WELL, Izzy Sharman-Firth just threw a bloody spanner in the works after revealing the reason why Bella Varelis and Irena Srbinovska‘s friendship died in a hole. PEDESTRIAN.TV chatted to Izzy after she was booted from The Bachelor last night. Here’s what she had to say.
Izzy, who has since moved on from Locky Gilbert, said it’s been “frustrating” to watch this season on TV because producers have apparently left a lot out – especially about the falling out between Bella and Irena.
“We saw the relationship break down when we came back to the mansion [after Love in Lockdown],” Izzy said. “In reality, there was so much that happened. Some of it was in lockdown – when we were filming – some of it happened just as soon as we left the mansion.”
At the time, Izzy didn’t actually like Bella that much.
“I had heard things about her, I heard that she was strategic and just there for social media,” Izzy shared. “But during lockdown, I started to realise that a lot of that stuff had come from Irena. So I started to question it.”
For what it’s worth, fellow Bachie gal Steph Harper said the exact same thing when I chatted to her last week.
So we know something happened during Love in Lockdown, that much is obvious. We just, uh, never officially found out what. When the women returned to the mansion, things were already off. Bella declared her friendship with Irena over and took it a step further by pulling Locky aside to warn him of Irena’s intentions.
That’s pretty much been it… right?
But again, Izzy said we just don’t know the full story.
Brace yourself.
“There were a lot of things that were said to us and to Locky [about Bella] by Irena, and that got revealed during lockdown. What we saw when we came back from the mansion is just Bella’s reaction to it,” Izzy explained.
Hwaaat?
“Bella had thought that she and Irena were best friends and it did feel like a complete betrayal to learn that the person she was closest to and had been closest with had been, I guess, doing and saying things that affected how other people thought of her.”
According to Izzy, Irena had said some words to Locky about Bella’s social media presence, which made him question his connection with Bella.
“When someone’s best friend is saying subtle things – and I think Irena is very good at saying subtle things in a way that doesn’t seem like an attack – that cast doubt in Locky’s mind about Bella’s intentions and it caused a lot of issues in their relationship,” Izzy said.
Here’s the weird bit though, we literally saw none of this on TV. When Bella and Irena tried to talk things out at the cocktail party, it was about how much time they had spent texting and calling Locky in lockdown. That’s all we saw.
“It’s been really frustrating to watch,” Izzy said.
That’s why she’s been trying to remind people in the comments that there are two sides to every story.
Credit: Instagram via The Wash.
“I’m not trying to say that Irena is the baddie, or she’s completely in the wrong,” Izzy said. “I just think there are two sides in it and people have had the opportunity to make judgements based on seeing really only half of it.”
The Bachelor finale kicks off tonight, 7.30pm on Channel 10.
