Channel 10
The Bachelor Australia is over for another season, with Laura Byrne stealing Matty J’s heart in an emotional finale in Thailand. Here, the couple tell WHO about their desire to just be a normal couple, and when an engagement will happen.
WHO: How are you feeling after last night?
LAURA: Feeling really good, it’s so nice to finally have everything out in the open and to be able to, kind of, be a normal couple.
WHO: How did you watch the finale?
LAURA: We watched it together. We were in a hotel room and that was the first episode that we actually got to watch as a couple and we just got a couple bottle of wines and that was it.
WHO: Who knew out of your friends and family that you were a couple?
MATTY: I only told my mum and my older sisters. My brothers kind of figured it out and my close friends kind of put two and two together, but it was nice for them to finally be like “I knew it! I had a feeling it was her.”
LAURA: I told my sister and she was the only person I really spoke to about it. The same with Matty, it’s really hard to keep something like this completely secretive to the people who know you and the people you spend your time with. So I was going away for some secret weekends and they were like “well where are you going?”
I think a few of my close friends had kind of put two and two together, but they’d not really actually knew for a fact that we were together.
WHO: How many times did you get to see each other between filming the finale and watching it last night?
LAURA: Four times. So we had four rendezvous. So it had been such a long time and this couldn’t have come soon enough really.
WHO: You both live in Sydney, have you discussed moving in together?
LAURA: We haven’t really talked about a date or anything like that. We live down the road from each other so it makes it super convenient and means that there’s not the pressure if we lived in different states to try and work it out so quickly. So we just get to date a be a normal couple for a while.
WHO: Matty, did you think at any point whilst giving Laura the ring that she may have thought it was an engagement ring?
LAURA: It did look like an engagement ring…
MATTY: When I reached into my pocket and I pulled out the ring I was very careful about the words that I used and I said ‘can you please pass my your right hand’.
LAURA: (Laughs) Very deliberate.
WHO: I know you’re just dating and it’s still new, but is a real engagement on the cards for any time soon?
LAURA: Matty and I are both at a point in our lives where we wouldn’t be together if we didn’t see this working out long term. But the reality with the show is that when he told me that he was in love with me, just moments later he said goodbye to Elise. So I don’t really feel like you can go from breaking up with someone to getting engaged in the next breath. So we just want to spend time together as a normal couple and work towards those things throughout life.
WHO: Do you feel pressure on your relationship to work out because of the other successful relationships that have come from the show?
LAURA: I don’t think there’s pressure to be successful. Either a relationship is successful because you love each other and it works, or it’s not. The end goal for us is to always be happy, and hopefully that means that we’ll be happy together. There’s nothing that we would want more than to be one of those successful bachie couples, but we would never stay together just because there is pressure to do that.
WHO: Now that it’s all over, do you think you’ll retreat and have a normal life or go the socialite way?
MATTY: Definitely not. I think for us, we both have normal jobs and there’s no desire to try and keep up appearances beyond this. I think now that we both have for the last few months our private lives completely exposed and open to the public, it’s going to be nice now to be a little bit more private.
WHO: Elise has said that she didn’t get closure from you, Matty. Do you think that’s something you would be able to give her?
MATTY: It’s really hard because you know I felt the same way when I was in her shoes. And you really want to have that clue and want to have a reason, you want to have that silver bullet moment that makes you understand why that person didn’t fall in love with you. And unfortunately you know I kind of said it before with Cobie, you can have all the perfect ingredients for someone who is exactly the person you want to meet, and for whatever reason you don’t fall for them. And unfortunately that’s the scenario with Elise.
WHO: Have you kept in contact with any of the girls?
LAURA: I’m friends with quite a few of the girls. I think that’s one of the really beautiful things to come out of the experience. Not just am I lucky enough to have a relationship with Matty but I’ve met some amazing girls who I want to stay friends with.
WHO: would either of you do tv again?
LAURA: I wouldn’t personally, reality tv or anything like that.
MATTY: For me I go back to work on Monday. I work for a marketing agency so that’s going to be the focus. I’ve already had to take enough time off work to do the media trail.
WHO: So no more TV commercials, Matty?
MATTY: (Laughs) umm, I don’t think I’ll be spruiking tampons anytime soon.
For more on Matty J and to read about Sophie Monk’s quest for love on The Bachelorette, pick up a copy of WHO on sale now.
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