[Trigger warning for mention of suicide.]

Dennis
Welcome, everyone.

Dennis
I’m Dennis VanDerGinst here, as always, with the lovely Dana Watkins. Before I introduce today’s guest, I want to remind you all to please subscribe and like Uncommon Convos and check us out at uncommonconvos.com.

Dennis
And speaking of, we are going to have a great conversation today with Jessie Henry, probably better known to fans of The Bachelor franchise as Jessie Sulidis. Jessie was on season 14 of The Bachelor. That was the On the Wings of Love season with the pilot, Jake Pavelka.

Dennis
And then she was a special guest on Ali’s Bachelorette season. She was also a contestant on The Bachelor Pad, making her the first and perhaps the only person to do all three versions of the franchise. Since then, she’s been able to spin her popularity on the show into opportunities as a red carpet correspondent, host on ET Canada and E-Talk on The Bachelor. And she’s now the owner of A Runway Bride, which does mobile hair and makeup and also owns and operates Cosmetco, a successful cosmetic company.

Dennis
She’s married to a former professional hockey player, Jordan Henry, and they have two beautiful kids, Jenson and Jet. I met Jessie many years ago when she and another Bachelor fan favorite, Gia Allemand, participated in some charity events I’d sponsor. And I guess Wes Hayden from The Bachelorette, was that one of those as well.

Dennis
And we’ve kept in touch via social media, but it’s been several years since we’ve been able to see each other. So I’m so happy to have you here, Jessie. Welcome, and how are you?

Jessie
Well thank you. I’m doing great. It’s good to see you again.

Dennis
It’s good to see you, too. And is my math right? Didn’t you just have your second baby, Jet, four or five months ago?

Jessie
Yeah, he’ll be five months tomorrow.

Dennis
Oh, my gosh, and how old is Jenson?

Jessie
Jensen’s going to be two tomorrow as well.

Dennis
Wow.

Dana
Oh wow.

Jessie
Their both 26 babies. Yeah.

Dennis
Oh wow.

Jessie
March 26 and October 26.

Dennis
Crazy. And, and by the way, I see what you did there with the Jordan, Jessie, Jenson, Jet, all Js.

Jessie
Oh yeah, we’re all Js.

Dennis
We were all Ds in my family. Well, siblings were. So how did you get back into shape so quickly then? I’m sure that was going to be a lot of people who tune in via video that are going to be very envious of how you can rebound in five months like that.

Jessie
I’m naturally a thin person, but I’m definitely nowhere where I was before. I’m just skinny and not, not toned is what I would call it. But it’s, you know, it’s Covid times, so all of our gyms are closed and the only workout, I’m upper body right now from lifting the kids. So I only have arm muscles. No, leg muscles.

Dennis
Well, and we’re just doing the video from waist up anyway, so we’re all good as far as that goes.

Jessie
So you can’t tell.

Dennis
Well, you know, we’ve been trying something a little strange in the last several, several episodes of Uncommon Convos. We’re asking the guest to ask themselves the first real question. So you can ask yourself an easy question or a hard one, but then you’re going to have to answer that question. So what question do you want to ask yourself?

Jessie
So I guess what’s most suiting for the times right now is what I learned going through lockdown and Covid. Because this is kind of a curveball that nobody really saw coming into their lives.

Jessie
And, you know, here in Canada, we’ve had several lockdowns. And it just seems like every couple of months we had stay at home orders, and just life hasn’t been the same. And especially having two kids in the house at the same time. It’s, you learn, you get creative. It really makes you get creative because you’re, it’s winter and you’re trying to find activities for your kids to do so they don’t drive you crazy.

Jessie
And a lot of, a lot of ways to realize how important family and friends are because you can’t see them.

Dana
Yeah.

Dennis
Right.

Jessie
And also, a lot of people have had to reinvent themselves because some people’s careers have had to completely shut down and businesses. So it’s, it’s amazing to see how people have been able to kind of pivot and start new careers and start new hobbies through this that you wouldn’t have had the opportunity to before.

Dennis
Right. Has that happened with you? I hear the kids in the background.

Jessie
Yes, he’s noticed I’m in the basement and he’s not now he’s…

Dennis
Now he wants to be in the basement. That’s right. So is that something that you’ve had to do with the pandemic? Pivot and kind of change things up as far as career and family and things of that nature?

Jessie
So for me, we just had to, it was scary at first because all of our business for my cosmetic company came to a halt and nobody kind of knew what to do last March April. So we didn’t have any orders in March and April. So I’m terrified. I have the three thousand square foot warehouse.

Jessie
But then because most of my clients are the schools, so we do a lot of the cosmetology and esthetic programs, we provide the makeup kits. So then everybody kind of had to, like, reinvent how we’re going to provide content and learning. So everything went online, but students still need kits. So for me, I was able to continue providing the makeup kits and our services and delivering it now to the students.

Jessie
So, yeah, there was definitely a little bit of a pivot, but I’d say the biggest was for my husband because he went into retirement from playing hockey and into a full time caregiver now. So he’s the one that’s staying home with our son, Jett, while, I’m going to work. And he comes in and helps as well. So we’ve kind of have to juggle bringing two kids to work and managing it ourselves.

Dennis
Oh, yeah. That’s got to be a big change for him, I’m sure, especially.

Dana
Did he go into…

Dennis
Go ahead.

Dana
But did he go into retirement because of the pandemic? Or had he already planned on it?

Jessie
He was always going to go into retirement just because I was due to give birth in October and there’s no way that I could have the two kids at home with him being on the road all the time and run my business. So it was, it was OK with one because I just made it work. But with two it’s, and especially two under two, it’s impossible.

Dennis
Yeah, sure. Well, and we’ll probably revisit, I’m sure we will, revisit the business and what you’re up to nowadays. But, you know, most of the people who are listening in or who are watching probably know you from The Bachelor franchise. But obviously you had a life before that. And I mentioned to you yesterday when we were talking that I was, even though I’ve known you for a long time, I didn’t know a lot of of your background, you know, prior to The Bachelor.

Dennis
So I want to talk a little bit about that, because I think it’s interesting to find out, you know, what a person who goes onto a reality show like The Bachelor, you know, what, what what their life was like prior to that. So I was interested in finding out that you were involved in gymnastics, I guess, from a young age, gymnastics and dance. What was, how’d that play into your life?

Jessie
So, yeah, when I was about four, my parents enrolled me in just like basic gymnastics and right away they moved me to the competitive team. And then from there on, I ended up in provincial level gymnastics competing. And then they had recommended, just to help with my floor routine and just to help with grace on the balance beam, they always encourage their gymnasts to take dance.

Jessie
And then I liked dance more than I like gymnastics. So I ended up quitting gymnastics and then going into competitive dance for years.

Dennis
At some point you competed in something called the Miss All Canadian Talent Search. Is that…

Jessie
Yes.

Dennis
A pageant, I guess, what is that?

Jessie
Is it the, you talk about the Miss Indie or the Miss All Canadian?

Dennis
No, this was Miss All Canadian that I that I was reading about that I guess as a result of being in that you signed with an agency is what I understood.

Jessie
Yes. So I was scouted by a local talent agency in the area. And then I was, the next thing I knew what I was and all the fliers, the catalogs and music videos and movies. And whatnot, TV shows.

Dennis
OK. So what age were you at this at the time that you get spotted by a talent agency because of being on…

Jessie
I want to say like eight or nine?

Dennis
OK, and then, so now you enter that that that kind of strange, from the outside, what appears to be kind of a strange life of a child, actor, right? Or child performer. And I understood that you were in a few different movies. Robocop, the Santa Clause, some commercials, It Takes Two, et cetera, how, how’d that all evolve?

Jessie
That was all through my agent. My, I just remember my mom would go to all the sets with me, just to kind of keep me, keep her eye on me and make sure that your kids don’t get sucked into to that kind of scary world that that path could go down.

Jessie
But, yeah, I remember having my own trailer for Robocop and I thought it was so cool because I had my own name on the door.

Dana
That is cool.

Jessie
And I had to take… Pardon?

Dana
No, I just said that is cool.

Jessie
Yeah. And I had to take time off school, so I thought that that was the best part of it. And yeah, it is it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of long days because as a child, I think it was only eight hour days that we’re allowed to work. But that’s a long time to be on set for, you know, for an eight year old kid.

Jessie
Yeah, it was it was I met so many different people and actors, actresses. I remember meeting Tim Allen. I’d watched him on, what is it? Tim the Toolman?

Dennis
Tool Time. Toll Time.

Dana
We were just talking about that.

Jessie
Tool Time Tim.

Dennis
Yeah. Yeah.

Jessie
Yeah. So there’s a lot of, and I got to meet the actual Robocop, so yeah, it was a lot of cool perks out of it.

Dennis
Very cool. So you mentioned your mom and, you know, you hear the horror stories about the stage moms. Was your mom like that? Was she pushing you?

Jessie
No. She was more, she let me have fun with it. And, you know, the the hardest part was her teaching me how to properly smile because I thought just by showing my teeth, I was smiling.

Dennis
That doesn’t work?

Jessie
No I’d just did this. She’s like that’s not smiling.

Dennis
You know, most people are listening via podcast, but you’ll have to tune in and watch the video just so you can see Jessie’s showing her teeth. That’s worth that’s worth the video just by itself.

Jessie
But she would like put everything into it. So, like, if there was like a talent portion of a contest, she would hire, privately hire my gymnastics or my dance coach to put together a routine for me. So it was a lot of fun doing it together.

Dennis
That’s pretty cool. Now, you mentioned the long workdays. Did you also have to have a tutor? I mean, you have to take class during that time, or was that during, you know, like the off season for school?

Jessie
Yeah, so when I was in school, they would just send the work home and I would do it like in between like, being on a movie set, there’s a lot of downtime where you’re sitting in the trailer waiting for them to call you for the next shot. So we would, me and my mom would just do it together in the trailer.

Jessie
I remember her helping me. Like if I had book reports, she would she would be helping me and almost writing my book report for me, just because I’d be, sometimes I’d be so exhausted at the end of the day that I just didn’t have it in me. Yeah, it was it was tough doing both for sure.

Dennis
Did you did you feel like you missed out on anything as far as not being actually in school during the time you were doing that type of work as a child actor?

Jessie
Yeah, I felt that I didn’t have as many friends in my school. I had friends in my neighborhood that I grew up with on the street. But I guess having friends at school was not till high school, I don’t think I really had like a solid group of friends.

Dana
So when did you stop doing that?

Dennis
Yeah.

Jessie
When I got to high school.

Dana
Did you want to stop?

Jessie
It was probably the second year of high school just because there was a lot of bullying from the older girls in my high school over magazine pictures. They would bring in the flyer that they would find with my picture in it and poke holes and throw it at me.

Dana
Aww, that’s too bad.

Jessie
They would call me, they were terrible to me. So it kind of pushed me out of that because I just didn’t want the attention of the older girls harassing me. But the funny story to that is as much as they were terrible to me throughout high school, they, the most like the majority of the girls that did bully me, all apologized outside of high school, while we were all in college.

Jessie
They all, if I’d run into them at a party, or I’d run into them, you know, at an event, they they would, took the time to apologize and talk about how terrible they were to me.

Dennis
Did you feel that was sincere or was it because you at that point had attained some level of fame that they felt they had to show you a bit more respect?

Jessie
Maybe a little bit of both? A little bit about it was coincidentally right after I won the Miss Indie contest that the apologies started coming in.

Dennis
Right. And I want to talk about that. But before talking about that, since we’re talking about high school right now, you and I spoke briefly yesterday and I mentioned that I was completely unaware, and all the time that I’ve known you and the events that we’ve done together, that for some period of your life during those high school years, you were actually performing as a singer.

Dennis
And and and I guess, you mentioned that Jordan isn’t much of a fan of your singing voice nowadays.

Jessie
No, not anymore. My sons are. My sons love my voice.

Dennis
Well, of course they do, of course. So I guess when was it that you developed this affinity for singing and performing in that way? And how did, what I’m getting at is I understand that you had toured throughout North America in this company that did, it was tributes to various performers, right? So how did that all come about?

Jessie
So kind of like everything else in my life where I had an idea one day and my mom’s like, OK, I’ll throw you into a lesson. So she put me in singing lessons because I decided that I wanted to be Britney Spears. And after about six months of singing lessons, there was auditions to do tribute singing.

Jessie
So I auditioned. And being a dancer, like growing up, I kind of had a little bit of a head start than some of the other girls that were auditioning to be Britney because Britney was a dancer. So yeah. And we sang along with the music, like the vocals were lowered. So I was singing with, with the music, with Britney’s voice lightly in the background.

Jessie
And, yeah, we, I did all the choreographed routines. I still know some of the routines by heart. And yeah, it was a lot of fun. We we traveled all over.

Dennis
And how many performers were in this troupe that would travel and in this in this tribute type fashion?

Jessie
Well, it was me. I was the fake Britney. There was a girl, Priscilla, who was Christina Aguilera. And then there were five guys that were the NSync and they were called SyncIn.

Dana
Did you ever meet Britney Spears? Were they aware of you guys?

Jessie
No, no, I’m sure there’s like a million different tribute artists, but that would have been a dream come true to meet Britney Spears. Still would be.

Dana
Yeah.

Jessie
But yeah, it was so much fun. And we would travel all over Canada. We came to the US for a bit and yeah, it was great. I was so young at the time and everybody else was like, you know, in their late 20s. So they kind of looked after me. I, I think I was like 17 when I went on these trips.

Dennis
So would, would your parents have to travel with you, your mom or any guardian?

Jessie
My mom did. So anything that was that was far. Like she didn’t come to New Orleans, though. But most of the ones that were like in like like southern Ontario, northern Ontario, she would come with me.

Dennis
So she didn’t go to New Orleans, probably the one place you needed to have a parent or guardian more than anything.

Jessie
She would have wanted to go, yeah. But she knew I was illegal there, so she’s like ahh, can’t get in any trouble there.

Dennis
That doesn’t stop you. That doesn’t stop anything in New Orleans. That’s the problem. So you were 17, you said, about the time that you were doing that. And why did you end that?

Jessie
I don’t really know, to be honest. I guess sort of like high school ended and then I went into, I was going into college, so I thought that might be a little bit strange for me to have as my side job, like being in college, but also dressing up as Britney Spears.

Jessie
And then I also started, I did the Molson Indy. So when I was 19 is when I entered the Molson Indy contest here in Toronto and then ended up winning and getting to go to Australia. And then I became the face of the series, basically. And for the next two years I got to be like the media ambassador. I traveled to a bunch of the races. Did like all the media events with the drivers, and I just fell in love with the sport and that kind of took a new career for me.

Dennis
For those of us who are not Canadians that are listening in, and may not be familiar with the Molson Indy or who are not necessarily race car drivers, can you explain what the Molson Indy Pageant is and and what it was, what your position was and all that?

Jessie
So it’s the same thing as you guys have. So this you guys have the Grand Prix of Cleveland.

Dana
OK.

Dennis
I believe you.

Jessie
That’s one of the races that we did at the Burke Airport. So it was, it used to be Champ Car, but now it’s the IRL, the Indy Racing League. It’s the same league. They had, they merged. And then now it’s just the IRL. And so we, me and Scott Dixon, do you know that name?

Dennis
Hmm, I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t admit that I do or I don’t, because there are, I’m probably, I’m probably alienating people in the audience who are like, what the hell? Why does he not know who this is? Yeah, but this is…

Jessie
Hélio Castroneves. He was the one on Dancing with the Stars.

Dennis
Sure. Yeah. No, I do.

Jessie
He races there.

Dennis
OK, all right. And so you traveled as an ambassador for the league to, what? To the various races and events that were sponsored by the league?

Jessie
Yeah, basically, all, like the majority of the races are in the US, so like I was in. Where were we? Cleveland, Texas, basically, Raod America. Everywhere. Indianapolis. We were in San Jose. Denver, Colorado. Basically like kind of spread out all over and then we did go, there’s two races in Mexico, two in Canada, and at the time there was one in Australia.

Dennis
Nice. And this was during college years?

Jessie
Yeah.

Dennis
And this is what, I was going to say, this is what prompted your friends from high school to now start treating you right and apologizing for how they’ve acted?

Jessie
Yeah. My face was everywhere. All in the newspaper.

Dennis
Yeah. Now, at some point, you also were doing more in the way of of modeling, and some more acting. Is that kind of simultaneous with this or was there kind of an end to the Molson Indy and did that propel you into the modeling or how that work?

Jessie
Yes, that kind of opened a door to bikini modeling, and I did a bunch of like the swimsuit editions that are here in Canada. I did a bunch of those. A lot of fashion shows. So the swimsuit edition was so much fun because we got to travel as we went to the Dominican. We went to St. Maarten.

Jessie
We went to, where else did we go? Just like a bunch of tropical destinations to shoot, and then we went up to our cottage country that, that is kind of like your Hamptons. It’s called Muskoka up here in Canada.

Dennis
And again, was this like during your college years?

Jessie
Yeah, college years, yeah.

Dennis
So sounds to me like you couldn’t have got much study done. Where were you going to college?

Jessie
So I went to college at Humber and my program coordinator and dean the best with me. So I started the public relations program with the college, and they let me do, I did it basically from, from Indianapolis, but I lived there for a year. And I would still do all the work. But then I was getting, I was doing the PR for one of the race teams, so I was getting actual industry experience.

Dennis
So it was like an internship.

Jessie
Yeah, exactly, and I got paid for it, so I was getting paid in US dollars, which I was happy about. And yeah, it was just it was great then. But the dean let me let me do this. He bent the rules for me to carry on.

Dennis
I’m sure that’s not going to raise any eyebrows or envy for some of your friends.

Dana
Or people there now.

Dennis
So as you’re doing the modeling, I know you were also doing some, like music videos and things of that nature. Do you have any good stories about partying with the rock stars or the country stars that you were, you know, hanging out with.

Jessie
Oh, yeah, we, so I don’t know if he’s popular in the US, but our Canadian artist, Joée, I was in his music video, and my mom’s best friend was his makeup artist. So that was always a lot of fun. SoulDecision, the Moffatts. Aaron Carter, I was in one of his videos, and he actually ended up asking me for my phone number. It was so funny and yeah. And I missed the call. Of course, my parents answered the phone and I get home, this was when I was, ages ago, in my teens.

Jessie
I get home, my dad’s like some Aaron kid called.

Dennis
Aww.

Jessie
I’m like oh thanks.

Dana
Dad.

Dennis
So you, so you never ended up going out with him?

Jessie
No, I never heard from him again after that.

Dennis
He’s like one chance, that’s all you get, right?

Jessie
Yeah. And then, Lone Star, I used to party with often because I used to date the lead singer. Not the older gentleman. They had a new, younger singer come in when Rich went off and he did a solo career. So then I was always hanging out with Lonestar and spent a lot of time in Nashville.

Dennis
Just living that jetset lifestyle, it sounds like.

Jessie
Yeah, it was it was a lot of fun.

Dennis
And then I know you did a couple of movies, and ah, I’m not sure what your role was because I could, I found the movies but I couldn’t get I couldn’t get them to stream for me. But Shark City, which I know had Vivica Fox among other people. And then there was a Disney movie, the Camp Rock 2, with the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato. Yeah. How did those come about, and what’d you do in those movies?

Jessie
So those I was just an extra in. The only big, Shark City I had a role, so I was Banana Girl. So basically I was just a typical girl in a yellow dress at the bar and you know the main character came in and we hit it off and made out at the bar. And that was basically my role.

Dennis
Nice.

Jessie
That was a lot of fun, to be on that set, because I became really good friends with the producer and the lead actor. And we’re still friends to this day. So it’s, it’s a lot of fun.

Dennis
I was going to say it’s a good thing I didn’t know this back in the day when we did our events together, because I would have been introducing you all the time as Banana Girl.

Jessie
It’s so funny because most of my friends that are actually going to be listening to this podcast, don’t know any of this about my life. Because I just never talk about that sort of stuff. They only know me from when they met me and on. The only people who would kind of know this…

Dana
Does it seem like a lifetime ago?

Jessie
Yeah, it does. I still can’t believe I’m going to be thirty seven this year.

Dennis
Oh, you’re so damn old girl.

Dennis
Wow, I went by the way, those of you, her friends who are either listening or watching, I want you to start calling her Banana Girl from now on.

Jessie
Haha. Banana Girl. Better than some of the names they already call me.

Dennis
Probably true. So did you get to, did you get to hang out with the Jonas Brothers?

Jessie
Not the Jonas Brothers, no. But like through Shark City, that movie that I was in because I knew the producers so well, he took me, the lead actor, David Phillips, and Viveka was actually with us. And we did Toronto film festival. And we did, like all the parties with, Philip Seymour Hoffman was at one of the parties we were at. And he was standing right beside me. So we were like, with Jamie Kennedy was also, went for dinner with us. That was my birthday dinner, which because my birthday, always fell during film fest. So they all took me out to dinner for my birthday. It was just really cool, like I was hanging out with all these celebrities.

Dennis
Yeah, I mean, you get to say you hung out with Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jamie Kennedy, and Vivica Fox, and Dennis VanDerGinst and…

Dana
Well, what about Bill Murray? Was he there?

Jessie
No, but I wish. He’s like a character and a half.

Dana
Yeah, he’s my best friend.

Jessie
Is he?

Dana
He doesn’t know it, but, yeah.

Jessie
Yeah. Mine was, so my big thing was Channing Tatum.

Dana
Oh. Uhh huh.

Jessie
And I got to interview him on the red carpet and I don’t know how I kept it together, but it’s so funny. If you look at the pictures of me interviewing him, I’m just like…

Dana
Were you like out of body? Like not even knowing what was going on?

Jessie
Yeah, I was just like, holy shit. Can we swear in here?

Dana
Yes.

Jessie
I couldn’t believe it. He was like, just as gorgeous in real life and the nicest human being. His publicist shot me down. I asked if I could interview him and his publicist said absolutely not, because I wasn’t a big enough name to be interviewing him. And he completely ignored her. And he says, he’s like, sure, I’d love to talk to you.

Dana
That’s so great.

Dennis
Of course he did.

Jessie
And did like a 15 minute, yeah, I did a 15 minute interview with me and I was like, take that lady.

Dennis
So and we’re going to get a little bit to some of your your work as a correspondent on the red carpet. But, you know, it probably would make sense to talk a little bit about how most people know you, which is The Bachelor. You’ve done all this, yeah. You did all this work as far as modeling and performing and and, you know, jet-setting that you’ve described.

Dennis
And then along comes this little show, The Bachelor. How did that come about? Were you asked to audition? Did you kind of reach out, or your agent, you know, steer in that direction? What happened?

Jessie
So it’s funny. I had never watched the show before. My mom did. My mom and all of her girlfriends would watch it every Monday night at her, at my parents place, but I’d never watched it. And then I get a call one day from a producer saying that they’re from The Bachelor franchise and they received an application. An anonymous, anonymous application with my name on it.

Jessie
And I thought that I was being pranked. Like my friends, friends were calling me because that’s just like what we do to each other. So I I took the bait and I went along with it. And then I realized when they asked me to Skype, I was like, oh, they’re really taking this up to the next level. So I did a Skype interview and it was actually The Bachelor production team.

Jessie
We did a, so I don’t know who nominated me. Somebody did as a joke and I just went with it.

Dana
Or was it your mom?

Jessie
Maybe, but she never admitted to it.

Dennis
That’s funny. And probably whoever it was, if they did it as a joke, they’re probably kicking themselves, going, why didn’t I do it myself? But, yeah.

Jessie
Yeah, right?

Dennis
So you do this Skype. Did it, did that lead to a vetting process, you know, beyond the Skype? Did you have to come in for interviews or auditions or they just said, hey, yes, we like you.

Jessie
What I had to do, so they sent like a questionnaire out and you had to fill it out or not, and then you had to do a video self tape and you had to answer certain questions in this self tape. And then the last one was talk about or show one of your talents, like if you knit, or if you cook. And I’m like, I don’t do either. So I decided what my talent was, was dancing.

Jessie
So at the time, the Single Ladies dance was very popular. So I put on a unitard and I did the Beyonce Single Ladies Dance, and apparently that was a hit. And when I went, they flew me, a couple weeks later, to L.A. to meet with them and they made me do the dance again when I got there. Apparently I was the talk of production.

Dennis
I think we should make you do it right here, now. Dana, you can sing it and she can dance to it.

Dana
Oh God. Nobody wants to hear that.

Dennis
So anyway, this is like 2010, 2011. Something along those lines?

Jessie
It was like 10 years ago. Yeah.

Dana
I think it was 2010.

Dennis
OK, so by the way, for those in the audience who may not be familiar with The Bachelor, and I can’t imagine there are many or any, tell, tell us what what is The Bachelor all about? How does it, how does it work?

Jessie
So there was, on my season, there was 30 women there vying for the love of one man, Jake Pavelka, and it was a series of dates that you go on group dates or one on ones. And we all lived in the house together.

Jessie
And, yeah, we just traveled all over. And basically all of us were dating one guy that ultimately at the end he chose one of us and proposed to, and then they broke up.

Dennis
Now, was there was there money for the woman who gets proposed to?

Jessie
No, so there’s no money to be on the actual Bachelor, but there is if you become the next Bachelorette or if you go on to like Bachelor Pad or Bachelor in Paradise, there is money per episode.

Dennis
Did you get paid… Oh, I’m sorry, Dana. Go ahead.

Dana
No, that’s OK. I’ve always thought that that would be a horrible situation to be in as a woman. I mean, what was that like for you?

Jessie
Well, for me personally, I didn’t really like our bachelor, so I, I didn’t care as much. I wasn’t really fussed about, that’s not my style either to go talk about like, whenever he’d walk in the room, they’d want all of us to jump up and run and swoon, and that’s just not my style. I’m a lot more laid back.

Jessie
And so I don’t think that I was really cut out for that show because I really didn’t care to go interrupt the women to try to, I wouldn’t chase after a guy. That’s just not me. And I feel like that’s what a lot of you have to do on this show to get time. And I feel like, because I didn’t do that, I didn’t really, I still, there’s like five girls left after I went home.

Jessie
But, yeah, I didn’t, I wasn’t really into him and I, I didn’t know that he was a bachelor. So at that point when I had flown in and we were in the hotel, so for five days, you stay in the hotel and you don’t know who the bachelor is. And that’s where they you can only leave to do like interviews. And that’s where they do all this stuff that kind of leads into the season, the intro packages.

Dana
Yeah.

Jessie
So the first time that we knew who it was was, I think it was like before we went to the cocktail party. So they had told me I was either going to be Kiptyn, Reid, or Jake. And I was like, oh, God, I hope it’s not Jake. That’s who it ended up being.

Dennis
So you actually meet several people before they start filming the show itself and you don’t know which one is going to be The Bachelor?

Jessie
You don’t meet the contestants.

Dennis
Pardon me?

Jessie
You don’t meet the contestants. You only meet the production team.

Dennis
OK, but you you knew of these three guys, including Jake.

Jessie
Yes. So the production team told us.

Dennis
I got you. OK, so, you know, it’s funny you mentioned about how to get kind of the airtime you have to be fairly aggressive and make yourself so available to the bachelor. I’m sure you’ve seen and I hope the audience has seen, some of the spoofs on Saturday, Saturday Night Live, where they’re making fun of The Bachelor and they have, you know, these women talking one on one.

Dennis
And then somebody comes along and is like, can I steal him for a minute? They sit down and shove the other girl out of the way. You know, I’ve seen, I think most people have seen at least some episodes of The Bachelor. I have seen some. And and of course, when I met you and Gia I tuned in a little bit more and when you guys were on the Bachelor Pad, checked out some of that. But but I wasn’t an avid viewer, but it seemed like there was a formula that they applied to every episode where they had to have some drama erupt to between some of the girls.

Dennis
And and I know there’s also The Bachelorette, which we’ll talk about in a second. But, you know, it was almost, it was kind of sexist, it seemed, because they really wanted to have that catfight, you know, show up every every episode at some point.

Jessie
Especially on this season. I don’t know if you just watched the season that passed, it was the worst to watch for the women drama. Like they were so brutal to each other that it was really hard to watch.

Dennis
Was that real? I mean, this this friction that that they show? Did that really exist or was that made for TV type drama?

Jessie
I’m sure it was becuase you can’t really make it up. Like on my season, all of us were really good friends except for Vienna. She was the only outcast. Oh, and Michelle, too. The only outcasts of all the other women. All of us got along. We still keep in touch. We would get together for reunions after being on the show. We did reunions for years, where we’d all meet in Chicago or we all would meet in Vegas. And we’d do it twice a year.

Jessie
And it was a lot of fun. We did it with some of the other seasons as well. So there’d be like a couple people from different seasons and Bachelor and Bachelorette. So a lot of fun.

Dennis
Now you mentioned Vienna. Was she the one who won that year? That season?

Jessie
Yeah.

Dennis
OK, now you you also mentioned that they would be the proposal and then they’d break up. I actually checked out the Wikipedia page of The Bachelor, or The Bachelor franchise, and they were, the, they had a listing there of who The Bachelor and the winning, you know, woman would be each year and then what came of their relationship. And it’s funny that you said that.

Jessie
Yeah, the statistics on. Yeah.

Dennis
It’s like they stayed together for four days and then they broke up. They stayed together for three months and then they broke up. Well, did anybody ever get married?

Jessie
There’s a few, yeah, like I’m actually shocked by Ashley and J.P.’s announcement of the ending of their marriage. I thought that they were going to be one of the ones that stayed together. Desiree and Chris are still together, I believe. Trista, Ryan. Jason and Molly. Jordan and Jojo. They’re actually my favorite together, Jordan and Jojo. She’s probably my favorite bachelorette.

Jessie
And I don’t know any of the other ones that are still together besides like, well, Rachel’s, I forget the guy that she chose.

Dennis
But some people did find love then?

Jessie
Yes, some people did.

Dennis
Yeah.

Jessie
But the majority didn’t.

Dennis
Do you think the majority of people expected to or actually wanted, for instance, when you went on, let’s say you didn’t know it was going to be Jake who you obviously didn’t have much of an interest in to begin with. But were you hoping that when you when you were applying and finding out that you get this opportunity, were you hoping that you were actually going to find love on national television?

Jessie
I don’t know so much hoping, I just thought it was going to be a good experience, and who knows, maybe you did fall in love out of it or, but I did it mainly for the experience and just not knowing the outcome. Like I was 24 at the time, so I can’t say that I, my head was thinking about getting married and settling down. Like I was 28 when I met my husband. So I don’t think that I was really in the headspace at that time. But like you just never know, like so, when somebody, the right person is going to walk in your life.

Dennis
Now you mentioned other relationships, having developed friendships that you maintained after the show, you continued to have reunions. You you actually connected with some of the cast from other other seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. And I know I mentioned at the at the onset of the episode today that I met you with Gia Allemand, who was another fan favorite from your season.

Dennis
And in fact, I don’t remember if, I think it was Gia that I talked to first about participating in our fundraising effort. And she, I believe, said you got to bring Jessie on board to, and which of course, we did. And then also then Wes Hayden. And we’ll talk about him in a second. But so you obviously developed a fast friendship with Gia.

Jessie
We did, yeah. It was after Bachelor and Bachelor Pad and I, I actually went to New York a bunch of times and stayed with her at her apartment and we would go out and she showed me the city. She came to Toronto a few times and stayed with me. We had a really good relationship.

Dennis
And you came…

Jessie
Actually when she met… Sorry?

Dennis
No, go ahead. Go ahead. Sorry.

Jessie
So when she met her boyfriend, Ryan Anderson, the basketball player, is when I had just met my husband, Jordan, and we met in Florida and we did Disney together as couples.

Dennis
On my dime, if you recall. Remember?

Jessie
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. We were both there.

Dennis
Yeah, that’s right.

Jessie
Yeah. And then we, I never, her boyfriend got, knew one of the the owners of one of the restaurants at Epcot in Disney and shut down the place. And we like to go in and have a dinner, just the four of us, it was pretty cool.

Dennis
Yeah. Yeah.

Jessie
You were there the weekend me and my husband really were an item.

Dana
Aww.

Dennis
See, I mean, I remember meeting Jordan at that time, I didn’t realize it was that new, and Ryan as well.

Jessie
Yeah, it was brand new.

Dennis
Yeah. So yeah. And of course, you and Gia had also been to the Quad Cities for our our first event together. And then we had that and you actually, you and you and another friend of yours came back to the Quad Cities for another event. I wasn’t at that one. The party that we had done.

Jessie
Oh, Leah. My girlfriend Leah.

Dennis
That’s right. Yeah.

Jessie
We were on that boat. We went on that nice…

Dennis
Yeah, that’s right.

Dennis
Well, we won’t talk about all that stuff. But but but yeah. So but it’s interesting to know that that’s when you you and Jordan first I guess, got together and started hanging out. But back to Gia. For those folks who are not familiar, unfortunately, Gia, who was a shining star, beautiful girl, great heart, you know, a lot of fun, committed suicide in 2015, 2014, something like that.

Dennis
And obviously, you knew her. You were closer to her than I was. Did you have any idea that she was suffering in that way, that she would consider taking her own life?

Jessie
No, and that was the hardest part about it, is there for, for our relationship, there was zero red flags. There was any insecurities that every woman has, but nothing that I would red flag it. And, yeah, she always just seemed so positive and, you know, we always had so much fun together that this yeah, it took me by surprise.

Dennis
You know, and obviously from the outside looking in, you never know. I mean, look at Robin Williams. You never know what people are going through.

Jessie
Yeah, when someone is suffering on the inside.

Dennis
I’m looking at some notes I’ve taken here. It was actually August of 2013 so, that that she took her life, and so the last time I would have seen her or talk to her, I think was just a few months before that. When was the last time you had talked to her before that?

Jessie
A week before, because I had asked her for her address. I was sending her wedding invite to Jordan and I’s wedding and…

Dennis
Mine must have got lost in the mail, by the way.

Jessie
We had a small wedding. We only had a hundred people there.

Dennis
I hear you, I understand.

Jessie
I sent her out a wedding invite and then, I just spoke to her like we’ve just had a conversation and everything seemed fine. And I was hoping her and Ryan could come fly to Canada and whatnot and, and that was the last time I spoke with their.

Dennis
How was it that you got word as to what had happened? What was your reaction when you found out?

Jessie
I think Nikki, Nikki called me, she found out right away from, she it right away from one of Gia’s close guy friends. And then she called me the next morning is when she called me, before any news of it came out to the public and then, yeah, we were all in shock. We couldn’t believe it. Nikki was bawling on the phone to me, she couldn’t even get the words out to tell me what had happened.

Dennis
Speaking of shock, Dana I think you had some information that you shared about suicide and the bachelor that I was shocked to hear.

Dana
Yeah, so I, was, there was another woman from the same season that took her life, right. Is that right?

Jessie
Yeah, Alexa.

Dana
Yes. Yes. And then, yeah, yeah. One of the contestants from The Bachelorette, also, and I had read I don’t know if there was bullying and things like that involved after the seasons, do you know, with Gia, did she experience kind of trauma from…

Jessie
I don’t think from that. I know that dealt with a lot of bullying from one she dated a New York Yankee. They basically blamed her for if something went wrong in like one of the games or whatnot. But Gia was a fan favorite on the Bachelor.

Dana
Oh, okay. Yeah.

Jessie
I think there was still bullying, obviously, but I think it’s really the women now on the show get it so bad because social media wasn’t as big ten years ago when we were on the franchise.

Dana
Right. You’re right.

Jessie
So now I think that the the women just get ripped apart. Like you see some of the, some of the tweets or the Instagram post comments, it’s just terrible. Like, how do you say that to another human being?

Dana
Yeah.

Jessie
So I think now it really has. But I just know that more of Gia’s struggles, I think she had a hormonal disorder. I, I’m not sure what the exact name of it is called, but it’s basically like the few days before you’re going to get your time of the month, your hormones just go crazy and it makes you, puts you in a really dark, bad place.

Jessie
And so for two to three times a month, I know that those, the lows are really low. And then you kind of pull out of it and then. So I just think, yeah, and back then there wasn’t as much talk or help around mental health as there is now. People are bringing more awareness to it.

Dana
Yeah.

Jessie
So I feel like I don’t know if she just felt uncomfortable to or that she was going to be a burden, a burden, to put that on somebody. So that’s why I feel like it’s so important now that that people talk about mental health and that it’s OK to like to have these feelings, to have these thoughts, to feel this way. And there is help out there.

Dana
Yeah.

Jessie
Because it can be so lonely.

Dennis
And it is unfortunate that sometimes it takes, you know, tragedy like what’s occurred with Gia, and, you know, like I mentioned, Robin Williams, and other folks that have been very public or the public has been made very aware of the struggles that people have been through. But it sometimes takes that for there to be a focus on the problem and trying to find a solution.

Dennis
Hopefully we’re on the other side of that now and we are seeing more awareness and more efforts being made to reach out to people who are struggling and offering assistance in any fashion necessary and available. And, you know, hopefully that will continue to improve as as the months and years go on.

Jessie
Especially now during Covid.

Dennis
Absolutely.

Jessie
People, it’s like people are so lonely. People, it’s now more than ever. People need help and they need resources.

Dana
Yeah.

Dennis
Well, this has really brought the tone of things down.

Dana
A little bit, yeah.

Dennis
Let’s shift gears a little.

Jessie
Go back up.

Dennis
It’s a good thing to talk about. It’s an important thing to talk about. And it’s very topical, as you mentioned, especially with the pandemic and things like that. But let’s, like I said, let’s shift a little bit, because, you know, as I mentioned before, in addition to The Bachelor, you, was I right? Are you the only one that’s been on The Bachelor, the the The Bachelorette and the Bachelor Pad? Or were you just the first one to do that?

Jessie
I’m not too sure. I don’t, I don’t think there’s anyone else, but I could be wrong. Bachelor Nation will know. If I’m wrong I’m sure they’ll call me out for it.

Dennis
Yeah, I’m sure they will. So The Bachelor, the Bachelorette, similar to The Bachelor, except it’s a bachelorette who is surrounded by 30 or so guys vying for her affections and attentions, right? By the way, we completely, completely forgot to talk about the rose ceremony. The way that the people are selected to go forward into the next episode is that they are given a rose by The Bachelor or The Bachelorette. And that’s going to be really demeaning, humiliating, embarrassing, whatever if you don’t get the rose.

Dennis
How did you feel when you didn’t get the rose, notwithstanding the fact that you weren’t that into Jake, did it still make you think, well, what the hell?

Jessie
Well, I think the saddest part for me was that I had to say goodbye to the women that, you know, it’s on a vacation with a bunch of your girlfriends. So that was the sad part for me, because I just, I knew we didn’t have a connection. And I’d even said it to one of the producers. But at the time, you weren’t allowed to not be interested in The Bachelor or Bachelorette. So they basically told me if I was not interested, then I could leave, but then I would be responsible for all my expenses.

Jessie
So basically, every expense that I’d occurred for me being on the show and I’m like, well…

Dennis
Yeah, I could feign some interest for a bit here. He is kind of cute, but, um.

Jessie
Yeah.

Dennis
So what was what was your your your your gig with The Bachelorette. I know you kind of made a guest appearance. Explain to everyone what that was all about.

Jessie
So, yeah, I was thinking now back to if there’s anybody else in the franchise, there is Clare, because she was on The Bachelor, she became The Bachelorette and she was on Bachelor in Paradise. So there’s your answer for that one.

Dennis
But Bachelor in Paradise is not the same as the Bachelor Pad, right?

Jessie
Pad, no.

Dennis
OK, all right.

Jessie
But now I’ve lost my train of thought. What did you say?

Dennis
Talking about your guest stint on The Bachelorette.

Jessie
Oh, Bachelorette.

Dennis
What happened with that? Yeah.

Jessie
So, yeah, for Ali’s season there was a guy named Justin Rego. They called him Rated R, and he had a girlfriend back home in Toronto, which is where I lived at the time.

Jessie
And his girlfriend reached out to me to tell me, her name is Jessica, reached out to say, you know, my my boyfriend is on the show and she’s like, is, can you put me in contact with the producers? And I’m like, oh, I can’t give you their phone number, but let me call them and then I’ll give them your number.

Jessie
So I did that and then they ended up calling her and then a couple of weeks, I want to say a week later, they called me back. They’re like by the way, you’re calling Ali to tell her. I’m like, what?

Jessie
And so, yeah, they they brought a film crew to my parent’s place and filmed me calling her on the couch and yeah.

Dennis
So you busted him out, you busted his balls on national television.

Jessie
Oh yeah.

Dennis
So did he get kicked out?

Jessie
Oh yeah.

Dennis
He got kicked out because of that? I saw a, I saw something where you actually appeared and talked about that on, I don’t know, some follow up.

Jessie
The Men Tell All.

Dennis
That’s what it was. The Men Tell It All. Was that about that whole episode. Is that what that was?

Jessie
Yeah, exactly.

Dennis
But he didn’t, he didn’t appear to defend himself, right?

Jessie
No. He go. So…

Dana
Oh my gosh.

Dennis
So it was true.

Jessie
Yeah. Oh, it was true. 100 percent. It’s funny, though, because about a year later I met him at a reunion that The Bachelor franchise actually put on. And they filmed our first meeting. Because I never met him before, he’d never met me. So they made this huge spectacle out of us meeting for the first time. And basically it was just like, oh, my bad, you were right.

Jessie
And I was like, well, what am I going to say? And then, yeah, but what, what am I going to say?

Dana
Yeah.

Jessie
So, yeah we just kind of went off on our separate ways and they I think they wanted it to be like a big, huge blow of me, losing my cool on him.

Dennis
Or vice versa.

Jessie
Yeah. At the end of the day, yeah, exactly. At the end of the day, like Gia and I had hung out with him separately in Toronto after that. He’s actually a nice guy, just not a nice boyfriend.

Dennis
Yeah, well, it’s good to hear that they actually take seriously that the folks who are contestants need to be single, because if they’re not single, then they’re obviously there just for trying to enhance their their chances at a career or something. So it’s nice to hear that that is something that was serious and probably still is about the show.

Dennis
And speaking of the show, we mentioned The Bachelor Pad. So you were also on the Bachelor Pad?

Jessie
I was.

Dennis
So tell everybody what the difference about the Bachelor Pad is.

Jessie
So the Bachelor Pad is men and women all living at the mansion, and there was, there was challenges. So every episode there was like a pie eating contest. If you won the pie eating contest, you were safe from elimination at the next rose ceremony and you got to go out on a date. So you got to choose another person in the house and you got to leave the mansion and have a date. So there was the relationship aspect of it and there was also the contest aspect of it.

Jessie
And then at the end, the winners would, I think it was $100,000.

Dennis
Now, you didn’t last long on that one, did you?

Jessie
No, no, I got myself in a little trouble early on and yeah.

Dennis
Trouble with the romance or trouble with performing the contest or both or what?

Jessie
Just like my angle didn’t really work. And I, you know, I think a lot of it is just the producers giving off certain information. I didn’t like Craig, in relationship wise. As a person, he was a friend of mine, but they wanted to push us into a relationship because we did go on that first together, but I wasn’t into him. And so I think that’s where I kind of pissed them off, where I wouldn’t go to the fantasy suite with them because they wanted us to do the fantasy suite that night and on the way in the car, so they I basically had to say OK after the date when he was like, let’s get out of here.

Jessie
But then when we were in the car, we weren’t miked up, I said to him, look, listen, I’m not into you that way. Like, I don’t feel comfortable. So when we get back to the house, I’m just telling people I’m not going to the fantasy suite because I was interested in somebody else at the time. And they didn’t like that.

Jessie
And then the card, so they said that I was playing a double card, that I was taking information here and then taking information there and whatnot. So, yeah, they just got me, got me sent home. And Dave tried to save me, but it was too late. People had already cast their vote type of thing. And I was sent home.

Dennis
Now, isn’t there or wasn’t there another show similar as far as throwing men and women together? And they had the contests, another reality show. It wasn’t a Bachelor Franchise, but I can’t. That doesn’t ring a bell to either of you.

Jessie
I’m not sure. I’m not a big reality person.

Dana
I think there’s a naked one. Are you talking about that?

Dennis
That’s not the one I’m talking about. Of course you would know that tough.

Dana
I’m not kidding. I did watch a few episodes of it too.

Dennis
You know, it’s funny that you say, because what I’m thinking about I know they have a streaming episode, something something After Dark. And I can picture. I know. I know. They, they go back and see Julie, whoever Julie is like the host after they get kicked out. Nothing. Never mind. I’m sure someone in the audience, you can write in and tell me what a dummy I am and what is I’m thinking about.

Dennis
So anyway, let’s leave The Bachelor franchise for a moment and talk about the opportunities that presented themselves to you. You know, what you were able to capitalize on as a result of your your popularity through the franchise. You mentioned earlier the Red Carpet work that you did. And I know you had a segment on ET Canana, or Canada. Canana? Canana! Those of us who are south of the border just don’t know how to pronounce the, you know, the northern country’s name.

Dennis
But anyway, so tell us a little bit about about some of those opportunities that came after The Bachelor franchise for you.

Jessie
So after The Bachelor I was asked to be a correspondent on our news, entertainment news. So what you guys have is Entertainment Tonight. I did Entertainment Tonight Canada. And then I also did the Rose report on E Talk. So after Monday night’s episode, I’d go in Tuesday morning and then that would be on the 5:00 p.m. news entertainment show. And I would just be kind of doing a recap.

Jessie
Sorry it sounds like everyone’s wearing bricks up in my house. I didn’t realize how loud it is down here. Heavy feet up there. And so yeah. It opened up a door to do that. And, you know, I met one of my good friends through being on talk and then I did a lot of Red Carpet hosting.

Jessie
So like any of the film festivals. I did the Bollywood Film Festival, I did the Toronto Film Festival. A lot of, I even interviewed Dana White from UFC. Just a lot of random hosting events they did.

Dennis
Well, that’s got to be fun. Why did you stop doing that? Are you still doing any of that?

Jessie
No, so in, in, what was it? Like seven years ago now, my mom passed away and I took over her company, so my my parents owned the cosmetic company together. They had it for about 30 years. And then when that happened, I took it over and now I fully run it.

Dennis
That’s Cosmetco? Is that how you say that?

Jessie
Yes. The Cosmetic Company. So I full, I’d always like helped out, you know, when I was in between work. I always worked there, so I’d worked there for years. So yeah, when she got sick I had to pump the brakes on everything else that I was doing and then I solely had to put everything into the company because it’s, it’s a lot of work.

Jessie
I’m there Monday to Friday all day. And then I also do bridal makeup as well. So I do that on weekends.

Dennis
Well that’s got to be crazy. You have a couple of kids and be CEO of a cosmetics company and have the bridal makeup company as well. You mentioned Jordan having retired fairly recently to help with the kids and which, by the way, as a Canadian, you must have thought you hit the jackpot having, you know, a professional hockey player. Right?

Jessie
I think my dad thought I hit the jackpot. Me I could care less.

Dennis
You knew it was Jordan that hit the jackpot, though, right?

Jessie
Yeah. It’s so funny.

Dennis
So how do you. Go ahead. There’s a little bit of a delay with us, I don’t know if it’s because of where we’re located right now, and I apologize for talking through you or over you on occasion.

Dennis
But, but, like I, like I said, with with all that you’re doing, how do you manage to to do that and all the daily responsibilities?

Jessie
Lots of wine.

Dennis
Perfect. Dana knows what you’re talking about.

Jessie
Yeah, basically at the end of the day, I start my day off and then by noon I’m like…

Dennis
Drunk.

Jessie
…I can’t wait to get home and have a glass of wine. You have to. I’ve always been a hyper person, so I like I just need something. Go, go, go. That if I for the first couple of weeks of Covid, when we were in lockdown, it was really crazy. I’m not used to just sitting in my house.

Dennis
Oh yeah. Well, and how, like what’s the day to day. Are you back like able to get to the office now or are you still working?

Jessie
Every day.

Dennis
OK.

Jessie
So we get….

Dennis
So what is the daily routine now?

Jessie
So I can get my kids up at 7:30 and feed them. We have playtime, go to the park and make sure that they have one on one time with each parent. Pack up, get ready and go. We all go to work together and then we do lunch time with them at my office and I put them down for their nap. And that’s when I get to do my, my main work is when they’re napping in the separate office area.

Jessie
So then we grind it out for a few hours while they’re sleeping. And then Jordan will spend some time with them so I can get some additional work done and pack them all up, head home.

Dennis
Crazy.

Jessie
Some more outdoor playtime, cook them dinner, and then by that time, it’s like 8:00 p.m. and we just wanna pop a bottle and have our own dinner.

Dennis
And so how do you divide the time between the cosmetic company and the makeup company?

Jessie
So the bridal makeup is on weekends.

Dennis
OK, right. Yeah.

Jessie
So it’s like, yeah, so it’ll be like a Saturday morning, I’ll be gone from like say 8:00 a.m. till noon and that’s my day. And Jordan will have the kids at home. Jordan’s also coaching hockey right now. So he’s, three nights a week he’s gone as well. So he’ll leave at about 6:00 PM and he doesn’t get back till midnight because he coaches a team out here, the Greater, Greater Toronto Hockey League.

Dana
Wow.

Jessie
So, yeah, we’re a busy household.

Dennis
Do you, do you miss the excitement of performing, and the modeling and the traveling and all the stuff that you had been doing before taking over the cosmetics company?

Jessie
To be honest, no, I feel so far removed from that, like it’s been so long that I’ve gotten, I’m in a new role now as mom and, you know, my kids use me as a spit rag and wipe their nose on.

Dennis
And you love every minute.

Jessie
Oh, yeah. It’s definitely a new role. And, you know, way less, as any parent knows, you basically get zero time for yourself and…

Dennis
But wouldn’t trade it…

Jessie
I got all dressed up this morning, and I just was hoping that nobody would throw up on me before I came down to meet you guys.

Dennis
We, all we know is what you’ve got from the waist up. Like I said, you may be pant, pantsless underneath, who knows. I, I don’t have any pants on.

Jessie
Business on the top, party on the bottom.

Dennis
You know, that’s the fun thing about Zoom and some of the other video conferencing medium is nobody, nobody knows what you’re wearing underneath the you know what the screens is showing there.

Jessie
I put jeans on today, though, for the first time in a while.

Dennis
There you go.

Jessie
Usually I have my leggings.

Dennis
We have some meetings with our you know, our remote offices every day and everyone is on from my office, everyone is on those meetings every day. I never know what they’re wearing. You know, hopefully if they’re at their office, they’re wearing clothes. But who knows?

Dennis
Anyway, you know, we’ve mentioned the pandemic and you talked a little bit about how that’s impacted you and how Canadians had been impacted by the pandemic. I’m just curious over the past year. How do, how do Canadians view the political divisiveness in the United States?

Dana
Yeah.

Dennis
You just shake your heads and go, what the hell?

Dana
Eat popcorn?

Jessie
I think so, yeah.

Dennis
Yeah.

Jessie
I think it’s just, yeah. I don’t even want to touch that because I know, like, how people are either super right or super left. So, yeah, here in Canada, we have our own problems though too. But yeah, we just kind of shake our head a lot of the time.

Dennis
You pretty much….

Jessie
Hope for the best.

Dennis
Yeah. You ‘ope for the best, eh? Never mind. That’s my Canadian accent, ok. I’ve really had fun with this and I could go on and on but it’s probably time, well first of all, I want to ask Dana because she usually has some very strange, insightful questions and I want to give her a chance to ask those if you have any, Dana. But stay tuned because we’re going to play, would you rather.

Dana
I don’t. I think we should go right into would you rather.

Dennis
OK.

Dana
Yeah.

Jessie
All right. You know you know this game, right, Jessie?

Jessie
Yeah, I do. Yes.

Dennis
All right. All right.

Jessie
I just hope there’s no celebrity names in it. I’m the worst with celebrity names.

Dennis
Oh, no, no. OK, so would you rather give up social media or eat the same dinner for the rest of your life?

Jessie
Uhh. Depends what that dinner is. Because mac and cheese. I don’t know.

Dennis
Every day.

Jessie
I can pick the dinner? I’d rather give up social media. I couldn’t eat the same thing.

Dennis
OK, would you rather have, since we’re talking about the pandemic, would you rather, because this is one of those symptoms that that a lot of people experienced with Covid, would you rather have no taste or be completely blind, color blind, just colorblind?

Jessie
Color blind? I would rather have no taste.

Dana
Me too. I would eat all of the vegetables.

Dennis
Then you could be healthy.

Dana
I’d be so healthy.

Dennis
Yeah, right.

Jessie
Yeah.

Dennis
All right, now now we’re going get more personal. Would you rather let Jordan date your best friend or your worst enemy?

Dana
Oh.

Jessie
But then your best friend would become your worst enemy. So my worst enemy.

Dennis
All right, good, good answer.

Jessie
I’d rather still have my best friend.

Dennis
Would you rather eat food prepared by your mom or prepared by Jordan? I recognize your mom passed.

Jessie
By Jordan?

Dennis
Yeah.

Jessie
I don’t know because my mum wasn’t the greatest cook. My dad was the cook in our house. I guess I’ll say my mom, because I haven’t had her cooking along good.

Dennis
That’s a good reason. OK, would you rather be rich and ugly or poor and good looking?

Jessie
Probably rich and ugly, because then I could just make myself attractive.

Dennis
No, you’re not changing it, you got to stay ugly. Gotta stay ugly.

Jessie
Got to stay ugly?

Dennis
Yeah.

Jessie
Yeah I’d rather be rich and ugly because then, whatever, you have to worry about money then.

Dennis
OK, would you rather try on Jordan’s clothes or have him try on your clothes?

Jessie
I’d rather have a try on my clothes, that’d be a better laugh.

Dana
I think so too. How much taller is he than you?

Jessie
Have you seen the size of my husband?

Dana
He’s ginormous compared to you.

Jessie
Yeah.

Dennis
Would you rather be forced to sing along or dance along with every song that you ever hear?

Jessie
Forced to sing along or dance along?

Dennis
Yeah, every time you hear a music, you either have to be, you have to dance or you have to sing.

Jessie
I’d say dance. More fun.

Dennis
OK, would you rather be forced to wear the same socks for a month or the same underwear for a week?

Dana
Eww.

Jessie
The same socks. Definitely the same socks I’d wear. I probably do wear the same socks for a month.

Dana
I feel like we should make Dennis test some of these.

Dennis
Oh well, here’s a good one to test. Would you rather always have BO and not know it or always smell BO on everyone else?

Jessie
Oh, man, that’s a hard one because I hate the smell of BO. I’d rather probably not be able to smell it on myself. Let everyone else suffer.

Dennis
OK. All right. So this is the last one. Would you rather walk in on your parents doing it or have your parents walk in on you doing it.

Dana
No.

Jessie
Oh, God, both are terrible. I’d rather walk in on them because I couldn’t imagine the humiliation, because then maybe they wouldn’t notice that I walked in. I wouldn’t be able to face them ever again if…

Dennis
Well, that’s all I have. And I want to thank you again, Jessie, for for being with us today. It was a pleasure catching up with you and getting to talk about stuff, like I said, I didn’t have any any clue about. And apparently some of your friends didn’t know about it as well.

Jessie
I know. It’s a random bag of tricks I have.

Dennis
Yeah. Now what we’ll see, now that they’ll hear all of the dirt, you know how many friends you still have after this.

Dennis
So. So anyway, I want to thank you all for tuning in. Please be sure to subscribe and like us and check out the video of this conversation on uncommonconvos.com.

Dennis
Also want to make sure that you take a chance, if you have a chance, that you check out our other podcast, Legal Squeaks.

Dennis
Be sure to tune in for another Uncommon Convo next week. In the meantime, have a great day. Stay safe. And I love you all.