The one thing Abbie Chatfield won’t talk about
The reality star has built an empire on sharing her thoughts on everything from sex to vibrators, but she tells Stellar there’s one topic that’s off-limits.
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There’s not much that’s off limits for Abbie Chatfield. The former star of The Bachelor has built a generation Z-fuelled feminist empire from her social media presence (330,000-plus followers on Instagram), where she talks about everything from sex and masturbation to vibrators and the Covid vaccine.
But there’s one thing the 26-year-old won’t share with her audience, and that’s who she dates. “I don’t ever talk about who I’m dating – ever,” Chatfield tells Stellar On Friday.
“Everyone thinks I’m constantly single and alone, and the trolls are like, ‘This is why no-one likes you!’ No-one ever knows who I’m dating, and I prefer to keep it that way until I’m, like, very serious with someone.”
For the record, though, Chatfield is single – and, after months in Sydney’s lockdown, she says she’s more than ready to mingle, adding, “Lockdown has really been a vibe.”
In her latest role as the host of Love Island Australia spin-off Afterparty, Chatfield is furthering her career in reality TV, where she famously got her start as the runner-up on Matt Agnew’s season of The Bachelor, and was publicly criticised for being forthright about her desires.
“It’s not that I’d never be a contestant again, but I’ve done three shows – it’s exhausting,”
Chatfield says of her time on The Bachelor, last year’s season of Bachelor In Paradise, and her appearance on this year’s I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! which saw her crowned queen of the jungle. “It’s really hard.”
Chatfield’s pro-vaccine stance – and her openness to call out anti-vaxxers (most recently fellow Bachelor star Sam Frost) on Instagram – has brought out the trolls.
“I think people have so many insecurities and want to project that on to someone else, and feel like they’re seen and heard,” she says in response.
“They find someone they hate, and they enjoy hating them. People are like, ‘You’re brave [taking on trolls]’. I’m like, ‘It’s just because I can’t keep my mouth shut.’ It’s more like, ‘Well, this person is blatantly wrong – I’m going to explain why they’re wrong.’ There’s a lot of positivity in my DMs, people being like, ‘Don’t worry about the trolls, babe, love you!’ As far as trolls go, it’s ‘You dumb bimbo sl**, I hope you die.’”
When it comes to coping with that kind of negativity, Chatfield says therapy “is the only thing” that’s helped.
“People give what I imagine is ‘boomer’ advice about the internet – ‘Oh, just don’t look at it!’ It’s my job to look at the feedback... Like, I have to [look].”
“They’ll say, ‘Skim through them!’ But I’m still seeing the words ‘die’ and ‘b*tch’. I still see it. The only way [to cope with that is by] talking to someone like a therapist who can give you tangible things to do, rather than being like, ‘Don’t worry about it, babe.’”
However, Chatfield says no blowback will keep her from speaking up.
“Isn’t it exhausting to be constantly thinking about what you’re posting? I just have an issue where I can’t keep my mouth shut – that’s probably more of a chat for therapy.”
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Originally published as The one thing Abbie Chatfield won’t talk about
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