Georgia Love is currently celebrating one of the happiest times in her life – her engagement to fiancé Lee Elliott – and while their Instagrams paint a picture of pure bliss, things have not always been so peachy for the pair.
After meeting on the set of The Bachelorette in 2016, their relationship was immediately tested when Georgia lost her beautiful mum, Belinda Love, to pancreatic cancer, causing Georgia’s whole world to fall apart.
“I thought to myself, I’ll just keep busy, I’ll keep distracting myself and then I don’t have to feel sad, and inevitably, it all came crashing down,” she revealed in a new interview with Now to Love.
But of course, it wasn’t just the former-Bachelorette who was suffering – her sister Katie and her father, Dr Chris Love, were also in terrible pain.
“My dad lost his wife when I lost my mum,” the 31-year-old said. “And he’s really been struggling quite a lot with it.”
“He’s a doctor so he’s always very much helping everyone else but we’ve had to make sure that he’s stopping and thinking about himself and also doing things for himself.”
READ NEXT: Georgia Love on her fiancé Lee Elliott: “The first year of our relationship was f–ked”
Georgia Love with her family. Sister Katie, dad Dr Chris Love and mum, the late Belinda Love.
(Source: Instagram/Georgia Love)Georgia is currently an ambassador for a new initiative #NotTober, which is raising funds for The Banksia Project, a charity focused on early intervention in men’s mental health and because of her dad, the cause is “very close to her heart”.
“I really think that we need to be ‘talking’ [about men’s mental health],” Georgia said.
“It needs to become something that’s more accepted, it’s more everyday. We’ve become so much better in the last few years about talking about things like testicular cancer and men’s health in general, like their physical health; but I think we just need to switch that over into the mental health sphere as well.”
WATCH NEXT: Georgia Love and Lee Elliott’s love story. Story continues…
After witnessing and going through the loss of a dear loved one first-hand, Georgia is a firm believer in the “put the oxygen mask on yourself first” analogy.
In fact, she says that when someone is going through a tough time and you want to be there for them, looking after yourself is more important than looking after that other person – which is something that her now-fiancé did after her mum passed away.
“If Lee hadn’t looked after himself when I was grieving and when I was really bad, if he hadn’t looked after himself, he wouldn’t have been able to be there for me.
“I think that’s the same with anyone. It’s like being on an aeroplane. Put your oxygen mask on yourself before helping children, because you’ve got to help yourself otherwise you’re not going to be any use to anyone else.”
It’s true love! Georgia and her fiancé, Lee Elliott.
(Source: Instagram/Georgia Love)Now, looking towards a bright future of marital bliss, Georgia is focusing on her wedding to Lee.
“I don’t know how bride’s make the decision,” Georgia laughed. “I’ve got so many ideas. The wedding I’ve got planned in my head would probably cost about $300,000, so I need to reign it in quickly.”
“I’ve got…sorry, we’ve got so many ideas and it’s just a matter of yup, OK, let’s just bite the bullet with ‘this is what we’re doing’. I don’t even know how to start on that.”
While they’re not 100 percent sure about the actual details, they do know that they are on the “same page” when it comes to the vibe they want.
“That’s certainly making it easier,” she said.
About #NotTober
The campaign asks Australians to take a moment to themselves, whether that be watching TV on the couch or eating a meal, then take a snap of this and share it on social media including the #NotTober hashtag and @ahmhealthinsurance handle.
Every photo shared will see ahm donate $10 to The Banksia Project.
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