Reality TV

Exclusive: How Bachelorette Angie Kent found happiness after a family tragedy

“My secret heartache!”
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We’re used to seeing her on our TV screens as one half of Angie & Yvie on Gogglebox Australia, or facing fearsome challenges on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! Australia, but now we’ve seen Angie Kent find ‘the one’ on The Bachelorette Australia.

Away from the screen, Angie’s a family girl through and through, and she admits it was tough not being able to turn to them for advice during filming.

“It was hard, but at the same time, I’ve always put my friends and family first,” she explains. “I think it was good to just do this for me.”

Angie, 29, grew up on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, with her mum, Jane, dad, Markos, and younger brothers Josh and Brad.

She spent much of her childhood with her grandparents – her younger brother Josh was sick as a child, so her mother would often be at the hospital, while her dad would be working.

“My family are everything to me,” Angie said during Thursday night’s finale. “They drive me crazy but they’re always my number one.”

Angie is incredibly close with her family

(Instagram: @angiekent_)

Angie with her mother, Jane, and father, Markos, on The Bachelorette.

(Instagram: @angiekent_)

The star suffered a painful blow last year when she lost her beloved grandmother, Nanny Fae.

“So much has changed since then,” Angie reflects, teary-eyed. “I’ve been quite emotional this morning. I think she’s done all of this. It’s wild. As soon as she passed, everything fell into place. She’s just with me.

“She sent me into the jungle because I needed that. And she set up this [The Bachelorette Australia]. You’ll have to wait to see what she found me at the end.”

Knowing that everything will fall into place and that her grandmother is watching over her plays a huge part in Angie’s view on marriage and children.

Before The Bachelorette Australia, she told TV WEEK she wasn’t a “timeline sort of girl” and that hasn’t changed – despite now being in a happy relationship.

“I’m more open to it [marriage and kids], but I’m not like, ‘I want to get married next year and have kids’ now that I’ve gone through this,” she explains.

READ NEXT: Angie Kent reveals she was “torn” before the finale

Angie shared this beautiful photo of Nanny Fae when she sadly passed away.

(Instagram: @angiekent_)

Of course, Angie’s got another very special person looking over her on The Bachelorette Australia. Her brother, Brad, actually appeared on the show amid the contestants in a bid to “expose the poison apples” for his sister.

Angie says that having her brother there on the first night “was the best feeling in the world”.

“To have him there on one of the most nerve-wracking nights of my entire life just put me at ease,” she says. “He’s such a good judge of character and the nicest dude,” she says. “I knew he wouldn’t go in there and just be like, ‘That guy is a d–khead.’ He’d focus on the positives, and that’s what I wanted.”

READ NEXT: The Bachelorette’s Ryan Anderson was so overwhelmed by Angie Kent rejecting him that he “blanked out” after the rose ceremony

Angie’s brother Brad is going undercover on The Bachelorette Australia.

(Credit: Network 10)

The contestants also had a chance to meet Angie’s parents throughout the season, with Jane and Markos stopping by the mansion.

Along with Ciarran Stott, who left the mansion due to the loss of his own beloved Nan, Angie’s dad selected Carlin Sterritt as a potential frontrunner.

“If we’re looking at the Angie settling down and want to have kids type, I’d go for Carlin. He seems like the right sort of guy,” he said.

Fans will see if Carlin is crowned the winner in tonight’s finale episode of The Bachelorette Australia. We can’t wait!

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