Kelley Claims The 'Bachelor' Producers Turned Peter Against Her During Filming

Peter and Kelley's relationship on The Bachelor appeared to suddenly fall apart in the middle of the season, and now, she claims that the show's producers are responsible for the Bachelor's change of heart. During an appearance on a recent episode of the Almost Famous podcast, Kelley claimed that Bachelor producers kept her from Peter during filming and that they influenced him in order to convince the pilot to eliminate her before the Hometown dates. Bustle reached out to representatives for The Bachelor but did not receive an immediate response.

When Peter's season began airing, Kelley appeared to be a front-runner to win the pilot's heart — especially because the pair had actually met and hit it off before filming began. However, by the time their one-on-one date in Costa Rica rolled around, Peter seemed to be skeptical about whether or not Kelley was taking the "process" seriously enough, and the lawyer claims that was all the producers' fault. "The first couple of weeks I saw him look at me differently compared to when we got on our one-on-one and I could tell 100% that like producers were in his head," Kelley told hosts Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti on the April 7 episode of their podcast.

"On the one-on-one, nothing happened between us but he had this, like, demeanor toward me that was so pissed off and I was looking at him, like, 'What the hell were you told?'" she continued, explaining that from her perspective, "nothing happened" to inspire such a change of heart in Peter. "And so right then and there, I knew something was going on behind the scenes, and I was like, 'This is bullsh*t.'"

During their date, Bachelor Nation saw Kelley criticize Peter for "rewarding drama" with the other women, while he questioned whether or not she was taking their relationship seriously, all because she thought that dating could be fun. However, the lawyer revealed that fans didn't see her ask Peter to "speak freely" with him about the whole Bachelor experience, and tell him that she felt the producers were interfering with their budding romance.

"[I told him], 'They don’t let me see you. They locked me up in a closet for three hours last week, and they won’t let me see you,'" Kelley recounted, adding that the producers were "push[ing] some people forward" in order to make better television. "It’s just I saw ... things were getting in his head that he wasn’t able to make his own decision and it just kind of pissed me off."

Despite not getting their happy ending on the show — and the fact that Kelley was reportedly "not invited" to the Women Tell All special — it seems like the pair are giving their relationship a second chance. On March 15, Peter and Kelley were spotted out together in Chicago, enjoying a flirty date around the Chicago Riverwalk. In the weeks since, the pair have appeared in several social media posts together, and Peter finally addressed their rumored romance on The Viall Files.

"Are we dating? No. Do I love spending time with her? Absolutely," Peter told Nick Viall during the April 7 episode of his podcast. "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." While Peter and Kelley might be taking it slow with their new relationship, it's clear that they're not hesitating in the slightest to share what really went down behind the scenes on The Bachelor.