The Bachelor: Why Matt won’t repeat Honey Badger finale

With no media training or Instagram modelling past, the astrophysicist has stepped up as this year’s Bachelor — and he’s got his work cut out for him.

Before I get into our chat with this year’s Bachelor Matt Agnew, let’s get one thing out of the way.

“I can confirm that yes, I am in a relationship with someone from the show,” he told news.com.au with a laugh.

“That’s a critical part of that sentence — it is someone from the show, yes.”

With no media training or past life as an Instagram model the Melbourne astrophysicist has stepped up as this year’s Bachelor after Nick Cummins’ controversial stint last year.

Nick outraged fans of the reality show by failing to pick Sophie Tieman or Brittany Hockley in the show’s finale as he wasn’t in the right headspace to find love.

While Matt doesn’t have a bad thing to say about the Honey Badger he does admit he went on The Bachelor ready for a relationship.

“I just went in very open-minded: open to the possibility of falling in love, open to the possibility of meeting someone who I would be really interested in pursuing a relationship with on the other end of the whole experience,” he said.

Matt Agnew is ready to find love.

Matt denies there was any pressure from production to pick someone, however, was aware a backlash over his final decision is possible. But having said that, he didn’t let a fear of how audiences hold him back.

“Going into it, I was very optimistic and just really backed myself, so when it got to that big final decision that I had made the right decision for me,” he said.

“And I think Nick made the right decision for him, I think everyone on The Bachelor has made the right decision for them at the time … You can’t look at how things played out for anyone else because it’s an adventure that I’m embarking on.”

While Matt will satisfy Bachelor fans by picking a winner, there’s still going to be plenty of drama.

A preview last week revealed the 32-year-old will be subject to vile slurs from one of the contestants, who referred to him as a “dog c**t” and “disrespectful pig” — a “confronting” experience, according to Matt.

Matt meeting one contestant.

The clip showed him then appearing to ask the contestant to leave the show after learning about what was said from one of the other women.

“I kind of naively went in thinking it would be all sunshine and rainbows, but that was hard,” Matt said.

“It’s very confronting to hear such strong language being thrown around about you, probably unjustified.

“And figuring out what was the most appropriate and sensitive way to address that was something that I made sure I gave a lot of thought to.”

The astrophysicist also addressed the number of women previews had shown him kissing, saying that estimations he had become intimate with 17 different women on The Bachelor “inflated”.

“Look, I will own the fact that I went into the process to find love and in a relationship an emotional connection is very important, but so too is the physical connection,” he said.

He has no plans for a career as an Instagram influencer.

“So I’m not going to make any excuses, I did go in there and was going to kiss women, but the numbers are very inflated, they’re nowhere near what is being thrown around.”

While he admits to being nervous to see how he plays out onscreen, for now life has pretty much returned to normal.

Matt went back his day job a week after filming ended and while he admits it would be “foolish” for him not to consider media opportunities post-show, there’s one career he won’t do.

“I have no interest in the Instagram influencer lifestyle, it’s definitely not aspirational,” Matt said.

“It’s not something that’s on my radar, it’s not something that I aspire to achieve, it’s not something that interests me at all.”

The Bachelor premieres 7.30pm Wednesday on Network 10