last month. During an appearance on Nick Viall‘s podcast, The Viall Files, he explained how the living situation came about amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“She’s always been supportive of me,” he said, according to E! News. “Long story short, I wasn’t working so I thought I’d go out there [to Chicago] and spend some time with her, take her mind off some [family] things. This was right when everything was starting to hit with the quarantine stuff … and it kind of just became a thing where we’ve always gotten along really well, and had really good chemistry. We just enjoy each other’s company.”
As for whether they’re back together?
“Are we dating? No. Do I love spending time with her? Absolutely,” he said. “We’re not dating. Could I see that in the future? Yeah, of course. I’d be extremely lucky and very happy if that happened. Of anyone, I’m the last person that needs to rush into any kind of relationship. I just had an engagement that didn’t work out. I just was trying to pursue things with another woman that didn’t work out. That’s why right now, I’m just taking it really, really slow.”
Weber, 28, also appeared on Rachel Lindsay and Becca Kufrin‘s Bachelor Happy Hour podcast, where the hosts pressed him for more details on where things stand with Flanagan, 27, as they hunker down together. They’re also with Dustin Kendrick, another franchise alumnus from Hannah Brown‘s season of The Bachelorette.
“You said you’re taking it slow and you’re not dating, yet you literally called where you are ‘home’ right now,” Lindsay said. “You said, ‘I’m just making this my home base.’ That kind of sounds fast, to see each other every day. How many bedrooms does Kelley have?”
“We’re in quarantine together!” Weber said with a laugh. “She’s got three bedrooms … we each have our own room. And we’ve got Sophie here too, Dustin’s dog, so we’re having a party. It’s a good time.”
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When Lindsay pointed out that spending 24/7 together isn’t exactly “taking it slow,” Weber acknowledged the unique situation.
“Okay, I understand that. But I will use the defense that we are quarantining together, so we have no choice but to spend all of our time together, and I’m grateful for that,” he said. “Very grateful, because we get along so well. I look up to her and just have so much respect for her.”
But perhaps the most telling moment was when Lindsay asked whether Weber feels like he knows Flanagan better than his ex-fiancée Hannah Ann Sluss and his other finalist Madison Prewett.
“Yes. You get to know someone quick like this,” Weber said. “I’ve definitely gotten to know her very well, everything that kind of makes her tick, and just annoys her, all that stuff. It’s been good.”
At one point, Flanagan herself jumped into the frame to answer a few questions. Asked whether Weber is “better in real life or on the show,” the lawyer didn’t hesitate.
“Oh my God, in real life! Way better,” she said. “I always … stick up for him, like, ‘Some parts of him that you saw weren’t necessarily him.'”
Flanagan, who actually met Weber by chance before his season of The Bachelor, said his off-camera persona is rather different.
“I even used to say on the show — I was like, ‘There’s Peter Weber and then there’s the Bachelor Peter,'” she said. “And they would be like, ‘Can you stop saying that?’ And I was like, ‘No, because it’s true. I met him outside of this and he’s so much cooler than he is on the show.'”
“I guess I’d rather it be that way than vice versa, so, thank you,” Weber said with a laugh.
“You seem happy,” Lindsay told Weber. “You’re different. Thanks Kelley!”
“I told you guys that at the beginning!” Weber said, wrapping one arm around Flanagan. “Yeah, I owe a lot of it to her. She’s been amazing.”
Weber, who lives in Los Angeles, was first spotted with Flanagan in Chicago on March 25. The three hung out along the Riverwalk, an eyewitness confirmed to PEOPLE at the time.
Since then, they’ve turned to TikTok to document their time in isolation, recently posting a “Flip the Switch” video where Flanagan swapped her red dress for Weber’s jeans, t-shirt and baseball cap.
