So remember how Mary Viturino and Conor Canning‘s beautiful Bachelor in Paradise love story almost didn’t happen, because producers wanted Niranga Amarasinghe to pick Abbie Chatfield??? Well it turns out producers also threatened Niranga with a a bad edit and no air time.
Speaking on So Dramatic! for the special summer series ep, Niranga spilled some epic tea about the show, particularly about what went down behind the scenes.
He told host Megan Pustetto that producers had cornered him a number of times asking him to pick Abbie over Mary on that fateful first night. However, Niranga was adamant about giving a friendship rose to Mary, as he was better friends with her.
“Right before the ceremony, I got dragged for the 4th or 5th time by producers saying: ‘we’re not going to give you much air time, or we’re going to give you a bad edit if you don’t pick Abbie,’” he told Megan.
“You have to do this. What is Australia going to think when they kick Australia’s sweetheart out?” producers also apparently told Niranga.
Basically if it wasn’t for Niranga’s friendship rose, the couple wouldn’t be together, and they also wouldn’t be having a beautiful bub together.
Can you imagine being born because of you? Bizarre.
“It was fate and it’s all thanks to you,” Megan told Niranga.
On a different podcast, Friendship Rose, hosted by comedian Rose Callaghan, Niranga also told her about how Mary and Conor ~almost~ didn’t get together.
“At the start when I gave Mary a rose, before that happened – throughout that night I was pushed to save Abbie, and give Abbie the rose because producers realised nobody was going to give her a rose,” he explained.
He also mentioned how he thought producers might show how his friendship rose was the reason Mary and Conor are together. However, knowing now that they LITERALLY threatened him, I would say painting Niranga in a positive light was not their number one priority.
“They didn’t even play that storyline – everybody thought they were going to play me giving Mary the rose, and one thing led to another and there’s Mary finding love but they didn’t even show Mary talking about me giving her a friendship rose – nothing,” he said on the podcast.
