‘I don’t think women should date Trump supporters’: Abbie Chatfield on drama, dating and Donald Trump

As she prepares to enter a new decade, Abbie Chatfield examines THAT federal election fallout, and shares her thoughts on drama, dating and Donald Trump.

As she turns 30, Abbie Chatfield reflects on her progress so far – from politics and using her platform to finding her “forever” partnership.

Stellar: ​​You have a milestone birthday coming up this month. How are you feeling about turning 30?

Abbie Chatfield: So excited. I’ve never been one to be scared about ageing. I’ve never really understood people that are freaked out about it. Everyone is like, oh, don’t ask my age. I go, why? I’m happy that I’ve made it to 30.

I love ageing because every year you look back and they say if you cringe at yourself a year ago, then you’re making progress.
Every year I think that I get better and smarter, as everyone does. Everyone in my life says their 30s are the best. So I can’t wait.

‘I’ve never been one to be scared about ageing.’ Abbie Chatfield. Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

Stellar: When you were first catapulted to fame as the runner-up on The Bachelor Australia, few would have predicted that six years later one of the main things we would be talking about in an interview like this is politics and the much-talked about role you played in the recent federal election.

Abbie Chatfield: I wanted to use my platform to talk about politics because it was a very important time. I wanted my audience [for her podcast It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield] to understand the basics of the election, like how preferential voting works or the difference between Labor and Liberal.

I think it was really good to bring in an audience that hadn’t ever thought about the election, that were coming for pop culture [content] and for them to realise, oh I shouldn’t just do a throwaway vote. And then suddenly it turned into [a controversy].

The AEC stuff [which saw Chatfield investigated and cleared by the Australian Electoral Commission, after Liberal senators questioned whether social media content from her podcast interview with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in February should have been classed as electoral material and featured an authorisation statement] was a whole other level of, I believe, discrediting smaller voices, but also discrediting outspoken young women.

Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

Listen to the full interview with Abbie Chatfield on Something To Talk About:

Abbie Chatfield [continued]: It seems to be that when women do more than one thing, they’re deemed inept at all the things they do. But when men do more than one thing it’s like, wow, he’s a footy player and he can read an autocue.

The AEC thing made me feel really targeted. I feel that I’m often a scapegoat because of how the media portrays me as being the spokesperson on things, and they go, “Oh, she’s talking again.”

Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

Adam Hyde and Abbie Chatfield. Picture: Supplied

Stellar: There has also been some commentary around how the term “influencer” became a dirty word during the election coverage. Do you think there was a sexist – or even, as some have claimed, misogynistic – component to such criticism?

It seems to be throughout time, whenever women dominate industries, they’re then discredited and undermined. We earn more money than men in this industry.

We have louder voices, we have bigger platforms. Women are the main spenders and the main engagers in podcasting and in social media. Mark Bouris, for example – he’d never be called an influencer.

He’s a business owner first. I think that it’s a very easy way to discredit women and also undermines how much intelligence and forethought and planning and business mind it takes to have a following that’s dedicated and engaged enough to monetise for a podcast. People see you rock up, yap, and go home, but it’s hours and hours and hours of work.

Why do we have to work ourselves to the bone to prove that we’re worthy of having a platform or having a voice? When you say that influencing isn’t a real job … I mean, the ATO thinks it is, they’re on my back all the time!

Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Clark

Picture: Getty Images

Stellar: One of the high-profile casualties of the election was Greens leader Adam Bandt. When he lost his seat, the first reaction of some was to gleefully declare “Abbie Chatfield will be devastated!” How did that sit with you?

Abbie Chatfield: I think Adam Bandt was a great leader of the Greens. He lost his seat. That’s upsetting for him. I’m not a fangirl of Adam Bandt. I like the Greens’ policies and he was the leader at the time.

So I have no personal feelings about it. But it’s held onto like I’m some overly emotional, hysterical woman who’s sobbing about Adam Bandt. Larissa Waters [the senator who replaced Bandt] is an incredible Greens leader. She has been a lawyer. She’s a woman.

She’s a single parent, I believe. I met her and she’s from Queensland, like me. I think it’s fabulous. So having new leadership of the Greens isn’t something that makes me cry or upset. I was trying to get progressive policies on the table for Australians.

It wasn’t that I had a sports team that was gonna win. It’s not the NRL grand final; it’s not the State of Origin. Both sides think that I think I’m an “expert” and that I’m emotionally invested in the outcome, but the reality is I’m trying to reduce harm during an election year that I think was really pivotal in our history.

‘I don’t think women should date Trump supporters.’ Abbie Chatfield has shared her thoughts on politics and modern dating in a new interview with Stellar. Picture: Binge

Stellar: We live in increasingly hyper-partisan times. During the US presidential election late last year, for instance, there was a lot of debate among women as to whether they would ever date a man if they discovered he voted for Trump. What’s your view on that?

Abbie Chatfield: I don’t think women should date Trump supporters. I think these far-right people are actively dangerous to women, and I don’t think that any [woman] should be dating someone who’s a misogynist. You wouldn’t ask a trans person to date a transphobe.

You wouldn’t ask a gay person to date a homophobe. You wouldn’t ask a person of colour to date a racist. So why are we OK with women dating misogynists? It’s not OK.

It’s very dangerous, in fact. I would definitely never date someone who even was apolitical … But if you’re a Trump supporter … You’re either incredibly uneducated or you’re a bad person. That’s my personal opinion. I think it’s completely reasonable to not want to date someone who is politically dangerous to you.

Listen to the full interview with Abbie Chatfield on Something To Talk About:

Feminist writer Clementine Ford recently accused you of “profiting from the performance of being politically engaged” and “platforming genocide supporters” in reference to you interviewing Anthony Albanese on It’s A Lot. You fired back with a passionate response on TikTok, and a million headlines ensued. What’s it like being in the middle of that?

I feel like I’m in the middle of stories like that all the time. So it’s kind of, unfortunately, my norm. But it’s never enjoyable or pleasant. This idea that because I’m not doing things perfectly, that I’m an idiotic narcissist, I don’t know anything, I’m brain dead, I’m a deeply basic thinker – they’re just insults. It’s not actually critiquing my work. It was really hurtful because after that, the right-wing comments came in saying, “Nothing better than a cat fight. Two feminists fighting. You can’t even agree with each other.” It’s very demeaning. And that isn’t Clementine’s fault, but it’s something that she should have considered, and that I’ve considered when I haven’t called her out for things that I’d say are deeply damaging.

You and your partner, DJ and music producer Adam Hyde, have been together for almost 18 months now. Very old-school question here: as you head into your 30s, are you starting to think differently about relationships? Are people beginning to ask you and Adam: when are you going to put a ring on it?

My friends are all in their mid-30s. My first friend got married a couple of weeks ago, so they aren’t really adhering to that kind of societal norm. And I have a single mother, so my mum isn’t really doing it. Mum is doing the, “God, my friend Sue has got a grandchild. Isn’t that lovely?” She’s doing subtle hints. I think I’ve always been like: If I get married, great. If I have kids, great, whatever. We’ll see what happens. And I’m still kind of in that. But if I was going to get married and have kids with anyone, it would be Adam. It’s been like a year-and-a-half now and he moved in recently. It’s been so great and it really is quite jarring seeing what a healthy relationship is like from the inside. It makes me go, whoa, I shouldn’t have ever been with any of those losers before. Hopefully Adam and I are together forever, touch wood. But if we weren’t together, this relationship has changed my outlook on relationships, in that I understand that I should only be in a relationship if it’s genuinely benefiting me in more than one aspect of my life. I either need to be alone or be with Adam. Those are kind of my two options at this point.

For more from Abbie Chatfield, listen below:

Speaking of your mum, there have been rumours she might be popping up on The Golden Bachelor?

Don’t do that to me! Oh my God. Yeah, time will tell. Don’t make me do that. But I guess that’s kind of an answer, isn’t it?

Listen to It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield wherever you get your podcasts.

Originally published as ‘I don’t think women should date Trump supporters’: Abbie Chatfield on drama, dating and Donald Trump