On September 14 Claire Saunders was meant to be walking down the aisle towards Farmer Wants a Wife’s Andrew Coleman. The pair had been destined for marriage after meeting on the 2023 season of the show.
But instead the heartbroken 39-year old was at her family home in Tasmania with an unworn wedding dress in the cupboard, while her family and friends travelled to Sydney.
A last minute cancellation of her big day meant her guests couldn’t get refunds on their flights.
“It was booked so a lot them went to Sydney anyway,” she told WHO exclusively. “They all bumped into each other at the airport. It was weird.”
“I was at home with the bridesmaids dresses and the cowboy boots we’d bought and then the wedding topper turned up in the post.”
For Claire it was a painful reminder of what she’d lost; not only the man she says she was “fully in love with” but the life they shared on the Narromine farm in regional New South Wales.
“I never thought of my life away from Andrew and the farm when I was there. It’s the only time in my life I’ve not had a plan B,” she said. “It’s not been easy but breakups are not easy, especially when you really love someone.”
In the run up to the wedding Claire said they were dealing with Andrew’s father’s serious illness and Claire saw how stressed and unable to commit her fiance was.
“I cancelled the wedding in July. You can’t make someone marry you,” she said. “He wanted some space so I went to Darwin for the dry season and the wheels really fell off after that. We’re not in contact now at all. It’s been a terrible time.”
In September Andrew shared in a lengthy Instagram post that said “life had other plans” for him and Claire. “No regrets, just gratitude,” he said of their relationship.
Alongside family the one thing Claire said has helped in her heartbreak is her little dog, Moe.
It made what happened to the 18-month old pug on September 23, even more traumatic.
“I was leaving the driveway and the latch mustn’t have shut on the side gate,” Claire said. “There was this boomp boomp and I looked in my rearview mirror and Moe was on the ground.”
In what Saunders described as one of the most “horrifying events” of her life she’d run over the pup she said is the “light of my life.”
“I thought he was going to die,” she said. “I got him to the vet and I was hysterical.”
He was rushed in for treatment but incredibly survived, suffering a fractured pelvis and small fracture on his spine.
He’s currently recuperating in his crate at home where Claire is hand-feeding him chicken pieces and generally making him feel very loved.
“The vets can’t understand how he’s not paralysed,” Claire said. “I felt so guilty and like such a piece of s**t I posted (on my Instagram) as I felt like I had to come clean. I got hundreds of messages. People who have had the same thing happen or who love Moe. I couldn’t even comprehend it.”
She went on: “I knew Moe was cool and makes me laugh but I hadn’t realised what a positive effect he has on so many people. I’m lucky to have this second chance with him.”