The Honey Badger has hopped back on The Sunday Project – this time live – to talk about that ol’ Bachie final and the shitstorm that followed.
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Once again, Nick Cummins rejected both women Brittany Hockely and Sophie Tieman in the final ceremony leading to a) lots of upset people b) a lot of laughs c) praise for Nick’s refreshing honesty and d) a combination of all.
Safe to say, the Badger is copping it BIG TIME, to the point where A Current Affair took a break from their usual bullshit to track the Badger down in goddamn Papua New Guinea.
Quick summary if you’re in a rush:
- The PNG charity trip was booked in advance of the Bachie finale so he wasn’t “escaping”.
- Nick cancelled his book tour because he wants to settle this Bachelor drama once and for all because “it’s gone on for too long”.
- The aftermath of the final – six months ago – was the darkest period of his life.
- Nick has been in touch with Brittany and Sophie since filming came to an end.
- Nick does not regret his decision to go on the show but he did – for a moment – second guess his final decision because maybe he could have avoided all of this backlash if he had just picked someone.
- He is not seeing Brittany, Cass, or Brooke.
- The Badger is single.
- He’s more than happy for Brittany and Sophie to reach out to him if they have any questions or anything they need to get off their chest.
A couple of minutes ago the Badger posted a video to his Instagram to thank his supporters and in short: “Let’s put it all behind us and blaze into the rest of 2018. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.”
You can find the full interview with The Project and transcriptions, below.
In response to the finale episode airing:
“I saw the finale and I knew straight away there was going to be – it was going to be a bumpy road. The girls, especially – first of all and then for the ones sitting at home on the couch waiting for that fairy tale ending that they didn’t get. It’s gonna be tough.”
The Badger thought Australia would be more understanding of his decision not to choose either girl and believes it’s all been “sensationalised and really exaggerated but I understand that people are very invested in something like this so maybe there’s some sort of emotion that they want to get out and there’s a lot of venom behind it.”
He continues:
“I’m not a rude bloke, I think I was pretty honest and fair with the girls and you can ask the girls – every time one of the girls was sent home, there’d be at least one girl – out of the girls that remained – and they’d say, ‘Are you okay?’ and I wasn’t. It’s terrible sending someone home when you don’t actually know them that well and they could be the one. You could be sending a nice girl home in tears and never actually had a chance together so it is quite tough seeing how it’s all played out and these girls have really suffered and myself as well. But it’s got to be fair across the board.”
The Badger then recounted the night before the final ceremony which, as he has said before, was an extremely difficult night for him.
“The very last night before the finale, no sleep for me – imagine that. I can avoid a whole lot of drama for me, for the girls – all I’ve got to do is pick someone. All I’ve got to do is pick one of the girls. Brittany and Sophie are both awesome and I could – if I had more time – maybe something would naturally grow with it but I was sitting there and I’ve gone ‘I could pick one of the girls or I could just be honest and save – down the track – when one of those girls gets brought – she’d be sitting here now – and people would be asking ‘oh, are you in love’. I don’t want to lie, I don’t want to put her through all that crap and then – because of all that pressure – you see all the media how they come out and they question you ‘oh, we saw he’s hugging another girl, he must be having an affair’ and all this pressure gets added onto the relationship that was built on unsturdy ground.”
Nick went onto say that he just can’t live a lie, not just for himself, but because it’s also not fair on the women: “I’d hate to go down that path, we’re both invested in some relationship – her obviously a lot more than me – and all of sudden, I have to break her heart and imagine the tabloids then. You can see my mind, I’m split on the day before the finale, you’re a jerk or you’re an absolute jerk. Which one do you want?”
Nick revealed that his mental state on the show was at an all time low and he considered this attention to be worse than any of the media and public scrutiny he received when he played for our national team.
“I’ve never been in a mental space as low as I have been on the show, especially toward the end of it,” Nick said and compared the show’s experience to the numerous and potentially career-ending injuries he’s endured. “All of this stuff doesn’t compare to what you actually have to go through in here [points to head] on something like that.”
The 31-year-old believes this to be a combination of the public’s reaction to the final and having to break the women’s hearts.
Nick also pointed out that “the girls are cast by the show not for me and not by me. It just happened to be that Brittany and Sophie were the last two that were awesome girls and that’s why they were there at the end.”
Despite how things played out, Nick said that he doesn’t regret the Bachelor experience but for a moment, he did second guess his final decision and revealed that he had one woman in mind – this he did not reveal.
“I did question my decision, it was a moment of darkness, moment of weakness where I thought to myself, I should have just picked one of these awesome girls and avoided all this crap but I snapped out of it and said no, stand for something or you’ll fall for anything, be honest, be true to yourself, it’s the best for her and the best for me.”
Then, as Tommy Little said, “Tell ’em about us” in response to a question about the Badger’s relationship status Nick replied: “This is probably the closest I’ve come to turning. There you go, write about that A Current Affair.”
“In closing, Brittany and Sophie you know I care for you a lot and I’ve said this so many times throughout the show and you saw that I mean it. This media stuff sometimes, some of these tabloids can get in the way and it’s annoying to think that a natural progression of our friendship has been squashed because of this. Either way, I’m here if you need to call me to get questions answered or to get anything off your chest. And, any young blokes out there – stand for something or fall for anything, follow your heart.”
