What dating in the public eye is really like

They’re some of Australia’s most high-profile singles. So what is it like to date when everyone is watching? Dr Chris Brown and Abbie Chatfield and more open up about the scrutiny on their private lives.

“So, what’s going on in your love life?”

It’s the question many of us will have been forced to contend with during social gatherings and family dinners over the festive season and summer holidays.

You may be newly separated, and everybody wants to know when you plan to recouple. Or perhaps you’re perennially single and constantly enduring the well-meaning – but, let’s be honest, often irritating – intentions from a friend or family member keen to play matchmaker.

But what if you weren’t just dealing with romantic queries from friends and family, but also from total strangers? It’s a question Stellar considers in the latest episode in the summer series of podcast, Something To Talk About.

Listen to the full episode on Something To Talk About below or wherever you get your podcasts:

What if every time you were photographed with another person – whether it be a friend, a colleague or maybe even a neighbour you run into at the dog park – everyone automatically assumed they must be your new significant other and start speculating as to when you will be setting a date for the wedding?

Abbie Chatfield. Picture: Daniel Nadel for Stellar

This is the experience that has been shared by each of today’s guests in this fourth episode of our summer series – from eligible bachelors Dr Chris Brown and Tony Armstrong (although Tony recently hard-launched a romance, so he’s officially off the market) to some of the country’s most sought-after women, including Abbie Chatfield and Jackie O.

The episode features Armstrong reflecting on being called a heart-throb. “I always find that kind of weird. You can already tell like I’m clamming up. It’s not even on my mind; it’s not something that I think about at all,” Armstrong says.

While Dr Chris reflects on the intense interest in his dating life.

“It’s hard enough to meet the right person anyway, but that extra layer of that speculation and that interest … once you’re actually in a relationship, it’s easy, but it’s actually meeting that person at the start that’s really hard, because you could potentially be on your first date, and you get photographed,” Brown tells Stellar.

“And then there’s a search for who this person is, what her backstory is, and then all of a sudden, it becomes something that it may not be that stage.

“You can get into this cycle, which is so bizarre it’s almost amusing.”

Listen to the full episode of Something To Talk About below or wherever you get your podcasts:

Originally published as What dating in the public eye is really like