Bachelor Nation alum Amanda Stanton is setting the record straight on what happened to her and husband Michael Fogel’s Golden Retriever George.
“George was actually Michael’s mom’s dog. His aunt got his mom George as a birthday gift. They used to live in New York and they moved to California,” Stanton, 33, revealed during an episode of “The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast,” released on Friday, August 18. “Somewhere in that time, Michael took George while they were moving and all that, and never gave him back.”
However, after one of her in-laws’ other dogs passed away, they wanted George back. At first, Stanton “didn’t feel comfortable” sharing the story publicly.
“It’s fine if I want to tell people what’s going on with me,” Stanton explained. “But when it involves Michael and his mom, I didn’t want to go on Instagram for all my followers and be like, ‘This is what’s going on.’ It was really tough. We still are very sad. We miss having George here.”
Stanton was forced to address what happened with George after eagle-eyed fans noticed that the pup was no longer present on social media. Initially, Stanton felt that “no one believed” her story.
“People keep saying, ‘That’s not true.’ It is true,” she shared, noting that the public’s reaction is “strange” overall. “People flipped out.”
Stanton insisted that people can scroll on Fogel’s Instagram profile to see when his mom first got George in a post from August 2015.
That being said, Stanton made it clear that she and her family “still get to see” George, because he is living with her in-laws.
Previously, Stanton and her daughters — Kinsley, 8, and Charlie, 6 — had a dog named Princess Poppy as part of their family. While some fans have speculated that Poppy lives with Stanton’s parents, it’s unclear what happened to the Doodle as its Instagram account has been inactive since 2018.
Stanton and Fogel are currently dog parents to Moose, a “sweet” Bernese Mountain Dog.
“He’s going through his little teenager phase right now,” Stanton joked of Moose on the “Almost Famous” podcast. “He’s the sweetest, cuddliest thing ever. His thing is, he always leans on us. … It’s the sweetest thing ever. We love him, he’s good.”
The couple, who are expecting their first child together, introduced fans to their Moose in October 2022.
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“2 years ago we went on our first date in Aspen and we talked about how one day we’d get a Bernese Mountain Dog and name him Moose!” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “This sweet little boy found us in Aspen & we think it was meant to be. Welcome to the family, Moose.”