Confessions of The Bachelor: What really goes on behind-the-scenes

WE saw them vying for the love of Sam Wood on last year’s hit show, and now three ladies who survived the mansion reveal what life is really like on set.

WE saw them vying for the love of Sam Wood on last year’s The Bachelor, and now the ladies who lived to tell their tales reveal what really goes on behind-the-scenes.

Sam Wood was 2015’s Bachelor.

This is what day to day life is really like while filming one of the most talked about and written about shows on Australian TV.

The Herald Sun cosied up with three gorgeous bachelorettes: Emily Simms, Sandra Rato and Ebru Dallikavak.

Each tells their version of life in the Sydney mansion as they got to know Wood.

While it was a terrible experience for Simms and Rato had a better experience, for Ebru Dallikavak, the show itself was fun.

From feeling “violated” to being stereotyped as “the drunken one” and those “nerve-racking” rose ceremonies.

Here the girls reveal their little secrets:

EMILY SIMMS

THE most talked about girl last year on The Bachelor, Emily Simms, revealed she and some of the other girls left the show feeling institutionalised because of the environment they lived in while filming.

Simms opened up about many of the secrets of the popular Channel 10 show, an experience overall that left her feeling “violated.”

Life on The Bachelor was strictly controlled by TV producers.

There was no contact with the outside world other then a 10 minute, monitored family phone call every two weeks.

There was no TV, no magazines, huge long days and meltdowns in hair and make up.

It’s an environment Simms said was carefully constructed by producers.

“They make you basically live and breath him (The Bachelor, Sam Wood), and obviously the other girls, so there is not too much to do.

“I guess they do it all to make us go a little bit nuts.

“There is nothing to think about, there is not much to do, so you sit around and talk about him and the other girls, the dates, it’s your world.

“The way some of us girls described it when we came out was like we felt like we had been institutionalised.

“I actually didn’t leave the house for a week I think when I came home.

“I just didn’t do anything, it was almost a scared feeling of going out in public, because you are in this safe bubble for so long and not seeing anyone other then the girls you live with and the producers.”

Emily Simms during a photoshoot on set of The Bachelor. Picture: Supplied

Emily Simms attends The Dressmaker premiere. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

Simms was in The Bachelor mansion in Sydney for six weeks, and she believes, was wrongly portrayed as the villain and the bitch of the series.

She revealed:

LONG call days that make everyone tired and often emotional.

“Some days our call time would be 5am, 6am and we would be shooting sometimes to midnight or after,” she said.

“There would be some nights we would be shooting to 1am and some of the girls would have a call time at 6am, it was like, you have got to be kidding?

“None of these thing happened by accident.”

THE famous rose ceremonies go on for hours and there is alcohol there if the girls want it, it became hugely stressful. “We would all go into hair and make up, we would have set times, we all go and sit in the kitchen, start drinking, have some dinner and then go out the cameras would be on. It was a long day of getting ready.

“Then of course some girls would be freaking out that they hated their hair or their make up or they didn’t like their dress, or they felt fat, all these things come into play and people start to freak out a bit.

“I think everyone at some point, including myself, had a meltdown in hair and make up.”

Emily and Sam take a surfing lesson. Picture: Channel 10

THE producers might be nice as pie in the beginning, but Simms became wary.

“I didn’t trust any of them. Some of the girls did, I probably did early on. It was towards the end of my time in there that I started to realise that this is their job, and they don’t care. They care about ratings. We had two different producers that lived with us, I trusted those two girls, but the actual TV producers I don’t trust them.”

THE food wasn’t great, which she believes is another tactic to stir up issues. “In the beginning that was a nightmare I found, as someone who’s got some food issues, I can’t have things — it was difficult in the beginning.”

What upset Simms the most in her mind was the way she trusted everyone involved in the beginning, and she couldn’t be more blunt about her experience — it wasn’t positive.

She believes she was seen as the “villain” and the “bitch” of the series, something she can’t get her head around.

“You feel betrayed, because the process to get into the show, it’s pretty invasive really,” she said.

“They go through your entire life, they ask you everything, you have to show them all kinds of medical tests and things and you have to speak to their psychologist for an hour.

“They know everything about you.

“I told them everything, about my childhood, about what school life was like for me.

“I told them a lot of really personal things.

“The one thing I made really clear to them in my audition as well as their psychologist, was that I don’t tolerate a bitch, I won’t tolerate two-faced people.

“If I don’t like someone, I’m not going to be overly friendly to them.

“I’ll always be polite, but I’m not going to be two-faced, and I don’t tolerate that from others. “Then I felt they made me look like the person that I wouldn’t like. That was unforgivable in mind.”

A year after her experience, Simms said she is moving on, thanks to very supportive family and friends.

“I’m good, I’m really happy,” she said.

“I’ve got a great group of friends who have been really supportive, everything is really good.

“The whole experience is long gone for me.”

SANDRA RATO

Remember Sandra Rato? She was the girl who said what she thinks early on.

She was loud, got involved with all the girls and gossiped a bit, but she has no regrets.

Rato said despite being slammed by some of the girls and the general public, she has the attitude that the whole experience was just a bit of fun, but something she would never do again.

In that first rose ceremony everyone accused Sandra of being drunk, but she revealed another side to the story.

“Unfortunately I got pinned being the drunken loud one, but I don’t drink,” she said.

“I didn’t have any alcohol, I’ve got a loud personality as it is.

“I was drinking water out of those beautiful champagne glasses we got offered.

“We had to hold something to make it look like a cocktail party.

“In my experience, obviously there is alcohol there, but you choose to drink it or not.

“It’s not forced on you.”
While some of the other ladies felt manipulated by the producers who prod for storylines, for

Sandra Rato strikes a pose. Picture: Nicole Cleary

Rato, they didn’t have to — she delivered.

“I guess I was a producer’s dream,” she said.

“People would say, Sandra, do you think before you speak?

“I just wanted to be real.”

Rato actually revelled in the conditions in the Sydney mansion, and she loved being so remote and cut off from the rest of the normal world.

“I didn’t have my phone, so there is no need to post to social media or call anyone,” she said.

“It came down to communication, learning about one another and actually having to talk.

“You learn things about each other, and I loved to write. I got some books in, I was reading. I was doing yoga.

“There is so much down time, and you need to make use of that down time.”

One thing that did shock Sandra was the reaction of people, and the girls, once she left the house and the show aired.

“I’ve read a lot of horror stories about people coming out from being a contestant on a reality show, and you can fall to rock bottom, get depressed and not want to go out in the real world,” she said.

“I can see how that happens, because people are so nasty.

“You have got trolls, not only on social media, but people on the streets.

“This happened when I got out, people were really negative towards me.

“If you are going to watch reality television, don’t take it so personally.

‘It’s all just fun, it’s entertainment.”

“I was shocked at first.”

EBRU DALLIKAVAK

For Ebru Dallikavak, the show was fun.
She did reveal however, that The Bachelor Sam Wood had his favourites early on.

She said some of the other girls didn’t get a real look in.

But you couldn’t narrow the field to three or four girls after the first week, because there would be no show, she added.

“He definitely had favourites from the get go, it was discussed behind the cameras, between a lot of us,” she said.

“The favourites were obvious. He was interested in Snez, Heather and Sarah.

“I think the other girls thought if he has his favourites, then why is he still here?

“But I guess a lot of us just stuck it out and thought we would get a single date, we will get more time with him on a group date, because anything can happen.”

There had also been much focus on the girls drinking at the long rose ceremonies, it’s obvious, she said, watch the opening cocktail party.

Ebru Dallikavak on set at the mansion. Picture: Supplied

Ebru Dallikavak on the Starry Starry Night red carpet after the show finished. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

Ebro confirmed at times some of the girls may have become carried away with drinking, but added it was a stressful situation they were in.

“At times we did get a bit carried away with the alcohol, but they don’t force you to drink.

“It’s a night when you are all dressed up, you have to make the most of it.

“With the rose ceremonies, it’s quite nerve-racking.

“Your situation in the house is quite interesting, your whole focus is Sam and making sure you get a rose, you are so fixated on that.

“I believe that does contribute to you drinking a lot more; because you are so nervous.

“You think, if I drink that will calm my nerves down.

“That does add a certain element of course.”

Ebro, unlike Simms, said she had hardly any time at all with Wood when the cameras were off — she said it was very strictly controlled for her by the producers.

“The majority of the time you spend with Sam are when the cameras are on,” she said.

“They don’t allow you to spend any time or much time when the cameras are off.

“It is frustrating, because a lot of the girls are quite timid in front of the camera, and you can’t be yourself as much as you want to be.

“It is frustrating that you can’t let him see the true side to you, that’s the most frustrating part.”

Originally published as Confessions of The Bachelor: What really goes on behind-the-scenes