Farmer Wants A Wife: Will Dwyer says searching for love is ‘exciting scary’
Will Dwyer reveals why he’s put everything on the line to find love on Farmer Wants A Wife as we look back at stars who’ve found real love.
Reality
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Will Dwyer won’t be tuning in to watch his romantic journey unfold when Farmer Wants A Wife returns to our screens.
Not because he’s worried about how he’ll be portrayed, rather the 39-year-old sheep and cattle farmer from Longwood, Victoria doesn’t actually own a television.
He did manage to watch Season 2 when close friends Jo Fincham and Rob Hodges met and fell in love. They now have three children.
Dwyer laughs as he recalls getting together with mates from the Portsea Life Saving Club to follow their fellow lifesaver Hodges’ search for love and couldn’t believe it when he recognised the first girl who walked out – his childhood friend Jo.
“I was just like ‘Oh my God – they will be the perfect couple’,” Dwyer says.
“I wished I could have put some money on it back then. I knew straight away they’d be together.”
Obviously he was right and the pair’s continuing strong relationship, coupled with the show’s strong success rate, inspired him to take the plunge.
“They signed me up for the show, basically,’ Dwyer says.
“They really are the perfect couple. It’s proof positive that it can work and it does work.”
It’s hard to imagine why the eloquent, down-to-earth and ruggedly handsome farmer hasn’t found his one yet – he shares he’s not someone who’s willing to settle and is 100 per cent comfortable on his own.
“But it’s exciting scary to try to find someone to live this life with you,” Dwyer says.
“It can be mundane at times but it’s a beautiful, great life and I would love to share it with someone. It would just enrich the whole experience.”
While he obviously can’t divulge whether his love story will end with a yes, Dwyer did confess he did utter the words “I love you so much”.
“Cameras came from everywhere … but I was talking to my dog – it was pretty hilarious,” he says, with a laugh.
“That’s when I realised ‘Oh God, they are listening the whole time’.”
With the return of Farmer Wants A Wife, and shows such as The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Married At First Sight dominating the Australian reality TV realm, it seems we are a tad obsessed with a fairytale romance.
While plenty of the TV relationships we put our hearts behind don’t exactly work out, it’s not all bad romance, there are more than a handful who have shown it is possible to find real love and a drama-free relationship under the intense spotlight of TV.
Farmer is one of TV’s most successful dating shows and quite apart from Jo and Rob there is a healthy crop of couples living out their happily ever after on the farm.
The show ran on and off for nine seasons between 2007-2016 and boasts some of the best success stories known to local reality TV, including nine marriages and 20 babies.
Starting with Chris Newsome and Kim Tierney who found true love right from the very beginning of Farmer Wants A Wife in 2007.
They were the first couple to marry, with their wedding being filmed for season two. The couple now have a son and daughter together.
Obviously Ten’s Bachelor’s and Bachelorette franchises have proved a mixture of hits and misses kicking off strongly with the first-ever Aussie bachelor Tim Robards and his ‘rose’ Anna Heinrich who married and had daughter Elle this year.
While Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski, from season three, are also married and the proud parents of three gorgeous girls. Bachelorette Georgia Love and Lee Elliot married in Tasmania earlier this year.
Even the man Love jilted, Matty Johnson, found his soulmate Laura Byrne in the following Bachelor season – he subsequently popped the question and they’ve welcomed two daughters in under two years.
The most recent Bachelor Locky Gilbert and his choice Irena Srbinovska are still loved up. (Perhaps let’s not talk about the somewhat disastrous choice of sisters Becky and Ellie Miles).
But there’s a heap of other lesser known, and longer lasting hook-ups
Mary Viturino & Conor Canning
Bachelor In Paradise, Season 3, 2020
Conor and Mary were one of the most unexpected couples to come out of Bachelor In Paradise’s final season. Conor entered the island as a “cleanskin”, having not previously appeared on a Bachelor franchise, while Mary was on Matt Agnew’s season. After proclaiming their love at the finale, the couple revealed Mary and her six-year-old daughter, Chanel, had moved to Tasmania to live with Conor. The pair’s daughter Summer was born in March this year.
Erin Bateman & Bryce Mohr
Married At First Sight, Season Two, 2016
Married At First Sight hasn’t had a fabulous strike rate (excluding Cameron Merchant and Jules Robinson who married for real and had son Oliver last year and Michael Brunelli and Martha Kalifatidis) but Erin and Bryce have gone the distance. Despite hooking up in such a public manner, the couple have kept their relationship out of the spotlight and rarely post about their romance. Last year Erin took to social media to confirm she was still very much with her MAFS boyfriend Bryce as they rang in their five-year anniversary – making them the longest-lasting couple from the entire Aussie franchise.
Josh Moss & Amelia Marni
Love Island Australia, Season 1, 2018
Since their season of Love Island hit the screens, the couple have gone from strength to strength. The pair even made their relationship official after the show, with Moss setting up a lavish surprise to ask Marni to be his girlfriend, in an Instagram post. About three years later, and the couple look to be stronger than ever spending quarantine together.
And then there’s those couples who hooked up on our screen, but not on the traditional dating shows.
Barry Hall and Lauren Brant
I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here, Season 1, 2015
These two surprised many when they were spotted sharing a passionate kiss on the Gold Coast in 2016, a year after they appeared on the hit reality TV show together. At the time, Lauren told The Daily Telegraph: “We have been spending a lot of time together and we have been enjoying each other’s company.” And things escalated quickly – they welcomed their first child together, a son named Miller, in May 2017. They had second son Houston in 2019, and this week announced they wed in secret in February this year and are expecting their third boy in October. The AFL champion and former Hi-5 star revealed their happy news while giving an emotional tribute to the life of their sister-in-law Sandra Brant who passed away aged 41 from bowel cancer in March.
Rachael Finch and Michael Miziner
Dancing With The Stars, Season 10, 2010
It’s easy to forget former Miss Universe Australia Rachael Finch competed on Dancing With The Stars in 2010. However, in a rather lovely turn of events, Finch met and fell in love with her professional dancing partner, Michael Miziner, on the show. The couple married in 2013, and have two children, Violet and Dominic.
Samantha Gash & Mark Wales
Survivor Australia, Season 4, 2017
Samantha and Mark met on Channel 10’s fourth instalment of the popular reality show, welcoming their son, Harry, in 2018 and wed in December the following year. Fellow Survivor co-star Jacqui Patterson officiated the wedding, while Jarrad Seng was the photographer. AK Knight, Aimee Stanton, Jericho Malabonga, and Luke Toki were among the guests. The couple later competed on the Prime Video series World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji as part of Team Aussie Rescue.
CRASH AND BURN
On the flip side, there’s others who crash and burn in spectacular fashion. Whether it’s the fault of crafty editing, high-octane personalities or producer interference, plenty of reality TV romances don’t last much longer once the lights and cameras are switched off. Some don’t even make it past the end of the show – basically half of the cast of Married At First Sight on any given season. Here’s just five of the flops:
Sam Cochrane and Tara Pavlovic
Bachelor in Paradise, Season 1, 2018
Sam and Tara, who both appeared on The Bachelorette, and The Bachelor respectively, made headlines for their ensuing whirlwind romance on Bachelor in Paradise in 2018 which ended in a surprise engagement. But things soon went downhill for the pair, who sensationally and very publicly split a few months later. Tara has since married Nic Shepherdson and had a son
Paddy in May.
Jess Hardy and Nathan ‘Marty’ Martin
Big Brother, Season 2, 2002
Here’s one that’ll take you back. As the second season of Big Brother kicked off in 2002, Jess and Marty quickly became known as ‘The Country Couple’, hitting it off immediately. In 2004, the couple married in their own spin-off reality TV show named Marty & Jess: An Outback Wedding. However 15 months later the pair divorced, with Jess going on to focus on her career studying law and becoming a radio host. Marty meanwhile went on to remarry, and now has three children with his second wife Lexi.
Blake Garvey and Louise Pillidge
Bachelor, Season 2, 2014
To start a relationship by meeting on The Bachelor, realising that you picked the wrong woman and then starting a life with the second runner-up instead possibly isn’t the best way to start a romance, so maybe that’s why Blake and Louise didn’t manage to go the distance. In April 2016, the couple announced their break-up, with the pair citing the constant scrutiny from public being a leading cause of their issues. Louise pointed out that the public disapproval made it very hard to “celebrate their love”. “When you’re trying to move forward, it’s hard to keep on being reminded about what happened.”
Nick Cummins and … well, no one
The Bachelor, Season 6, 2018
In a bombshell twist, Aussie Bachelor for 2018 Nick Cummins dumped both Sophie Tieman and Brittany Hockley in the grand finale. At the time, The Bachelor said he was simply following his heart. “I just know in my heart, I’ve done the right thing,” Nick explained. “They are two amazing women who are walking out of my life right now. It wouldn’t be fair to enter into something and a few months later, break her heart.” “I came here for a chance at love and now I’m going to have to start again.” Sophie and Britt remain close today.
Ines Basic and Bronson Norrish
MAFS, Season 6, 2019
We knew this relationship wasn’t going to last from the moment Ines asked Bronson to take out his eyebrow ring. She went on to have an affair with Sam, which Sam has since claimed was faked by producers. But it all came out during an explosive commitment ceremony. Bronson is now a lot happier with girlfriend Hayley Wallis. While, Ines split from her surgeon boyfriend earlier this year, and looks to still be single.
Farmer Wants A Wife, Sunday, 7pm, Seven. The Bachelor is expected to air later this month
Originally published as Farmer Wants A Wife: Will Dwyer says searching for love is ‘exciting scary’
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