Stu Laundy breaks silence on Sophie Monk rumours

THE rumour mill has been in full swing since The Bachelorette finale, and Stu Laundy has moved to set the record straight.

THEY’VE been dogged by breakup rumours ever since announcing their love for each other on national TV last week, but Stu Laundy has moved to set the record straight on his relationship with Sophie Monk.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Daily Telegraph, Laundy has hit back at claims The Bachelorette pair were no longer together.

Laundy insisted he and Monk were indeed an item, but said their relationship was so young that there was no talk of future plans, including marriage or children.

“Realistically, in simple terms I have been dating Soph for a couple of months,” Laundy told The Telegraph.

“What sort of couple who have been dating that long get asked walking down the street about kids, marriage, the future?

“It is very early days. There are no future plans, we are just a couple starting out in a relationship and very happy with each other. It is a pressure cooker. You need a little perspective.

“At the moment we are living in Sydney in a hotel and next week I think we are going to the Gold Coast.”

The candid new photos below seem to prove just how smitten Laundy and Monk are.

The couple were snapped at Sydney restaurant Chin Chin on Thursday night where one woman spotted them dining with a group of 10 friends.

Irina Markovsky, from Bondi’s Art Moment Gallery, said despite the less than intimate surroundings, the way they behaved left no doubt in her mind they were together.

“I was meeting up with a friend for a post-engagement catch up and they were sitting behind her,” Ms Markovsky told news.com.au.

Stu Laundy and Sophie Monk were out with a group of friends.

The couple were pictured laughing.

“I know there has been speculation about whether they are still together but I was sitting facing their table. They definitely looked like a couple,” she said.

“I definitely saw them kiss. I saw that. They looked very loved up. He was kissing her in front of people,” Ms Markovsky added.

Sophie Monk and Stu Laundy’s post-finale Bachelorette shoot. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Monk chose millionaire pub baron Stu Laundy over vineyard manager Jarrod Woodgate on The Bachelorette finale last Thursday night.

“You said loving me was the best thing you’ve done in a while. I don’t think anyone has ever said that to me,” she told him.

“So I have two really important things to tell you. The first thing is: I’m so sorry I misjudged you when I first met you. And the second thing is: I’m in love with you,” she added, signalling an end to the best season of the reality show so far.

However despite the emotional finale, the pair have had to bat off breakup rumours ever since.

This week radio host Jonathon Brown made a sensational claim on his radio show Chrissie, Sam and Browny that Monk was in a secret relationship with a man from Melbourne.

“We’ve been out digging. We did hear from very good authority that Sophie Monk has a boyfriend and it’s not Stu Laundy,” he alleged.

Brown said the Melbourne-based mystery man worked in the “club scene” — and tabloid magazines were circling, eager to reveal his identity and connection to Monk.

“He has been named in gossip pages and [she] did know the fellow before she went into the [Bachelorette] house. It was reported in the gossip pages that she may have made a call to said man and asked him to be an intruder ... That did not happen,” he continued.

The radio host was the latest in a string of media identities to publicly cast doubt on the validity of Monk and Laundy’s relationship since the former Bardot singer picked him in last week’s Bachelorette finale.

The couple’s awkward interview on The Project last Friday night led to speculation the pair might’ve already broken up — a rumour that was further spread when radio host Kate Langbroek posted a photo of the couple with the caption “She hates him”.

Laundy also wasn’t impressed with the treatment he received from Langbroek before they appeared on her radio show Hughesy and Kate.

“I walked into the studio with Kate, Soph and I both saw it, she just went straight at me,” he told Kyle and Jackie O.

“This was off air. This was before the radio with Kate. She said: ‘This is a scam and it will take a lot of convincing for me to believe it.’

“I wish the public would love us but there’s not a lot we can do when these people have the microphone.”

Earlier this week, another radio host Em Rusciano said she thought Monk had “played everyone” and had no real intention of finding love on The Bachelorette.

“I think Sophie Monk has got exactly what she wanted to get out of this show,” the radio personality said.

“I think she’s a smart businesswoman, that she wants to be in the entertainment industry and I think she’s become Australia’s darling. Everyone got to see her true skill and talent as a human and I think that she’s really played a trick on everyone because the ultimate prize for her will be a great career, not a man.

“I think she’s played everyone and I salute that and I high five Sophie Monk.”

Sophie and Stu. Picture: Channel 10