It’s the news that so many fans of Farmer Wants A Wife have been hoping to hear. This week on the show, Thomas reveals that he’s caught up with Claire since she walked out on him at the rodeo.
Their night-time catch-up isn’t shown on screen, but Thomas shares the details with the other farmers, Corey and Tom, when host Natalie Gruzlewski invites them all to a harvest festival.
“When I fall for someone I fall pretty hard, and I guess I was falling for Claire,” the 35-year-old from Kimba, SA, explains.
When Corey asks Thomas what he expected to get out of seeing the 31-year-old FIFO admin worker from WA, he says he wanted, among other things, “to see if she made the right decision” and “to keep the friendship going”.
Thomas’s biggest problem now is that he’s told NSW schoolteacher Clarette, 35, about the catch-up – another conversation not captured on camera.
“She’s just giving me the cold shoulder,” he tells Corey and Tom. “I’ve really dug myself a massive hole with Clarette.”
Farmer Wants A Wife’s executive producer Sylvia D’Souza tells TV WEEK that the farmers and their ladies “absolutely” have one-on-one time when the cameras aren’t around.
“Despite all the cynicism about reality shows, FWAW is a show about real love, and the farmers and ladies aren’t always on,” she says. “You need to let those developing relationships take shape as authentically as possible.”
As if Thomas doesn’t already have enough drama in his love life, this week, Nat announces a huge surprise: four new ladies for each farmer. Sylvia says the new ladies were part of the original application process.
“They each applied to the farmer that they were attracted to, making them strong contenders for our farmers’ hearts, despite arriving later in the series,” she adds.
Just as the farmers are getting to know the new arrivals, their original girls turn up. For Chelsea, who walks in alongside Keeley and Jadee, it’s a “massive shock” to see Corey has company.
“We all had a feeling that new girls were going to come at some point, but seeing four girls, we were all in shock,” Chelsea tells TV WEEK. “We were just like, ‘Great, we’re going back to square one.’”
The 26-year-old nurse from Victoria says she’d been seeing a future with Corey, 24, from Biloela, Queensland, ever since the speed dates.
“He made me feel so special,” she remembers. “I could definitely see myself marrying the guy and moving to Biloela and starting a life with him.”
She reveals she had more kisses with Corey than viewers have seen, thanks to “multiple” retakes being necessary for the kiss at the rodeo and the kiss on the solo date.
“I definitely wasn’t complaining!” she laughs.
But dating Corey at the same time as he was dating other girls was difficult for Chelsea, leading her to wonder if she’d done the right thing by going on the show.
“There were a few times I was on the phone to Mum, having a bit of a cry,” she admits.
The four new girls make a big impression on Corey, who reveals that one of them “really blew me away”.
However, Chelsea says she felt sure that none of them would be around for too long.
“I was very confident that us three original girls were going to be the final three.”
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