Bachelor fan favourite Lily Price claimed frontrunner Brooke Cleal didn’t have genuine intentions when going on the show.
WATCH Brooke Cleal returns to the Bachelor mansion
As the youngest in the mansion, Lily proved she was mature beyond her years, but Jimmy didn’t see a future with the 23-year-old and sent her home on Wednesday night’s episode.
Lily’s exit came on the same night that Brooke suddenly returned to the mansion after leaving due to the death of her grandfather.
But Lily said she thought Brooke’s return to the show was “more as a competition than finding love”.
“Umm no, [she wasn’t genuine]. I think she sort of just wanted to finish what she started. She definitely picked herself to win from the start,” the 23-year-old told Pedestrian.
“She was very vocal about the fact that she wasn’t sure about his lifestyle, or she’d make comments about some of his characteristics. She’d been saying that for weeks, so we were really shocked to see her back, if I’m honest.”
During Brooke and Jimmy’s first single date after return, the 27-year-old told Jimmy she had seen paparazzi photos of him and Lily kissing during their one-on-one, adding it made her feel uncomfortable.
Lily revealed she was disappointed to see her and Jimmy’s intimate moment mentioned by Brooke.
“I’m not sure why she decided to bring me up. I think it’s not good to shame other women, but that’s just my opinion. I would never do that. But yeah, it was definitely hard to watch,” she said.
The crane operator also claimed many in the girls in the mansion encouraged Brooke to speak with Jimmy about her concerns over his long work hours, but she didn’t address it with the pilot until late in the season.
“We were like, ‘We’ve been here for 10 weeks by the point, how have you not?’ – like, these are big conversations that you need to be having straight away,” she said.
Speaking of moments we don’t see on TV, Lily confessed to New Idea that there was plenty of unaired “tension” around the mansion.
“There’s definitely a lot of tension that surrounds the mansion when the cameras aren’t there,” she said.
“I think, honestly, that’s where a lot of it builds up and then it spills over when the cameras are out because that’s just natural; it gets to a point where it needs to come out.”
For Lily, the toughest part of the reality show was staying true to herself when, according to the 23-year-old, others weren’t doing the same.
“The hardest part for me was continuing to be open and genuine when you knew at times some people weren’t. But I just stayed true to myself and I had some really good friends and we all just sort of leaned on each other and were genuine.”
As for Lily’s undeniable chemistry with Jimmy, the blonde beauty said the pair had even more romantic moments off screen that we didn’t see.
“There has been a lot that hasn’t been shown. Jimmy and I wrote letters to each other in a cocktail party one time. A lot of my single date hasn’t been shown as well; we played basketball together. It was just really nice and genuine,” she said.
Lily, who described Jimmy as “charismatic, funny and down-to-earth” revealed that her favourite version of the Bachie is the one that viewers aren’t privy to.
“I think we see an extremely polished version of him but my favourite version of him is in between takes when we’re getting hair and make-up or something and he’s just chilling out,” she said.
“The real version of Jimmy, which I think only a few people will see, is my favourite because he’s just so natural.”
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