Last night, Bachelor In Paradise lovebirds Luke McLeod and Lisa Hyde left the island in order to try their relationship in the “real world”.
This morning, it was revealed they’d already broken up – and reading between the (very obvious) lines here, it appears that Luke cheated on Lisa a few months in. (An inside source told the Daily Telegraph that Luke hooked up with a 19-year-old on a boys night out, so uh, there’s that.)
We caught up with Luke to talk about the rough few days it’s been, the tough transition from Paradise couple to IRL couple, and if there’s any future for him and Lisa at all.
PEDESTRIAN.TV: How are you doing this morning?
LUKE: I’m doing okay. I’m doing okay. How’re you doing?
P.TV: Not too bad, but it feels like you’ve had a rougher morning than I have. How’s the last 24 hours been for you?
LUKE: Yeah. It has been tough. It’s been really tough. I’m lucky that I’ve had my family around me to help me get through it. Yeah, I’m not gonna lie, it’s been difficult.
P.TV: Obviously now that the episode has aired, the break up and the cheating, it’s all become public. Have you been dreading today?
LUKE: Oh look – yeah, of course I have been/ That sort of limbo land into the last couple of months, and just having to kind of, not sort of pretend, but just try to ignore it in some way. But you know, I’ve also accepted that, and I’ve got to own up and take responsibility, so that’s just what I’ve got to do.
P.TV: Have you and Lisa spoken since the breakup, or since the episode aired last night?
LUKE: We haven’t spoken since the episode last night, but we have spoken a few times since we’ve gone our separate ways. We’ve tried to go about it in the most mature and civil way possible, and you know, I’ve always contacted her before any interviews or media or anything that’s come out, just to kind of check in and make sure that she’s okay. Obviously, I just want to try and back her and support her as much as possible.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhGv8Tqn7R8/?hl=en&taken-by=luke.mcleod
P.TV: When Michael gave her the rose, what was going through your mind? Did you know it was coming?
LUKE: I honestly didn’t know that was coming. I didn’t know that she’d had those conversations with Michael and so forth. They cut out obviously parts around the conversation I had with her on that night, and I thought we were good. So I was taken back by that a bit, but I don’t have anything against him, and obviously nothing against Lisa, I just tried to deal with that situation at that time the best way possible.
P.TV: When you guys were talking about leaving the show to try and make it work in the “real” world, it seemed like you were less eager to do so.
LUKE: It was tough. We had just gotten over that speed hump with the Michael situation, and I was ready to really get to know her at a deeper level, and the opportunity where you can spend quality time with someone is obviously there. So for that to be put on me in a way where I had to make a decision then and there – because when you get back out into the real world, you have to deal with all the complexities of real life, work and that. You wouldn’t have as much quality time with that person, so it was surprising. But after thinking about it for a little bit… at the time, I really wanted to try and make it work for her, so I obviously made that decision to leave with her.
P.TV: Before everything happened, how did the relationship change between Paradise and the real world?
LUKE: It was hard. It was hard. Because you come back into the real world but it’s not like you’re coming back into a normal sort of relationship. We couldn’t just be a normal couple and do what normal couples do. We have to kind of keep this sort of secretive relationship, and that in itself just wasn’t healthy. It created situations and pressure of staying together, or pressure from ourselves, or pressure from everyone else, and yeah, it was hard. It was really hard. That all built up and affected us obviously to a situation or a point where it broke down.
P.TV: Do you see any possible future between the two of you?
LUKE: I have a tremendous amount of respect and I care so much about her and she’s an incredible woman, and she has such attractive qualities, which obviously originally I was attracted to. I hope – I really hope – at some point, we can be friends and look back on this in some way as an experience. But right now, I think it’s important that we respect each other and we give each other the space, or I give her the space that she deserves. If she’s ready and she wants to talk, then I’m very much open to that, but right now, we’re just trying to get through this, and get on with life.
P.TV: What’s next for you, and do you still talk to anyone from the show?
LUKE: For me, it’s really just about throwing myself into work and keeping busy. I love what I do, and I’ve tried to just focus on that. I think it’s also important to have people around me that I love and I trust – family and close friends, just focus on that for a while. That’s probably the most important thing for me.
As far as keeping in touch with people from the show, yeah, there’s a couple people I do. But I am just trying to get on with life.
