Bachelor In Paradise’s Leah Costa reveals cringeworthy ‘gotcha’ moment

WHAT in the world is going on? Bachelor In Paradise’s Leah Costa apparently tried to give us all an “education” with a bizarre stunt — but it’s kind of backfired.

BACHELOR In Paradise’s Leah Costa has unveiled a trick she’s been playing on all of us — to “make a point” about the “power of suggestion”.

In case you’d forgotten, Leah, 25, first appeared as the “villain” on Matty J’s season of The Bachelor before having a second shot at love and a TV career in Bachelor In Paradise.

Now, perhaps inspired by Karl Stefanovic’s famous suit stunt — which saw him wear the same outfit for a year with no one noticing — the reality TV contestant has attempted to make a point about the media after sporting an engagement ring in a string of recent interviews.

Leah had hightailed it out of Paradise after failing to make a connection with any of the guys, and during her follow-up media blitz announced that she’d since found love — while waving around the ring.

For instance, during this segment on Studio 10:

Not even the weather & some juicy stories from #BachelorInParadiseAU can distract us from the bling on Leah's ring finger... 😏💍 #Studio10 pic.twitter.com/Osm9crZJx8

— Studio 10 (@Studio10au) April 22, 2018

However, not all is as it seems. It’s unknown whether or not she actually has a boyfriend — but Leah has confirmed that she’s definitely not engaged, and was instead giving us all an “#education”, while comparing her reality TV plight to “countless political campaigns” and “wars”.

Unfortunately, unlike Karl Stefanovic’s widely-praised experiment, Leah’s hasn’t really landed.

She revealed her cringe-worthy “gotcha” moment in a since-deleted post on Instagram, writing a lengthy caption about how we’d all been taken in by the “power of suggestion”, alongside what looks to be a stock image of a woman holding up a huge diamond ring.

A screenshot of Leah’s since-deleted post. Source: Tahlia Pritchard/Twitter

“Over the past few weeks I’ve been positioning you all to buy a particular truth, to try and raise the issue and get you talking about how often this occurs and how much emphasis everyone puts on their version of truth,” Leah wrote.

“You may have all seen a sparkly ring appear on my finger. Without having ever said I am engaged and without having ever confirmed or denied it (sic), without even used the term myself (sic) and even despite clearly stating last night on The Project ‘you’re putting words in my mouth’ I have managed to show you all the power of suggestion.

“For you to then go and create our own version of the truth based upon the little information suggested.

“I ask you all to understand the power of television and the integrity of the media. Educate yourselves about the things you are watching and the power of suggestion, but most of all take it with a grain of salt.”

Leah added the hashtags “media”, “education”, “power of suggestion”, “unreal”, “fake news”, “manipulation”, “truth” and “lies”.

She may have had noble intentions, but fans aren’t really buying it.

As one commented on the post: “I’m not sure, but this seems like an attempt to justify your behaviour on TV? To prove that you are indeed not the person you were shown as being? If so, I’m not sure if this has achieved what you set out to achieve.”

Another was less diplomatic: “You think you’re being a master manipulator but instead you’re completely embarrassing yourself ... ‘Power of suggestion.’ Please. You must be so narcissistic if you cannot see that 99.9 per cent of Australia is calling you a deranged attention seeker but you’re just sitting there thinking you have all the power in the world ... Just stop.”

Meanwhile, one follower simply wrote: “You’ve lost the plot. Really liked you in Bachelor, but now you’re obsessed with attention.”