The Bachelor runner-up Bella Varelis has spilled shocking details about what really happened between her and Locky Gilbert during their whirlwind romance on the show, revealing just how deep and serious their relationship had become right before she was brutally dumped during the finale.
WATCH: Locky breaks up with Bella during The Bachelor finale
Speaking to The Bachelor alumni Laura Byrne and Brittney Hockley on their podcast Life Uncut, Bella revealed she and Locky developed an exceptionally close connection during the almost three months they spent isolating at home at the height of the pandemic.
Even before producers came into their respective homes to film the official “Love in Lockdown” episodes, Bella revealed she and Locky were talking for hours every day.
While Channel 10 production had advised the pair they would have limited contact, with designated days of the week laid out for approved communication via texts and phone calls, the loved-up pair went behind their producers’ backs and were speaking constantly.
“Locky and I were talking everyday,” Bella told hosts Laura and Brittany.
“He actually said to me, ‘I want to talk to you as much as I can, don’t worry about only calling me on Tuesdays or whatever’, so it was on from the get go and that’s where it all started.”
Bella said she didn’t reveal to production staff, or even her fellow contestants, just how much the pair were in contact.
“I kept it from production for the first few weeks, because I didn’t want to get Locky in trouble for not doing the right thing and part of me as well was like ‘You know, it’s between Locky and I’.
“I wasn’t telling the girls how much we were talking. I didn’t tell anyone and he did say he mentioned to his producer that we were speaking more than we should have been, but he probably dumbed it down a fair bit.”
Locky also told Bella that she was the only contestant he was speaking to every day – a lie she says she later confirmed was untrue.
“He told me I was the only one he was talking to every day … it’s actually funny because [intruder] Bec Cvilikas [who now lives with Bella in Sydney’s Bondi] actually ended up saying to me, ‘Locky told me I was the only one he was talking to every day’.”
Locky’s lies further unravelled, as it was revealed he was also talking to other contestants on Snapchat.
“He added a few of the girls on Snapchat and one of the girls sent [his handle] to me and I said [to Locky] ‘Do you have Snapchat?’ and he said ‘Nah I don’t have it.”
When filming in the mansion was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic, both the cast and crew were unsure if production would ever resume at all on the show.
When Bella asked Locky what would happen with their relationship if that were the case, Locky reassured Bella they would still be together.
“Just fly back to Perth,” Bella claimed Locky told her.
“He said, ‘Don’t freak yourself out, don’t let the other girls get in your head’. It was like, ‘Let’s go back in to finish this thing’ and then pretty much that was it.”
In one of the most shocking revelations from the podcast, Bella also revealed that the pair talked about getting married and spending the rest of their lives together, even discussing engagement rings.
“During lockdown we were talking about engagement rings,” Bella said.
“He was like, ‘What would you do if I proposed to you at the end?’ I think the one thing really got me was when he said to me ‘I can’t wait to make you happy for the rest of your life’.
“I remember saying to Mum, ‘I think I’ve found the person that actually wants to be with me. All of the things that I’ve been through, my exes, this is obviously what it’s all pointing to, to come on here. I had to meet Locky and he’s going to be the person that I want to be with.”
Bella said watching the finale back last week did take a huge toll, and she confessed she broke down in tears while out to dinner with girlfriends the next night.
“It still hurts, obviously, because it just happened. Obviously … there are moments, when I thought on Friday, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine’. Go to dinner with the girlfriends, had Champagne and three minutes later I was bawling my eyes out,” she said.
“I don’t understand because I’m not in love with him anymore. I think I just genuinely thought he was in love with me and I think watching it back was a lot,” she explained.
When asked if she was still in love with Locky, Bella said: “No, I’m not in love with him anymore. It’s like I wish I could just erase it from my memory and wish it never happened. But that’s not going to happen.”
She also revealed she sent Locky an angry text two days after he dumped her during the finale, but he hasn’t replied to her message.
“I did send him a message after just to be like, I mean, it was like two days after, I was devastated, I was shattered, I was upset, I was angry,” she confessed.
“It was a pretty angry text, to be honest.”
Bella has since signed with influencer agency Max Connectors and says she is looking forward to spending an extended period of time on her own before jumping into another relationship.
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