Jacqui Lambie: My quest for love

JACQUI Lambie is looking for love — and she is taking a national TV audience along for the ride. The former Tasmanian senator reveals, in her own words, the search for a husband and a “best friend for the rest of my life”.

Jacqui Lambie looking for love. Picture: Channel 7

YES, it’s true. Just like anyone else out there, I’m looking for love. So I am travelling around Australia and I’m playing the dating game.

If that concept wasn’t already scary enough — I’ve decided to share my quest on national television, as a guest reporter with the Sunday Night program.

I guess it’s in the hope of inspiring other women who just like me might be feeling a little lonely and unsure about where to even begin in their search for a partner.

It’s time I get serious and do something that is really important to me — get married and see it all the way through, the good and the bad. I don’t want to have to go through a divorce. I just want somebody that is going to be my best friend for the rest of my life.

Love me or not, most people out there know that with me what you see is what you get. Before I spent my few years in the Senate I struggled for a decade with pain and depression caused by the major back injury I suffered in the Army.

Jacqui Lambie looking for love. Picture: Channel 7

But after involuntarily stepping down from the Senate (like so many other politicians now, I had problems with my father’s nationality) it’s time to get serious and look for love.

It’s 15 years since I’ve had a romantic relationship. I guess I’d been by myself for so long I’d just switched off on that side of life.

In my book there’s a quote from the Administrative App­eals Tribunal, when I was fighting with Veterans Affairs: “I don’t feel I have anything to offer in relation to maintaining a relationship. Nor do I want to be involved in another relationship because sex should be a part of it and I realise how much I can’t give or do because of my back pain.”

I’m not prepared to give up, at least not yet. There has to be an Aussie man out there that has what I’m looking for.

Well, guys, that’s changed. Look out. Something has happened in the years since I joined the Senate. After struggling with the constraints of being in Clive Palmer’s political outfit, I learned that I could be my own woman in politics and survive.

And I feel the same about love. This is me, like it or not. I’m in this for real. Plenty of my friends, lovely women who are single in the middle of life, have given up. I realised I’m not prepared to give up, at least not yet. There has to be an Aussie man out there that has what I’m looking for.

Jacqui Lambie looking for love. Picture: Channel 7

I’ve always thought I’ll know it when the right man is standing in front of me. But, of course, it’s not that simple.

Sunday Night got me looking and looking hard. I went to a speed dating night in a hotel in Launceston; I went to a bachelor and spinster ball in Cootamundra, NSW. I even went to a “marital aids” night.

I’ve been trying bloody hard on the dating apps eHarmony, Bumble and even Tinder. It’s not that easy.

People actually don’t believe it’s me on there. They all sort of stay engaged with me for probably five or six comments and then when I ­actually tell them I’m on the dating scene and cement that in with them, they seem to be running like water.

I just can’t win. I don’t know whether they think they’re being dragged into something or whether “Jacqui Lambie” is scaring the hell out of them, but it’s basically disbelief.

Jacqui Lambie looking for love. Picture: Channel 7

I reckon there should be a Senate inquiry into those apps — they’re just not all they’re cracked up to be. If you ask your mates, everyone has had a tough time meeting people online or via Bumble and the rest of them.

Sure there’ve been some successes, even marriages, but there’s a lot of pain and heartache along the way. I can tell you where you can go and stick your apps, ­because they’re not working for me. I am quickly losing my self-esteem — they are about as much help as I am when it comes to the dating game.

It’s time I get serious and to do something that is really important to me — get married and see it all the way through, the good and the bad.

So far in my love journey, the best thing I’ve done is enlist the help of a relationship consultant — Samantha Jayne from Blue Label Life. I was pretty sceptical but she is ­lovely and has carefully helped me through what I’m really looking for, how to present that to the world — even with hair and makeup.

Suddenly, when I was all made up and ready, I had to face the reality: I’m actually going to go and have a romantic dinner with this bloke. Yikes! So, did it work? You’ll have to have a look tonight and judge for yourself.

This search has taken me across the country. I know after last week’s Royal Wedding everyone has an opinion. Well, I want to be married too. But I can do without the royal.

Jacqui Lambie’s quest for love airs tonight on Seven’s Sunday Night at 8.30pm.