Season 2 of The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys was full of scorned exes, new lovers, screaming matches, and even a few tears — but there was one particular teary-eyed moment that surprised Kathleen French, Senior Vice President of Entertainment Unscripted Current Production at NBCUniversal, the most, and it came from Jesse McBee.
“He actually cried on camera to his brother,” French told The Daily Dish in an exclusive interview. “I mean, these are hard-core farmers who have calluses on their hands. And I thought he was vulnerable and honest.”
She added, “It was really lovely. You know, I think real men do cry. I thought it was really nice.”
Jesse’s emotional moment came after he spent much of Season 2 worrying about marrying his high school sweetheart Alli Ventresca. Things came to a head on Episode 8, when just two weeks before the wedding, Jesse’s anxiety go so bad he had his first-ever anxiety-attack while harvesting alone.
“He was so open and honest about his fears when he started having panic attacks before the wedding,” French shared. “Having an honest conversation with his then-fiancée, now wife, about, ‘I’m having second thoughts here,’ I thought that was kind of amazing.”
After the anxiety attack, Jesse opened up to his older brother Steven McBee Jr. in a moment that surprised French. She noted that she was impressed by Steven Jr. and Cole McBee’s reaction to the conversation.
“His brothers reacted in kind,” she said. “They were like, ‘Oh my god, this is really serious.’ And there was no like, ‘Oh, suck it up, let’s go.’ It was more like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re really in crisis. How can we help?’”
Where Jesse McBee and Alli stand after Season 2 of The McBee Dynasty
Despite all of Jesse’s hesitations, he and Alli are now living happily ever after post-Season 2. They welcomed a baby girl named Summer Leigh McBee on April 17 — Alli’s 30th birthday. And Jesse has continued to be open and honest about his feelings on parenthood.
“If I’m being completely honest, it was really tough to start,” he said during an interview at Bravo HQ. “I mean, it’s a life change, and those first few weeks are a whirlwind. I honestly barely remember them; I feel like it was just a phase in my life that went by so fast. You know, feed the baby, try to get some sleep here and there, and then she’s pooping. Changing diapers. I think I’ve changed five total, which is pretty good.”
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Although Jesse and Alli battled over whether to live in the city house or country house during Season 2, Jesse admitted Alli eventually “won that battle.”
“My mom [Kristi McBee] lives in the city, [Alli’s] parents live in the city, so as far as babysitting Summer, it makes life a lot easier when it comes to that,” he said during his Bravo HQ interview.
Bravo exec Kathleen French reveals what producers knew about the FBI investigation into Steven McBee Sr.
Although Jesse ended up surprising McBee Dynasty producers the most, French admitted that the FBI Investigation into Steven McBee Sr. was also a shock. As she put it, “People always say, ‘Oh my god, you produced this.’ It’s like, no, I don’t know that we could ever produce an FBI investigation.”
Steven Jr. revealed the investigation to his brothers, who had been kept in the dark, on the Season 2 finale — but producers had hints of what was going on ahead of time.
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French, more specifically, pointed to Galyna Saltkovska and Steven Jr.’s hot mic moment as a turning point in the show.
“When she said that ‘Don’t even get me started about the investigation,’ we all knew that there was something happening,” French shared. “But again, the family was pretty tight lipped until they felt comfortable about actually saying something.”
Read more on where the rest of The McBee Dynasty cast stands after Season 2.