Dirty street pies, rangas, the un-proposal — Unforgettable Bachelor, Bachelorette moments aired on TV
From dirty street pies to rants about rangas the TV quest for love isn’t always helicopter rides and chilled champagne. As two sisters begin their quest for love we revisit the chaos, cattiness and crazy contestant outbursts of the Bachelor and Bachelorette.
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Sunset helicopter rides, exotic cruises on private yachts, chilled champagne by candlelight with a whole restaurant to yourself.
Producers of The Bachelor and Bachelorette spare no expense coming up with the kind of elaborate dates you’d normally only find only in the pages of a Mills and Boon novel.
Yet it is rarely the pre-planned moments of clichéd romance that get viewers excited.
No, it is the tears and tantrums, the colourful (and catfighting) characters and the behind-the-scenes scandals that have kept fans saying “I do” to this reality romance franchise year after year.
We count down some of moments from seasons past that definitely deserve a rose (or perhaps a thorn or two).
RUNAWAY BADGER
Rugby player Nick Cummins (aka the Honey Badger) broke the mould of what viewers had come to expect from their TV Bachelor. Not just because of his larrikin humour and mop of unruly curls but because of his failure to select any of the ladies vying for his affections. Cummins caused a huge upset when he told both finalists, Brittany Hockley and Sophie Tieman, that he was breaking up with them in the series finale. Cummins fled overseas soon after the controversial season finished while his two crestfallen finalists both said they hoped he was embarrassed for leaving them (and fans) high and dry after months of TV wooing. Cummins, however, defended his decision arguing that it would have been far worse to string a woman along for the sake of contractual obligations when he knew in his heart, he didn’t love her. “Out of respect to these women, if I can’t stand here right now and say I’m picking her and I love her … if I can’t say that, why would I start something with someone?” he explained.
THE GINGER WHINGER
The most memorable moment of this year’s Bachelor came on night one from a contestant named Zoe-Clare McDonald who inexplicably launched a rambling rant about prejudice against her red hair. A tearful McDonald said the other women in the house were bullying her because she was the lone ranga.
“No-one has my hair, my bone structure, my body … but you are still different, you are still a f***ing ranga at the end of the day,” she moaned.
When asked by a producer whether anyone had actually made any disparaging remarks about her flame-coloured tresses, McDonald conceded that no, they had not. She just knew that’s what they meant. OK, then.
PASS ON THE PIE
It was the tantrum to end all tantrums that even spawned its own hashtag. Dressed to the nines, contestant Laurina Fleure unleashed her fury on Bachelor Blake Garvey when he escorted her out to eat at Harry’s cafe de Wheels pie cart for their first one-on-one date. “Everyone else gets Ferraris, super yachts and private jets and I get a dirty street pie,” a disgusted Laurina spat. The owner of the culinary cart in question, Michael Hannah, later said he was inundated with emails from single ladies reassuring him they’d kill to go on a date to his iconic takeaway establishment. Laurina, too, has since explained that she holds nothing against pies and has been known to bolt a Four N’ Twenty on occasion. “It wasn’t that I can’t enjoy a pie,” she said. “Like honestly, if I’m crazy famished, I’ll get one from the servo and I’ll eat it in the car, and I’ll get the pastry all over me.”
THE UN-PROPOSAL
It was the perfect ending to the second season — Bachelor Blake Garvey on bended knee in front of a magnificent South African sunset proposing to everyone’s favourite contestant, Sam Frost — until he took it back. Once the cameras stopped rolling Garvey told a stunned Frost that he wanted to break with her at a meeting with production staff. Garvey added insult to injury when he began dating second runner-up, Louise Pillidge, soon after dumping Frost.
The blonde star, who went on to be the franchise’s first Bachelorette, later said of Garvey’s actions: “I am so annoyed at him that he proposed — and that’s what I said to him. When he called it off, I said, ‘How dare you propose to me? How dare you take that away from me? Because I want to be engaged once and get married once and I want to believe in it.’”
FRESH AIR OF SUNSHINE
It was clear from the very first moment Vanessa Sunshine strutted into the Bachelor mansion that she marched to the beat of her own drum. Rather than fawning over Bachelor Nick Cummins, she wasted no time telling him he needed a makeover. “I’m like, ‘Who’s this dude?’ Blonde, curly mullet with this like, curling moustache,’” she told a visibly stunned Cummins. Her withering put-downs and candour about not finding Cummins all that attractive meant Sunshine made few friends in the mansion. But it certainly made her a fan favourite! Sunshine’s sunset from the series was as memorable as her entrance, with the ousted contestant standing in awkward silence for what seemed like an eternity after it became clear she was getting no rose.
LOVE BIRDS
They may not have received roses from Richie Strahan, but that didn’t mean contestants Megan Marx and Tiffany Scanlon left the mansion bearing broken hearts. The two women made headlines when they announced they were a couple, with many fans of the show labelling the relationship a “publicity stunt”. Confirming the relationship in a 2016 Instagram post, Marx wrote: “From that first cocktail party, it was like this instant calibration between souls, as if we had known each other once before. Friendship ripened into something bolder …” Although they are no longer dating, Marx has said she felt hurt by the backlash against them at the time. She has also blamed the media attention their pairing received for their break-up. “I don’t feel like people take my sexuality seriously … being bisexual or sexually fluid, people automatically think it’s a publicity stunt,” she said.
ROSES ARE RED (AND TASTY)
Although it appears to be all champagne and catfights by candlelight, filming a rose ceremony can be deathly dull, stretching well into the wee hours of the morning, leaving contestants tired, bored and hungry. Russian Sasha Zhuravlyova raised eyebrows when she appeared to start eating the long-stemmed red rose Bachelor Matty J had given her midway through the ceremony. She later explained she nibbled her rose only because it was covered in sugar and, after hours of filming, she needed a sugar hit to stay awake.
LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE
Sure, chocolates are considered an aphrodisiac and a shared bathtub could seem like a romantic way to spend an evening. But it’s hard to see why producers thought that combining the two would be anything other than a hot mess. Bachelor Richie Strahan and his eventual winner Alex Nation sent pulses racing when they spent their date soaking together in a tub filled with molten chocolate – and not in a good way. Viewers were left dumbfounded and uncomfortable by the (literally) saucy soak.
PLAN B BACKFIRES
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that openly flirting with a producer when you’re supposed to be chasing The Bachelor is going to end badly. Matt Agnew sent Rachael Arahill packing when he discovered she’d been two-timing him with a member of the crew. The unabashed blonde said the guy in question was a much better romantic bet than “dorky” astrophysicist Agnew because he was good-looking, nice and funny and – most importantly – lived near her house. It’s fair to say Arahill did leave the mansion with something to show for it. She claims she contracted a nasty case of athlete’s foot from sharing the bathroom with so many other women. Eww.
SOPHIE’S CHOICE
When serial reality star Sophie Monk did a stint as The Bachelorette, she made no secret of her desire to one day have a baby. The blonde starlet was left stunned when one of her preferred suitors, millionaire pub owner Stu Laundy, told her he’d had a vasectomy years earlier. Despite this disappointing revelation, Monk overcame her concerns that Laundy might not be able to give her a child and chose him over runner-up Jarrod Woodgate. Poor Woodgate was left in floods of tears, mournfully walking off down the beach alone, after Monk cast him adrift from her life. While Monk cheerfully explained she had plans to freeze her eggs and get Laundy’s vasectomy reversed so that they could start a family, the relationship between them cooled and they parted ways a few months after filming wrapped.
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