Michael Allio of Copley discusses life after ‘Bachelor in Paradise’
Allio discusses his love life, favorite local restaurants and some history around a nonprofit he founded called The L4 Project.
- Fans of “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise” know Michael Allio from his time on the shows.
- Allio has found love again, and his girlfriend has moved in with him and his son as he expands his skincare business dedicated to helping reduce people’s pain from skin conditions.
- As Allio grows his business in Greater Akron and spends his free time in the area, he said he continues seeing positivity out in the community.
He’s a man about town, and he plans on sticking around.
Michael Allio, the co-founder and CEO of skincare company St. James Therapeutics and former “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise” contestant, sat down with the Beacon Journal to discuss his business endeavor and some life highlights.
After losing his wife, Laura, to breast cancer in 2019, Allio continued growing St. James, the business they started together and named after their son, James.
The Copley resident, who grew up in Bath, had a couple of stints on reality TV — giving his name and face wide recognition to fans of the “Bachelor Nation.”
Allio then met his girlfriend, Jade, from San Diego. It wasn’t on the shows but because of them that they first made a connection. She’s since moved in with him and 9-year-old James.
“Michael A.” is turning the page to a new chapter — and writing a few himself — as he continues building St. James to help people with painful skin conditions so they don’t experience the type of pain Laura did from her chemotherapy treatments.
Although he lived in Chicago for 10 years, which is where he met Laura, Allio says he loves the Akron area and appreciates how locals build up each other and the community.
“We feel blessed to be here, and it’s a great place to raise a family and a great place to start a business,” he said.
What do you want people to know about you?
I’ve definitely divulged more about my personal life than I ever thought I would. I would say in so many ways, ‘The (Bachelorette)’ and ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ — it was a really fun era in my life. I got to meet a lot of amazing people. I got to experience so many things. I remember when I was applying to go on the show, my mom asked me …, ‘Do you actually think you can find love on this show in a couple weeks?’ And I said, ‘I have no idea, but I know I’ll find her because of it.’ And that’s exactly how I met Jade. So, it’s funny how things are always connected. You never really know where these roads take you.
As far as after the show, I’d really never given up on work. I think there are a lot of people after the show that are trying to be influencers full time and go and do that. I’ve always really stayed focus on the mission of St. James. I’ve been doing it for seven years. It’s been such a long road. But we have something really remarkable here. (I’m a) local businessman, hang out in the area. I go on hikes on a regular basis. My son loves it here. He’s in Bath Elementary, so Revere school system. (My) family’s here. We’ve just got a lot of generations of Allios running through this place, and we don’t see ourselves leaving anytime soon.
So, you found love again. Could you talk about how you met Jade?
Yeah, so, Jade and I have actually known each other for about four years. When I originally got off ‘The Bachelorette,’ she reached out to me on Instagram because we have a lot of similarities in our life, and she was touched by some of the ways that I was talking about Laura, about loss, that really resonated with her. She was dating somebody at the time, and my life was just all up in the air, that we just really maintained a long-distance friendship. And, so, it wasn’t until about two years ago when that friendship just became a little bit more.
And she’s such an amazing person. She is absolutely in love with my son. And same for him. It’s so nice to hear them laugh in the housel; it’s so nice to create memories together. She is a skincare expert and has been doing skincare since she was 19. And, so, some of the things with St. James have actually been almost collaborated on with Jade, as well, whether or not that’s suppliers or consultants, experts that we need to hire. So, outside of that, we listen to the same music, we like the same food, we like the same movies. Things feel really good right now.
Can you talk about your favorite types of music, food and movies?
Jade and I are obsessed with horror movies. So, we rallied over that. We watch a lot a scary movies. As far as music, it’s all over the board. So, she didn’t move to Akron until February of this year. And, so, we had a long-distance relationship for an entire year. And the way we kind of communicated was through a Spotify playlist — old school, almost like you’re burning CDs back in the day. So, if you look through this Spotify list, you can actually see the entire evolution of our relationship — the good days, the fights, the makeups, the ‘miss you’s,’ all of those things.
As far as food’s concerned, our favorite spots locally — I would say Vaccaro’s, definitely. We love The Merchant, The Diamond Deli, The Diamond Grille. I would say Akron Family for breakfast. There are a lot of great hidden gems in the Akron area.
I saw you’re writing a children’s book. Can you talk a little bit about that?
It should be coming out in February. It’s a really interesting story. … We’re getting our final copies in and proofs in probably within the next week or so. And it’ll be ready for presale sometime end of January. But it’s really been a labor of love. It’s a very unique book. It’s not your typical kids’ book. I think the messages in this book will resonate with children but also with adults. I think people can draw a lot from the stories that are told in it.
You were talking about how you love the sense of community in the Akron area and how people help each other out. Can you talk about that and why you decided to come back here after living in Chicago?
I lived in Chicago for 10 years right after high school, went to college there, worked there. And then when it came time to raise a family, we wanted to be back in Akron. Laura loved this area. The community welcomed her with open arms. And she was a part of every group you could possibly imagine. Probably within three months, she knew more people in Akron than I did living here for 20 years. It was just remarkable.
And I think what a lot of people don’t know about Akron is, we’re in a national park. It’s beautiful. There are people that have gone to school with your parents, your grandparents. There are generational people here. And I think it’s a community that is big enough to have all the problems all the major cities have, but it’s small enough to be able to work together and fix them. And I think this community — the people that have been here really want to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs, of leaders, to kind of pass the torch onto.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Patrick Williams covers growth and development for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @pwilliamsOH. Sign up for the Beacon Journal’s business and consumer newsletter, “What’s The Deal?“
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