Why Peter Weber and Kelley Flanagan ‘Trauma Bonded’ From ‘The Bachelor’

Peter Weber opened up about the reason why he thinks he and ex Kelley Flanagan connected “right off the bat.”

“I think, honestly, my ex Kelley, we actually kind of admitted we’re like, ‘We were trauma bonded,’” Weber, 32, said during a Saturday, March 2, appearance on “The Ringer Reality TV Podcast.” “We definitely fell in love a couple months into dating and all that. We definitely did. It was a really beautiful relationship before it ended.”

Before Weber began filming season 24 of The Bachelor, he and Flanagan, 32, briefly met. While the pair reconnected on night one of the ABC hit reality series, their relationship hit a speed bump when the producers allegedly tried to keep the duo away from each other.

“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 a hundred percent that like producers were in his head,” Flanagan said during an April 2020 appearance on the “Almost Famous” podcast. “Because on the one-on-one, nothing happened between us but he had this, like, demeanor towards me that was so pissed off and I was looking at him, like, ‘What the hell were you told?’ because nothing happened here for you to have this attitude. And so right then and there, I knew something was going on behind the scenes, and I was like, ‘This is bulls—t.’”

Peter Weber and Kelley Flanagan's Relationship Timeline

Weber sent Flanagan packing during week 7 of the season and got down on one knee to propose to Hannah Ann Sluss during the season’s finale. While Weber ultimately ended his engagement for runner-up Madi Prewett, the twosome decided they were too different to make their romance work.

After both splits, Weber reunited with Flanagan. Us Weekly broke the news in April 2020 that the pair were “fully dating.”

“Peter and Kelley are fully dating, but they aren’t admitting it to people,” a source told Us. “She has been much more careful and has been staying in her house ever since her incident with Peter while walking on the Riverwalk in Chicago and doesn’t want to be criticized all over the internet.”

The former couple went Instagram official in May 2020, but less than one year later Weber announced he and Flanagan had called it quits. Flanagan confirmed in March 2021 that the pair had a brief reconciliation and a Valentine’s Day date but split for good in February.

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In August 2022, the twosome sparked reconciliation rumors when they were spotted in Chicago together. Us confirmed in September 2022 that Weber and Flanagan were “full-on back together.”

“Peter wants to be in a serious committed relationship and his feelings for Kelley never went away,” an insider told Us at the time. “They’re both happy and looking forward to where things go this time around.”

In May 2023, Weber confirmed his split from Flanagan after hinting at his relationship status during an appearance at a beauty convention the previous month. When joking about getting his “legs hair-free” for his “future wife,” he said, “I’ve still gotta find her.”