Andrew Spencer and Greg Grippo Share the One ‘Unspoken Rule’ That Has Kept Their Friendship Going Strong (Exclusive)

The pair became friends in 2021 while filming season 17 of ‘The Bachelorette’

NEED TO KNOW

• Andrew Spencer and Greg Grippo credit daily 9 a.m. phone calls for maintaining their years-long friendship
• The pair met on season 17 of The Bachelorette and bonded instantly
• They’ve gone viral for sharing their friendship online and are working on several projects while staying close

Andrew Spencer and Greg Grippo’s friendship began over five years ago, and there is one main thing they credit for having stayed so close.

While catching up with PEOPLE at the T-Mobile Club Magenta at Lollapalooza, the Bachelorette alumni reveal they talk every single day.

“There’s an unspoken rule that he has, and it’s calling me at 9:00 a.m. every morning,” Spencer, 31, shares.  “Every morning he calls me at 9:00 a.m.”

“I told him recently, because he’ll answer and say, ‘What?’ And I’m getting quite upset about it because I told him, ‘You’re going to miss this one day,’” Grippo, 33, quips.

“When we’re 80, maybe, we’re still going to call each other,” he adds.

While Spencer isn’t always thrilled about the early-morning calls, he knows the importance of making time to talk and always picks up. In fact, he specifically remembers a stretch of time when Grippo stopped calling.

“I think he just decided to sleep in this week. I was asking my buddy, I was like, ‘Go to his house, see if he’s awake, see if he’s alive,’” Spencer shares. “Our phone calls are what we both need. It’s like a wellness check at the same time.”

The pair met while filming season 17 of The Bachelorette, featuring Katie Thurston. Looking back, Grippo says, “the first day that we met each other, we gave each other a look, and we just started cracking up.” 

Spencer also remembers the day fondly, noting that they “walked in the same room and something happened, and I could feel him laughing and I started laughing.” 

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“It’s almost like you’re in a class with your best friend and you’re not supposed to be laughing, and you guys look at each other, and that’s the moment we had,” Grippo says. “We didn’t even know each other yet.” 

Spencer says they were laughing so hard that production had to pause.

“The cameras, they had to shut it off. They’re like, ‘We can’t use any of this footage because they won’t cooperate,’” Spencer recalls.

Spencer shares that he looks back on the moment and is “just super thankful for it.” While neither of them left the show engaged, they left with a lifelong friendship.  

Since then, the pair has gone viral for sharing snippets of their friendship online, from lip-syncing to dancing and more. They also continue to stay busy, but never too busy for the 9 a.m. call. 

Spencer tells PEOPLE, “We got a lot coming up, for sure.”

“I just want to just continue building our relationship that we have. Hopefully, we get to see a little bit more progression in our families,” the Bachelor in Paradise star, who is dating Alexe Godin, says.

“We’re working on a couple of different projects that we can’t really talk about right now that we’re excited about,” Grippo adds. “We’ve been through so many stages of life together that it’s exciting just to see what’s next at some point.”