We’re remember a time when moralising hand-wringers complained shows like The Bachelorette diminished the so-called sanctity of marriage. It seems quaint in retrospect, especially considering the fury directed at same-sex attracted Australians who just want to put a ring on it, but people really did get uppity about the waning relevance of the ‘traditional’ marriage.
The thing is, if you skip back a few generations, marriage wasn’t solely a profession of love – it was a consolidation of powers. Shit, ensuring intergenerational wealth was the defining aspect of marriage, and this lovey-dovey stuff is still a relatively new addition.
All of this is to say last night’s arrival of 44-year-old Bachelorette intruder Stuart Laundy seems likely to set a very traditional tone on the show, because the Sydney publican’s family has an estimated net worth of around $500 million.
Meet Stu! 44, Publican, New South Wales.🤵 #BacheloretteAU pic.twitter.com/NgfcsIQ0uS
— #BacheloretteAU (@BacheloretteAU) October 4, 2017
The show’s star Sophie Monk seemed interested. The public did, too. Now, the Daily Telegraph has published a wee bit of an interview with the bloke already deemed a nailed-on frontrunner.
Laundy says he was in a bit of a conundrum about signing on to the gig – see above comment about five hundred fucking million dollars – but his previous meeting with the blessed Monk convinced him to give it another crack.
“It’s a risk for someone like me to go on the show,” Laundy said. “I ummed and aahed a lot but what got me over the line was that I just thought I saw something in Soph.”
(Note: he called her ‘Soph’. Feel free to extrapolate wildly on that breezy, casual namecheck.)
Laundy described the process of applying and finally appearing on the reality TV mainstay a “rigmarole”, but he reiterated just how damn keen he was to meet the 37-year-old gun again. That keenness also overtook the trepidation stemming from his ongoing separation to his former partner.
“I was heartbroken,” Laundy said, “but you don’t want to be lonely so I’ve been trying to meet someone.”
If fan estimations are correct, he just might have done it. We’ll just have to wait and see if that potential ‘traditional’ partnership consolidates the power of two heavy-hitting Aussies.
