Bachelor star Leah Costa tries to explain bizarre fake engagement stunt

BACHELOR In Paradise star Leah Costa has quit social media and tried to explain herself after copping serious backlash over a stunt designed to “teach us all a lesson”.

AFTER copping heavy backlash for her bizarre “engagement” stunt, Bachelor In Paradise’s Leah Costa has quit social media and admitted it wasn’t “the best thought-out” plan.

On the Kyle and Jackie O show this morning, Leah, 25, attempted to explain her motives for the “experiment”, which saw her purposely flashing an engagement ring during interviews before revealing it was a hoax designed to teach us a lesson.

In her “gotcha” moment, Leah posted a lengthy statement on Instagram describing how she had been “positioning” everyone “to buy a particular truth,” alongside a random photo of a woman wearing an engagement ring. She added the hashtags “media”, “education”, “power of suggestion”, “unreal”, “fake news”, “manipulation”, “truth” and “lies”.

It may have turned into a calculated stunt, but the reality TV contestant insisted it had started out by accident — she’d gone on a date with a ring coincidentally on her left hand, and some news outlets had speculated she was engaged.

“I wear three or four rings [when I go out], doesn’t mean anything, especially these days where different cultures wear the ring on different hands, it means different things ... Like, to just instantly assume ...” Leah rambled to the KIIS hosts.

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

After that, she decided to “teach you all a lesson”.

“I never confirmed or denied and it made this big speculation ... Even on The Project, I said ‘You’re putting words in my mouth’, and then yeah, my experiment grew legs and people started talking about it.”

They may have been talking about it — but probably not in the way she’d hoped.

Most people seemed confused at best, while others bluntly told Leah she was “embarrassing” herself, and was “narcissistic” and “obsessed with attention”.

The backlash may have pushed her away from social media — she’s since deleted her Instagram and Twitter accounts — but Leah insisted that the stunt served her purpose.

“It got the discussion started, which is what I wanted.”

The interview ended with a (somewhat ironic) plea for privacy, after Leah was questioned about whether or not she had a boyfriend.

Groaning, she told the hosts: “Yes I do ... Ugh. This is the part of the deleting Instagram, I just want some privacy and to give it some space ... I’ve got kind of a witch hunt happening.”