Karlie Rutherford: Sophie’s no choice — she was set up to fail
HE was the best of a bad lot, but Sophie Monk was never going to live happily ever after with her Bachelorette beau Stuart Laundy.
Opinion
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HE was the best of a bad lot, but Sophie Monk was never going to live happily ever after with her Bachelorette beau Stuart Laundy.
After spending the last three months denying rumours their relationship was a sham, Monk has confirmed she’s split from the millionaire publican who accepted her final rose in October.
On Instagram yesterday, the 37-year-old, who is holidaying in Canada, said, “I gave it the best shot I could and my intentions were everything I said I was looking for, but unfortunately it just didn’t work out.
“As much as I respect him (Laundy), we are just very different people.”
Monk said she had joined The Bachelorette last year, “looking to settle down and have a family”.
She didn’t have a hope. It was clear from the outset there was no future among any of the 20 age-inappropriate, fame-hungry suitors. Monk was set up to fail. All for our viewing pleasure.
Producers said in a statement yesterday they were “sorry to hear” about the breakup and “wish them both the very best for the future”. Yet they could have thrown in some suitable suitors. But they didn’t and they then enjoyed the highest ratings in The Bachelorette’s eight-season history.
After four failed, high-profile engagements (one to Good Charlotte’s Benji Madden) Monk was done with impostors and “cocky men with six packs”. But that was precisely what Channel 10’s producers served her up.
Despite wanting a man over 30, whose idea of a perfect date was “UGG boots, trackies, TV, wine” she got Apollo the magician. He was a sweetie but at 24 was not ready to start a family. Other suitors included bad-boy Ryan, 26, a good friend of John Ibrahim’s son Daniel Taylor, and 31-year-old voice-over artist Sam. None of them were going to work.
Then Laundy, the intruder, arrived. But at 44, the only box he ticked was age.
“All the men were inadequate, but Stu, who was looking for the media limelight, was the best of a bad lot,” body language expert Dr Louise Maher, who studied the show, said.
Laundy had a playboy past. He also had four kids, a divorce that wasn’t finalised and more emotional baggage that you could possibly pack into his multimillion-dollar yacht. And a vasectomy.
Although Dr Maher said the couple were genuinely together as the final episode aired, she said it was already clear “there was no essence of a lasting relationship”.
Still, maybe the format of the show isn’t suited to the over-35s. The type of man Monk needed isn’t the type to take three months off work for 15 minutes of fame.
But what must be galling for Monk, is that for the first time in the show’s history, potential contestants knew the Bachelorette’s identity and her requirements.
Now Monk is back where she started.
Still, she might not have found love, but she has landed a six-figure deal hosting Channel 9’s Love Island. Not a bad consolation prize.