Roxi Kenny abruptly left the mansion during last night’s episode of The Bachelor after one too many dumpster fire clashes with Juliette Herrera. Honestly, the drama from last night – especially the whole Bella Varelis and Irena Srbinovska thing – was a violent flashback to high school. PEDESTRIAN.TV caught up with Roxi this morning, here’s what she had to say about, well, all of the above.
Yes, we’re jumping straight into it.
PEDESTRIAN.TV: So why did you decide to leave?
Roxi: For me, it just became a toxic environment. I wasn’t enjoying being in the house with a certain person, and unfortunately you spend more time with the girls than you do with the bachelor. And you know, we all have to live together so it all kind of became unbearable for me, dealing with all the bullshit behind the scenes. So I just thought it’d be better for me not to be there.
PTV: And was there more to the story that we didn’t see it?
R: There was a bit there that didn’t happen on-camera that kind of was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
(For context here: a source told The Wash that part of the reason why Roxi was so upset last night was because she was sick of being used as a puppet by producers. Apparently, producers wanted her to start shit with Juliette. If she did, Locky Gilbert would ask Juliette to leave, but he never did. Plus, Juliette apparently told Roxi, “We all know you sleep with everyone”. That was it for Roxi.)
R: It’s not the best that nobody got to see [what happened] because nobody can understand it, but it’s probably also a good thing because it wasn’t a great situation.
PTV: And when did the tension with Juliette start?
R: I feel like it’s been going on since day one, to be honest. I think she didn’t take a liking to me and it was just easy for her to target me. There were things being said about me before cocktail parties, before the cameras were switched on. So, it was just winding me up before every cocktail party and rose ceremony, so that’s probably why I was ‘the ticking time bomb.’
PTV: Did you two ever sit down and talk about it?
R: We tried to squash it – well that’s the thing, I was happy to talk to Juliette off-camera about it, but she never wanted to talk to me off-camera. She always wanted to talk to me when the cameras were rolling and I didn’t find that genuine. So I just kind of avoided that when she attempted to approach me during filming. When we left the mansion [when filming was paused due to COVID-19] she gave me a hug and said, ‘Let’s squash it’. And I said, ‘Absolutely, I have no problem with that, keen to do that.’ And then as soon as we started COVID filming, she was at me again.
PTV: Have you spoken to Juliette since?
R: No, we haven’t had any contact whatsoever [laughs] and it’s probably for the best.
PTV: So, do you regret leaving at all?
R: No, I did have a second of doubt where I thought, ‘Did I do the right thing?’ But at the end of the day, I definitely did the right thing for myself and my mental health. I wasn’t behaving in a manner that I was happy with so I think it was best for me to just come home and be away from the mansion.
PTV: And did you speak to Locky before you left or after?
R: He rang me from the airport as I was boarding the plane, and was trying to convince me to come back. I was like, ‘Well, your timing isn’t great ‘cos my luggage is going on and there’s no turning around now.’ I mean, at least he rang! He was just however many hours too late.
PTV: Was there any bit of you that wanted to go back?
R: Um, there was a hot second where I was like, ‘Shit, what should I do?’ ‘Cos he was making it sound very glamorous. Like, ‘I’ll pick you up from the airport and I’ll put you into a hotel and we’ll walk in hand-in-hand’ this whole big charade, and I was just kind of like, ‘Is this for TV or do you actually want this?’
PTV: And watching Locky this season, what do you think of him now?
R: I mean [laughs], I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot here. He was a nice guy when I was hanging out with him, but I don’t know how I feel now.
PTV: Okay, so can you tell me a bit about the whole Bella and Irena drama, because that seemed to come out of nowhere last night?
R: Yeah, so that transpired over the COVID filming, because you had free rein to talk to Locky so of course those girls were chatting to him left, right, and centre. So, I think they started to feel some jealously towards each other, and it turned into a bit of a competition. So coming back to the house, it just sort of erupted from what was going on behind the scenes.
PTV: And how did the whole texting / calling Locky work, were you just allowed to chat to him whenever?
R: Well originally they told us it had to be scheduled, they were really strict on it, and then all the rules were thrown out the window and we were allowed to talk to him whenever we wanted to. Him and I really didn’t talk at all.
PTV: No calls, or?
R: He rang a couple of times, but that was in the space of months and months and months. Whereas girls were talking to him every day and I had like two phone calls. So look, he definitely had favourites.
She’s not wrong.
The Bachelor continues next Wednesday, 7.30pm on Channel 10.
