Olympia Valance: ‘I met a very, very good boy in Tom Bellchambers’

As soapie star Olympia Valance and ex AFL star Tom Bellchambers get ready to tie the knot in country Victoria, the pair reveal what they’re hoping for in a life together.

It has been a whirlwind romance for Neighbours star Olympia Valance and former Essendon player Tom Bellchambers, who have gone from dating-app swipe to walking down the aisle in three years. As they prepare to embark on their happily-ever-after next month, the pair tell Stellar their wedding will be like them: family orientated, not too perfect and definitely not boring.

Olympia Valance and Tom Bellchambers insist their June wedding will be “a really great party” for the 250 family and friends about to descend upon the two-hectare venue in picturesque Daylesford, 100km north-west of Melbourne.

After all, the actor and the AFL veteran bought their nearby cottage in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range about two years ago with plans to use it as a weekend retreat.

At the very least, the region will be a cosy, intimate place to say “I do”. As Bellchambers tells Stellar with a laugh about the nearby town of Glenlyon, which has a population of just under 400.

“I feel like we already know 350 of those people. That’s the great thing about the country. Everyone really does know everyone.”

For Valance, 29, getting to know Bellchambers, 32, has been a romantic and surprising journey, especially since she has no recollection of their first meeting, a trackside conversation at the Spring Racing Carnival 18 months before they were matched on Raya, an exclusive, invitation-only online dating service, in autumn 2019.

“Clearly I didn’t make much of an impression,” Bellchambers says with a smile.

“But then we met again on Raya, and it was a bit of a fairytale love story from there, really… I’m pretty sure after a first couple of dates, Olympia basically moved into my apartment, and the rest is history.”

Valance insists her foggy memory of the day at the races had more to do with her misconceptions about AFL players than too many glasses of champagne.

She may have played a celebrity WAG in the Network 10 drama Playing For Keeps, but says dating Bellchambers has opened her eyes to the reality of that world.

Olympia Valance says footballers are ‘all just good boys’. Picture: Sam Bisso

“I think in my head I had already judged every single football player from a stereotype that we all kind of have of them and it’s just so untrue,” Valance explains to Stellar.

“Most of them are married with kids. It’s like the smallest margin of those football players who are “players” ([in the figurative sense). But other than that, they’re all just good boys. And I met a very, very good boy.”

Still, Bellchambers points out that it wasn’t until he announced his retirement that Valance could even contemplate falling in love with him.

After hanging up his boots, the former Essendon star did some coaching before taking on a job as a building project manager. He hasn’t ruled out doing something with the AFL in the future, but for now, he’s enjoying having his weekends back.

“Just being in a new stage of my life where we’re getting married and this new job, these are the things that are really exciting for me at the moment,” he says.

While their relationship wasn’t exactly love at first sight, the pair say they realised quickly that they had a future together. After they began dating, Bellchambers discovered that Valance’s grandmother lived in the same apartment building, which expedited his introduction to her family, who welcomed him into their close-knit fold straightaway.

It took a bit more travel for Valance to get to know the Launceston-based Bellchambers clan, but she wasted no time winning over her future mother-in-law.

“I think there might have been one or two (girlfriends) I brought home over the years who Mum didn’t really think were wife material,” Bellchambers admits. “And obviously when I brought Olympia home, Mum probably knew – sooner than me – that she was going to be the one for me long-term.”

Tom Bellchambers says he and Olympia ‘love the country life’. Picture: Sam Bisso.

That long-term begins with their June nuptials. While the couple initially planned to wed in Greece, they opted to instead have a winter celebration at home.

“We decided to bring it forward by about five months, so we’ve had to kind of do things quite quickly,” Valance says. “But to be honest with you, I don’t understand why people feel like they need two years to plan a wedding. It doesn’t take that long.”

The bride has a similarly relaxed approach to her gown, leaving it in the hands of J’Aton, the design duo who created Sophie Monk’s dress for her wedding to Joshua Gross in March, as well as Rebecca Judd’s layered dress in 2010 and Veronicas singer Lisa Origliasso’s classic dress in 2018.

“I’ve never really had an idea of what my wedding dress would look like because I’ve been lucky enough to wear so many beautiful gowns over my career,” Valance admits with a shrug.

“I just want them to kind of have creative control because I know whatever they do, it’s going to be sensational.”

While they plan to spend their honeymoon in Greece, the pair will first unwind at their Daylesford cottage, which was their safe haven during the pandemic.

“We love the country life,” Bellchambers says. “It’s not to say we’ll be there for good – it has suited where we are (in life), but with Olympia getting super busy with work again, we’ll have to look at our options.”

Part of that work will see Valance reprise her role as Paige Smith on Neighbours. She left the series in 2018 but, just like fellow alumni Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Natalie Bassingthwaighte, she’ll be there when the series ends in August.

“I’ve always been very grateful for what Neighbours has done for me in my career,” she reflects. “If it wasn’t for (it), I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Olympia Valance: ‘I’ve always been very grateful for what Neighbours has done for me in my career’. Picture: Sam Bisso

Tom Bellchambers: ‘I’ve got two left feet’. Picture: Sam Bisso

As for her elder sister Holly, who also made her name on Neighbours before embarking on a successful music career in the early 2000s and marrying property tycoon Nick Candy in 2012, Valance “highly, highly doubts” she’ll make a comeback to the show:

“She’s in London. She’s got two young kids. I can’t see her coming back to Nunawading. Not that there’s anything wrong with Nunawading!”

Valance says she’s simply hopeful her sister will return home for the wedding, which will feature Bellchambers’ brothers and Valance’s two younger sisters in the ceremony.

Meanwhile, her stepfather Ross Wilson, lead singer of rock band Daddy Cool, will serenade the pair for their first dance.

Keen to impress guests when she hits the floor, Valance has sought choreography advice from Gustavo Viglio, her partner on Dancing With The Stars: All Stars earlier this year.

Olympia Valance and Tom Bellchambers star on the cover of this Sunday’s Stellar. Picture: Sam Bisso

Bellchambers is more reticent. “I’ve got two left feet, so it’s not great,” he says of his form. “I think we’ve decided to try to use my stature and put some lifts in there. Just trying to take away from what my feet are doing down there”.

Not that it matters as the pair say they’re not looking for perfection in their routine, or each other. “Because that,” Valance says, as Bellchambers agrees, “would be boring”.