We’ve all been revisiting and rewatching things in the latest stretch of scattered lockdowns across the country, and our reality stars are no different. Former Bachelor contestant Abbie Chatfield went back and re-watched the finale episode of her season – season 7 with Matt Agnew – and poured a whole lot of fresh tea on her Instagram story.
Abbie kicked off her Insta story on Thursday night by toying with the idea of re-watching the final episode of her season, and decided it was time to go all in and reflect on her big reality TV moment back in 2019. Her story ended up being a hefty one with many slides, so grab a cuppa and strap in ‘cos we’re debriefing this bad boy.
The episode, if the last couple of years have completely erased it from your memory, involved the big sit-down with Matt’s best friend Kate, where the shit hit the fan and resulted in Kate walking off.
But before she got into her deconstruction of what happened with that final tête-à-tête with Kate, Abbie said that she’s not a fan of people coming for Matt for the decision he made.
“Honestly, I will not stand for an iota of Matt slander,” she said.
“He is the nicest man I’ve ever met. He was so beautiful to me. No matter what anyone says, he was so hot and smart and funny.
“We love Matt. You know, too bad it didn’t work out. We can’t force people to love us, you know?”
Watching the episode unfold with a couple of years of hindsight on her side, Abbie admitted that her being 23 on thew show “actually was really young”, but made some very important clarifications around what she said to Matt’s bestie, Kate.
“Now that I’m watching this, I’m pissed off,” she said.
“I said to you [Kate] that my mother had been divorced twice, and that I hadn’t seen a real marriage – so getting married would be like winning the lottery. That’s what I said. That’s how I feel still.”
Abbie said she told Kate that if she found the right person she would marry them, and that she wanted kids “one day” but she “can’t put a timer on it” because she was “currently dating someone who is dating 20 other people”.
“Do you want me to start tracking my ovulation when I’m 23 and on a dating show?” she asked, exasperated.
I mean, that’s pretty fair enough if you ask me.
She also questioned why we haven’t “seen a wedding” from all the contestants who say they want to get married within a couple of years of their seasons, alluding to the idea that – shock horror – people on reality TV shows simply say what people want to hear to avoid getting the boot.
Abbie also said that after her one on one chat with Kate, she cried for the whole hour’s ride home, before going in to do the solo interviews with producers for the episode the next day. So the energy she had in the lead-in chat “before” the show aired Kate’s walk-out was actually filmed after it had happened.
“In the car, I was crying like a baby… because of how hideous this conversation was,” Abbie said.
“So I didn’t just go ‘…Kate’, because everyone in the room knew how much I had been crying about this person.”
Abbie also said that her feelings for Matt at the time were legit, and that when she said she loved him she meant it, and that Kate’s surprise that she was at the finale was confusing.
“That was legitimate,” she said.
“I loved him. I still care about him a lot. Matt and I got along so fucking well, why would you be surprised? It’s borderline slander of me, of my character. It’s a character assassination.”
Abbie also found it funny when Kate tried to claim she didn’t have the same interests as Bachelor Matt, calling Abbie a “party girl” because she was young, “hot as fuck”, and funny. Abbie clarified that before she went on The Bachelor, she was working a full-time job and studying, and her friends have always known her to rarely stay out past midnight.
In more behind the scenes tea, Abbie also said that she wasn’t ever trying to stall on answering Kate, she was suffering from a sore throat from the flight to South Africa for the Bachelor finale.
She also said that a reality show like The Bachelor being your full time life for so long is hard and exhausting, because you’re away from your friends and family and regular support networks, and the only reason why anyone would stick it out to the end would be if you really were in love with someone.
Look, at least looking back she knows what she had ahead of her post-Bachie, and that’s winning I’m A Celebrity and releasing a best-selling vibrator. Onya Abs.
