The long-awaited Bachelor In Paradise Australia finale aired tonight, with many of our favourite couples choosing to leave the island of love together.
Nathan Favro & Tenille Favios and Alex Nation & Bill Goldsmith chose to leave together, while Florence & Davey and Alisha Aitken-Radburn & Jules Bourne chose to go their seperate ways. Hey, two out of four couples ain’t bad!
However, in the many months that have passed since filming wrapped, those relationships have changed and – essentially – crumbled out in the real world. And, for the first time ever in Australia, audiences got to hear about it from the contestants in a Tell All which aired after the BIP finale.
The contestants were confronted by their behaviour, and host Osher (Image: Network 10).
Nathan was accused of playing the game to make it to the end of Paradise. Bill didn’t even show up; so Alex was left on her own to explain what had happened. Davey revealed his new girlfriend, Georgia, who he calls “the future mother of his kids.” Alisha, our very own #GirlPower Queen, made some pretty interesting comments about Jules and Tenille.
Honestly, it was a lot to digest. So we caught up with some of the show’s biggest stars after the reunion, to find out more about everything that went down.
Scroll through to read what they have to say!
Steph Dixon: “Davey wasn’t genuine with Florence!”
During the family visits that aired just before the finale, fans saw Florence’s friend and former Bachie star Steph Dixon grill her suitor, Davey. She questioned his intentions, and voiced concern over why Davey was so “torn” about his feelings for Flo after all this time.
What we didn’t see, however, was that Steph was concerned about rumours she’d heard back home.
Davey’s new relationship with Georgia was revealed in the Tell-All, but Steph claims she had heard about Georgia before he went on the show.
“I heard a couple of things [about Davey],” Steph tells TV WEEK. “I did grill him to the tenth degree in Paradise about her.”
Steph ultimately warned Florence that she didn’t think Davey was “genuine.”
Steph says she grilled Davey about his rumoured girlfriend in Paradise (Image: Network 10).
Steph says Florence was falling for Davey, but chose not to stay with him after everything she heard.
“She didn’t want to believe it, she didn’t want it to be real, she just wanted to have that fairy tale,” Steph says. “But I think after I went in there and told her it wasn’t going to work, that Davey wasn’t being genuine, she slept on it and realised that I was right.
“I’m glad she didn’t say yes in the end, because she would have looked like an idiot now.”
Steph admits that the situation is taking it’s toll on Florence.
“Look, Flo is a strong girl but I know underneath it really does affect her. I know she’s still quite caught up in it, and having to re-watch and re-live it is hard.”
Florence was heartbroken by her failed fairytale with Davey (Image: Network 10).
Alisha Aitken-Radburn: “Jules is hung up on Tenille!”
She stormed into the Tell-All in full independent woman mode.
After months of living underneath an “umbrella of ambiguity” with Jules Bourne, Alisha Aitken-Radburn called it quits. She handed the former infantry corporal back his party shirt and underwear and told him they were over – for good this time.
But it wasn’t easy.
“I was trying to hold it together so hard,” she tells TV WEEK. “I did my best to not cry.”
“I left the Tell-All and my first instinct was to think, ‘Oh God had I gone too hard?’ But I think I needed to. I needed that final conclusion,” she admits, adding that she and Jules haven’t spoken since.
“Once we were outside, we gave each other a big hug and we didn’t really say anything. But I think a lot of it was more unspoken,” she says. “It definitely had this feeling of finality.”
Alisha says she was relieved for the relationship to be over after months of trying to make it work, and when the cast went out to celebrate following the tell-all, she couldn’t bring herself to be around him.
“I knew we’d all be together and I knew everyone would want to party together,” she reveals. “I thought maybe I’d approach the night and be like, ‘OK, it’s going to be a last supper thing to round up the experience, and then I’ll start walking the walk.’
“But after the tell-all, I think it was so sort of conclusive that I ended up just going back to Flo’s hotel room and we had a bottle of wine – and I’m really happy that that’s the way I ended this paradise journey.”
Alisha says she had a feeling of ‘finality’ after the tell-all (Image: Network 10).
Alisha says that, at this stage, a friendship between she and Jules isn’t even on the cards.
“At the moment I don’t think friends is really feasible because you guys can see [he isn’t acting like my friend]. That’s not how I behave with like Nathan or Bill or the other boys that I’ve made friendships with in Paradise. So I think that’s indicative of the fact that me and Jules have more than a friendship.”
When asked why Jules couldn’t commit Alisha admits she struggles to understand, but has one suggestion.
“I 100 per cent [think he’s still conflicted with Tenille]. I do,” she admits.
“Their friendship actually drives how me and Jules react to things. For Jules, I think he really wanted to click with Tenille. She is beautiful! But I can’t really relate to Jules on that level because I don’t have a physical type”.
“I can’t speak to how he felt over these months, but maybe in the same way I haven’t been about to move on from him, he hasn’t been able to let the idea of him and Tenille leave his little hopeful mind.”
Alisha thinks Jules hasn’t let go of his interest in Tenille (Image: Network 10).
Tenille Favios: “Don’t put a ring on my finger and friendzone me!”
Within a week of exchanging rings at the finale commitment ceremony, Tenille Favios and Nathan Favro were over. Nathan revealed to Tenille that he didn’t see more than a friendship, and her dreams of a future together were crushed.
However, when they came face-to-face at the Tell-All, she wasn’t the only one who had a bone to pick with the Byron Bay-based 23-year-old.
“The moments before we stepped out, we could hear what the cast were saying. When I heard Rachael, Zoe and Brooke call him out, it gave me a little bit of confidence to say my piece,” Tenille tells TV WEEK.
“The audience haven’t seen a lot of the stuff that made me even question why I got cold feet in there. It didn’t make sense why I was all of a sudden freaking out, thinking he’s not into me. When I heard the other girls saying they felt the same, and that he was playing the game, it gave me a bit of confidence to say what actually happened.”
Tenille and her fellow Bachelorettes were convinced Nathan had joined the series for another shot at fame, with the flight attendant admitting Nathan had so many people to answer to she “almost fell asleep on the couch at one point”.
Tenille – and the other women – confronted Nathan in the Tell-All (Image: Network 10).
“It was really hard for me going in to the Tell-All. I was having an anxiety attack before going on to the set,” she says, revealing she and Nathan couldn’t even manage a friendship outside of the show.
“It was like five months of radio silence prior to the show airing, and then like a week before he reached out to say, ‘How are you? I think it’s important to be friends.'”
“I was hurt by everything, I’d tried to maintain this friendship with him and I didn’t hear from him and then when he did say, ‘I think it’s important to be friends’, I was like, ‘I don’t know that I want that from you now, because it just seems like it’s not authentic and it’s only for screen purposes,'” she tells TV WEEK.
Tenille explains that the suggestion he was “there for the wrong reasons cemented my deepest and darkest fears”.
“I don’t think he had an interest in anyone,” she admits. “We didn’t have to go through the commitment ceremony. I wasn’t holding a gun to his head. We didn’t have to do it. I said if we do do it, I want to be exclusive when we come out of here. You don’t have to feel anything for me, but at least say that you don’t. Don’t put a ring on my finger and friendzone me.”
Tenille says she still has the ring and has no intention of giving it away.
“It’s in my room. I still really like my ring because I know how I felt through that process and it was a special thing for me, so I really like it.”
Nathan and Tenille in happier times (Image: Network 10).
After the reunion was filmed, the cast went out to celebrate, but Tenille and Nathan didn’t spend much time together.
“He ended up just leaving that night. I don’t even know when he left. He basically vanished. I don’t think he’s coping very well,” she says.
Meanwhile, Ivan and Tenille were reunited on the couch after the dancer was criticised for being “controlling” on the series. Now, that Ivan is seeking help for his behaviour, is there a chance of rekindling their short-lived romance?
“When we were on set, part of me wanted to console him because he was upset, but I can’t do that because you give him an inch and he will take a mile,” she says. “I don’t see it ever happening and I don’t have those feelings for him. It’s hard and I know it hurts him but you’ve got to be truthful with him.”
As for Jules, she says she “only sees him as a friend”.
“Jules has been a good support, like Ivan. He’s a caring person and we’ve had a great friendship since Paradise,” she admits.
Since she was unlucky this time around, will Tenille be open to giving Paradise another crack?
“Look, I’d like to think [that I’m not single by then]. I don’t know. I just think this whole cast of men was really slim pickings – Jimmy and American Alex were the only two,” she laughs, confirming she’s open to changing her mind depending on the men who appear on Bachelorette Angie Kent’s season later this year.
Ivan and Tenille were reunited (Image: Network 10).
Nathan Favro: “I didn’t want to hurt Tenille”
No one copped more of a grilling in the Tell-All than Nathan Favro, with the star being questioned over his “intentions” by his partner, Tenille Favios, along with Rachael Gouvignon, Zoe O’Brien and Brooke Blurton.
“I definitely wasn’t ready for that,” Nathan tells TV WEEK of his hostile reception. “I mean, I was definitely expecting to hear from Tenille because I know she was upset about how things ended up, but I was not expecting the rest of the girls to say what they did.”
He has no problem with their confrontation, though, adding the girls have “every right to speak their mind and say how they feel.”
That being said, Nathan does point out he wasn’t the only BIP contestant who was with different partners over the course of the show.
“In the case of Rachael, she bounced around a lot herself,” he says, adding he was “annoyed” because she made a comment that he had his “finger in a lot of pies.”
“That’s the whole idea of Paradise, to explore connections, not to just sit there with one person for the sake of holding on till the finale.”
Nathan copped a grilling in the Tell-All (Image: Network 10).
Nathan also disagrees with the accusation that he was only on the show to boost his social media profile.
“Anyone who goes on a reality TV show and tries to accuse someone ELSE of trying to boost their Instagram profile is ridiculous,” he says.
“There’s not one person who goes on these shows and doesn’t use that avenue [Instagram fame] to boost their career.”
Though he doesn’t agree with some of the comments directed towards him in the Tell-All, Nathan says he’s come to accept comments claiming he wasn’t “emotionally invested” in the experience.
“At the end of the day, what the girls were saying as far as me not being emotionally invested, it only occurred to me sometime after Paradise but yeah they’re right,” he admits.
Nathan says he was “unconsciously” putting up walls as a defence mechanism, admitting he was emotionally detatched after his experience on The Bachelorette.
He admits he had “blocked reality TV people” out of his life temporarily, along with moving up to Byron Bay to “ground” himself.
“There’s always support from the network,” Nathan says of his struggles after the series went to air. “But I’m pretty good at working through things myself. Moving up to Byron Bay and getting back to doing the things I love was my best way of handling things. I blocked everyone out for a while because I needed to ground myself and remember who I am.”
Nathan removed himself from the reality TV world after The Bachelorette (Image: Network 10).
The only regret Nathan has is breaking Tenille’s heart.
“I would have loved to have said that when we left Paradise the spark was still there and it was as amazing as it was on TV,” he says. “But, unfortunately, the reality is that I just didn’t feel that still for Tenille.”
“It hurts,” Nathan admits. “Breaking that relationship off wasn’t what hurt me, but it was seeing how hurt she was because of me. I realised that she was actually invested and it hurt to see that I’d put someone through that.”
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