Having your heart broken isn’t easy. So having it ripped out on national television is something Elise Stacy won’t forget any time soon.
Tonight, Bachelor Matty Johnson declared his love for jewellery designer Laura Byrnes during an emotional season finale of The Bachelor Australia. But chatting to TV WEEK, Elise reveals her fate was written in the sand.
“I could tell it wasn’t going to be me walking towards him,” Elise explains.
The final two ladies were whisked off to Thailand
“At this point you’re looking for any signs and I actually looked at the ground and I was walking on sand and I said to myself, ‘There are no footprints on this path,’ so no-one had walked it before and so I knew I was walking down for the first time.”
Of the moment Matty told her she wasn’t the one for him, Elise says she instantly felt betrayed.
“I thought I’d met the love of my life,” Elise explains, adding she feels Matty led her up a garden path.
“He made me feel like there were really strong feelings there so I do feel betrayed.”
Heartbroken and struggling to come to terms with Matty’s decision, Elise retreated back to her hotel room.
WATCH: Matty and Elise kiss on a single date (story continues after video)
“I’d never felt more alone in that moment,” the 29-year-old says, adding Matty didn’t even try to comfort her.
“I went back to my hotel room and cried, and kept crying. I cried myself to sleep and woke up in the morning and was still crying and then I called my mum and she started crying.”
It turns out Elise wasn’t the only Stacy to feel betrayed.
“My family were miffed that they’d been fooled to,” she says. “They told me after the fact that if Matty genuinely wanted what he said he wanted, it had to be me and they would struggle to understand how it wouldn’t be.”
Since the finale, Elise says she has not heard a word from Matty.
Matty and Elise’s connection came late in the series
“I haven’t spoken to him. I’m never going to have closure; I won’t get closure so I have to be ok with that,” Elise says.
And as for Laura?
“We haven’t talked about it because it is awkward,” Elise says. “I am over him now. I’m not in love with him anymore and watching the show made that easier for me to be honest.
“I was shocked to see how affectionate he was with the other girls and how he was saying all these amazing things to so many women. That for me doesn’t help you fall in love with a man, it does the opposite.”
Of what shocked her the most, Elise says Matty’s relationship with Tara was a real surprise.
Elise felt betrayed when she didn’t get the final rose
“I mean, I knew they had chemistry, but you really saw that on screen,” she says. “It was full-on seeing her. And I had no idea he had kissed Cobie. When I saw that I was like. ‘Whoa!’”
For now, though, Elise says she’s finally in a good place after having her heart broken and is now ready to move forward.
“I’m very much single,” she laughs. “I’ve had to sit on this secret, because I couldn’t tell anyone. I had to keep my head down and keep up with that illusion so I’m ready to get back out there.”
