When Alex Nation walked through the mansion doors on The Traitors Australia, the last person she expected to see was her former Bachelor nemesis Keira Maguire.
For those who haven’t spent a tremendous amount of time watching reality television, allow us to fill you in. In 2016, 24-year-old Alex Nation and a 29-year-old Keira Maguire appeared on the fourth season of The Bachelor Australia competing for the heart of Richie Strahan. Alex ended up winning Richie’s affections, but along the way she also developed a bitter rivalry with Keira, who was booted in episode eight. Their feud even continued on Bachelor In Paradise.
So, when Alex spotted Keira outside The Traitors mansion, she was nervous.
“Keira and I hadn’t spoken in 10 years. She blocked me on Instagram. We had beef. We did not like each other, we just didn’t gel,” she explained.
“When I saw her coming into this, I thought, ‘Oh no! This is going to be a repeat of what we were like on The Bachelor.”
Alex on The Bachelor season four.
Keira with Richie on The Bachelor season four.
Despite her trepidation, something magical happened: They clicked.
“I was pleasantly surprised. We actually started to become really good friends,” Alex admits.
“She was backing me. She wasn’t saying my name to anyone. She was also like checking in on me and ask how I am because she knew I missed my kids.”
While Alex says we didn’t get to see their friendship develop on screen, the tipping point was during the round table in this week’s episode, when a frank admission of Alex’s growing fondness for her former nemesis saw Keira burst into tears.
“I think that moment was super healing for Keira and I because like we did not like each other, and then we sort of come to this moment where we’ve grown as these women 10 years later, and it’s a very different story,” Alex explains.
“Keira doesn’t let her guard down like that. She struggles with vulnerability but it was a very nice, vulnerable moment for us both for sure.”
Why Alex banished AJ but accepted Josh’s defeat
On Tuesday night’s episode, Alex was banished at the roundtable after her Traitor status was uncovered by Survivor‘s AJ Antonios and The Block‘s Josh Packham. But Alex says there’s a difference in the way she was approached by AJ to how she was approached by Josh and these instances had very different outcomes.
“The difference with AJ calling me a traitor and Josh calling me a traitor is Josh and I had a connection on a level you would have on the outside,” Alex recalled.
“AJ was all about gameplay. He would talk to me about strategy all day, every day. When he confronted me about being a traitor, it felt like an ambush.
“In the end, I was like, ‘This guy is manipulating me and playing me like a fiddle’. I felt like the puppet and he was holding the strings, so I cut the strings.”
While AJ was murdered, Alex felt differently about Josh’s admission that he knew she was a traitor because of the connection they shared.
“Josh and I developed this really great friendship, and I knew he trusted me. He went against his twin brother for me,” Alex exclaimed.
“That really got to me because I’m like, ‘Okay, I am the bad guy, and I’ve developed this great friendship with Josh. He trusts me so much that he’s going against his twin brother to protect me when I am actually the bad guy. That was pretty hard because I’m like, that’s that’s their their blood. They’re twins!”
Breakfast blow-up: The one moment Alex regrets
Admittedly, Alex is proud of how she played The Traitors game but there was one moment that she regrets — her breakfast blow up.
“If I could do it all again, I certainly wouldn’t have come in so hot to breakfast. I would have simmered down,” she laughed.
“From a television perspective, I look at it and go, ‘Good work girl, that’s some main character energy’,” she joked.
“But in terms of gameplay and actively trying to get to the end and win the money, my mum has always said I’m terrible at biting my lip and I probably should have bitten my lip. I would also try and compartmentalise the game with the connection to my castmates. In a game like that, you need to separate the two to get to the end.”
Now that Alex is out of the competition, who knows what will happen?
Make sure you’re tuning into The Traitors Australia on 10 and 10play to find out.
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