Few Bachelor Australia announcements have been met with the controversy and scandal of Locklan “Locky” Gilbert’s.
The rugged and adventurous heartthrob had amassed fans thanks to his stint on Australian Survivor – and it’s not hard to see why.
But, as Australian Survivor: All-Stars played out on our screens, fans were led to believe Locky and his Survivor sweetie Brooke Jowett would reunite after the show.
WATCH: The first look at The Bachelor Locky Gilbert
The couple had formed what looked like an unbreakable bond on the show referring to one another as their “ride or die”.
Unfortunately, it became clear it was the latter of that promise.
As Locky was eliminated from the show, news soon followed he was set to become the next Bachelor, despite reported plans to meet up with Brooke.
Cue said controversy and scandal.
But, what really happened between Locky and Brooke? Well, there’s two VERY different sides to this story.
Brooke revealed she was “blindsided” by the news before revealing she believed they had plans to meet up and pursue a potential romance after the show.
“I guess we had different things planned in our heads for what was to come over the next few months,” she wrote in an Instagram post at the time.
Talking on popular podcast Shameless Brooke then went on to discuss how “hurt” she had felt after the couple’s plans to meet up in Bali were clearly no longer happening.
“I do feel screwed over. I do feel hurt, but Locky is just a small part of my story.”
“I must say, Locky and I were not officially dating and I’ve tried to make that as public as I could,” she added.
“But it’s the fact that we had things planned and in my head – maybe not his – I thought something would happen which he disagreed on I guess.”
She also dismissed claims the pair’s romance was just for show.
“Some people say ‘show-mance’, I say romance. It’s a romance whether I’m on a show or not,” she said.
“It was real for me, it was real for him.”
While Locky initially kept quiet about his relationship with Brooke, as the show’s premiere loomed closer he finally addressed the outraged.
“I definitely copped some criticism online,” The 30-year-old told Who. “That was full-on.”
Locky went on to explain that the lag time between Survivor being filmed and going to air, made the announcement jarring for viewers.
“The timing looked terrible for me but there were actually months in between what happened on Survivor and being revealed as the Bachelor.”
As for his feelings towards Brooke and what looked like a romance on the show, well, Locky cleared that up from his perspective too.
“We were close on the show but it wasn’t anything serious. It wasn’t anything at all.
Then we never saw each other after the show wrapped. We never dated, we never hung out outside of the show.”
Still, The Bachelor has nothing but nice things to say about his past co-star.
“Don’t get me wrong, I think she’s an amazing girl and I wish her all the very best, but we were never in a relationship.”
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