The Bachelor Franchise’s Jared Haibon and Ashley Iaconetti are Here for the Right Reasons

Haibon pulls down his mask for a minute while he recites questions from his phone. He asks the crowd, “Would you rather find love at the ‘Bachelor’ mansion or on ‘Bachelor in Paradise?’ ”

The crowd rings out in unity. “Paradise!”

“Would you rather be known as the villain or the crier?” he says.

The crowd is unanimous again. “The crier!”

“Criers are the best,” Haibon says, looking fondly over at his wife, who is now eight months pregnant and still working the crowd by posing for selfies and group photos, and answering questions from fans as she circulates around the room. “I married a crier.”

Iaconetti became famous for bawling her eyes out when she starred on farmer Chris Soules’ season of “The Bachelor.” Throughout the episodes, she was known for being emotional; her final shot was of her standing in the desert, with mascara-stained tears streaming down her face when Soules did not give her a rose during an infamous two-on-one date.

The tears continued to flow on “Paradise” after she met Haibon, who was a castoff from Kaitlyn Bristowe’s season of “The Bachelorette.” Iaconetti fell hard and fast for Haibon, but he did not reciprocate her feelings at first. Fans of the show appreciate the realistic evolution of their relationship. Even the signature cocktail at their wedding was called “Ashley’s Tears.”

“I loved how open Ashley was. She wasn’t afraid to put her true feelings on television,” says Talia Zuena, who has made the trip to Audrey’s from Cranston three times. “I think every girl feels like maybe she should hold back, but she never did. To see them now together, she did it, for all the girls that may come across too invested and emotional. She’s a great role model.”

Heather Clune, from South Kingstown, also loves the realism behind their romance. “I liked how she was so in love with him, and how he wasn’t quite ready for it,” she says. “It started off a little too fast for him, and I think she realized she also had to slow down, and they came together at the perfect time.”

Clune has been an avid “Bachelor” fan ever since she saw the very first Bachelor appear live on the “Regis and Kelly” show, which she attended with her mom. She’s also visited Audrey’s three times in one month. “When I came to the soft opening, Jared was like, ‘Hi, I’m Jared’, and I laughed, and said, ‘I know who you are.’ ”

Christion Battey of Warwick is also a huge “Bachelor” fan since 2001 or 2002. “When it first came out in the early 2000s it was groundbreaking,” he says, adding that he’s been rooting for local boy Haibon to find love since the beginning.

Photograph by Jamie Coelho

“The show does work, whether it’s the ‘The Bachelor,’ ‘Bachelorette’ or ‘Bachelor in Paradise,’” Battey says. “It’s a love story, and who doesn’t love a love story?”

At “The Bachelor” launch party, the couple also takes time to answer questions about the show from their guests. It’s like a sequel to “After the Final Rose.” Mostly, fans want to know how much of the show is manipulated to create drama.

“If you put twenty-five women, or even twenty-five men in the same room competing for the same person and you’re all miked up twenty-four-seven with all different personalities, drama naturally happens,” Haibon says.

“It really is natural,” adds Iaconetti.

“I think we’d all go a little crazy,” says Haibon with a laugh.

Like with opening any new business, when they were first launching Audrey’s, Haibon was at the shop nearly every waking moment for two months straight. He says he clocked between eighty and 100 hours a week, and he’s trying to balance owning the business, having a family and embracing the fandom.

Before Dawson was born, “Twelve hours a day was an easy day,” he says.

At that time, Iaconetti says she was concerned that her husband would even be able to be around once the baby was born. The couple decided that once she was a few weeks away from delivery, she would stay with her parents in Virginia and deliver Dawson at the hospital where her dad works in Virginia, because she knew the hospital would take the best care of her when she gave birth. Haibon traveled back and forth from Rhode Island a few times until it was “go time.” Even though she was due later in February, he suddenly got a call at the shop in late January that Iaconetti was three centimeters dilated and could go into labor within twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Haibon stopped everything and was on a flight from Rhode Island to Virginia within two hours.

After Dawson was born on Jan. 31, Haibon remained in Virginia for almost two weeks to soak up fatherhood. That time period away from the shop made him realize that his staff could handle running the shop temporarily while he took care of administrative work remotely.

“That’s why I worked so hard getting Audrey’s open so I could be around once Dawson was born,” Haibon adds.

The family returned to Rhode Island at the end of February, and Haibon’s managing work and home life better now. “There are days that he’s there for a long period of time, but it’s not every single day,” Iaconetti says. “Now I’m less concerned about the work-life balance.”

As they settle down in West Greenwich as a family, the couple is excited to bring back “The Bachelor” watch parties, trivia nights, meet-and-greet events and industry nights. Haibon is learning what it takes to run the business while trying to keep customers happy. “I learned I can’t schedule myself as an employee behind the counter, because I might leave to take a picture and be gone for ten minutes because then other guests will want a picture, too,” he says with a laugh. “If someone wants a picture, I can’t say no.”

“We’re lucky to even have that be a thing,” adds Iaconetti.

While the fan base is strong, their goal is to create a business that can last beyond “Bachelor” fame. To do that, they are making Audrey’s sustainable for the long term. “If our clientele is only ‘Bachelor’ fans, then it’s not going to last very long,” Haibon says. They hope Dawson can grow up with Audrey’s.

“I don’t know what our child wants to do one day, but if he wants to be part of Audrey’s in any capacity, I think that would be fantastic,” Haibon says. “If we could have a thriving family business that I could hand down to our kids one day, I don’t think I could ask for anything more.”

Back on the late afternoon of Audrey’s grand opening, long after the ribbon cutting, there’s still a line of people waiting to order coffee drinks with several customers standing by to grab completed orders. The fireplace is roaring and a table of early-twenty-something women from the nearby University of Rhode Island sip on coffee drinks. They are stylishly dressed and casually enjoying the space. At this table, the phone camera lenses are trained on the drinks, not the owner.
A curious bystander asks if they came to the grand opening to meet the “Bachelor” cast-member-owners.

One of the women looks down at the pictures on her phone. “No. We don’t watch that show,” says Michelle Kanevsky. “I have a food Instagram and we heard there was a new coffee shop in town with cool drinks.”

Judging by the diverse demographics of the customers in line, many others also seem oblivious that the shop is run by a celebrity couple.

Scrolling through Kanevsky’s Instagram account @eats_by_mich, there’s not a selfie nor a photo with Haibon or Iaconetti in sight.