It’s not often a girl walks away from the Bachelor mansion, but on Thursday’s episode, one of the ladies was pushed to her limits and made the bold decision to leave.
After more tears and tussles with fellow contestant Juliette than we’d care to count, 29-year-old Roxi Kenny packed her bags and bid farewell to a romance with Locky Gilbert.
The mechanical engineer became known for her frequent meltdowns at cocktail parties and whilst she admits she is an emotional person, Roxi says that the mansion exacerbates everyone’s emotions.
“I don’t cry that much but I am a crier,” she tells Who the morning after her final episode went to air.
In this exclusive chat, we chat to Roxi about the challenges of putting your heart on the line in front of the entire country plus, why she was hoping to get a more “respectful” Bachelor who wouldn’t sneak off for a smooch at every opportunity.
Congratulations on being the first walk out of the season! Was Juliette really the reason you left?
Yeah she was and as much as it sucks that I let someone get to me like that, it played the entire part in me leaving.
Did you get to say goodbye to Locky and the other girls?
I didn’t get to say goodbye to Locky, he’d already left. The plan was the cocktail party was a welcome back party and we were all supposed to go to bed so he went home and it all transpired right before we were supposed to take off our dresses and go to sleep.
Was it a long night? We hear those cocktail parties last for hours.
They do go for a long time. Lucky they didn’t see me traipsing around the house – I had no shoes on!
Looking back at your experience, do you still think Locky was inappropriate for kissing lots of the girls?
Yeah in my mind I thought that you can get to know girls without hooking up with them. You can chat to them and get to know more about their background rather than make out with all of them – it’s not the Playboy mansion!
I was hoping for a Bachelor who was respectful of all the girls and didn’t feel the need to be going around doing that. If that’s what he wants to do, that’s up to him at the end of the day.
Do you still have feelings for Locky?
Noooo! That ship has sailed!
What was the toughest thing about your Bachelor experience?
It sucks being away from home and I really missed Lottie [Roxi’s dog] and she played on my mind a lot. You can’t call your family anytime you want to – it’s every couple of weeks so it was definitely hard to not be able to check in every day. On top of living with 23 women, it’s not an easy thing to have to do and I’m not used to being around big groups of women so that was definitely a challenge for me too.
Would you do anything differently if you had your shot again. Do you have any regrets?
No, I stayed true to myself in the house and I was trying to be as authentic as possible. What you see is what you get, even though it’s a heightened version of me – I don’t cry that much but I am a crier. I guess the only thing I wish I didn’t spiral out of control on was the kiss with Bella – I kind of carried on like a bit of an idiot and I wasn’t thrilled with my performance! But I don’t necessarily regret any of my actions, I guess I could’ve handled myself a little bit better in a few of the situations.
What do you think of how you were portrayed? Do you think Australia saw the real you?
In the beginning I wasn’t overly thrilled about how I was coming across because it was just me crying constantly. I did have good moments in the house and they weren’t showing a lot of that at the beginning. It wasn’t until the end when you started seeing the real story, so to speak – a little bit of quirkiness that goes on with me, a couple of cheeky comments.
After the show I just decided to lay low for a bit, but in terms of dating I just thought maybe it’s best to keep it to myself even if I wanted to. I’m keeping that a bit separate now I’ve gone and put my heart on the line in front of Australia!
You went on quite a few of the dates and had some alone time with Locky. What was your Bachelor highlight?
I really enjoyed the psychic group date to be honest, that was a really cool thing to be a part of. She pinpointed me to a tee so that was by far my favourite. I love that stuff so I was all for it.
You mentioned you don’t often spend a lot of time with that many women but are you still in contact with any of your former Bachelor co-stars?
I’ve got some really great friendships out of the show. In the house I was super close with Maddy, she and I spent every day together and coming out I’ve formed close friendships with Laura, Zoe-Clare, Rosemary, Kaitlyn and even Bella – her and I chat often as well.
We spotted that you watched your final episode with Zoe-Clare!
I did! Zoe-Clare’s the best, she’s so funny and she’s such good quality to hang out with so it was good to have her there to help get me through the episode. She’s been such a great support. When the trolls started coming in my direction she helped me through the s*** situation that it is so I was very grateful for that.
What advice would you give to any future Bachelor contestants?
There are steps you can take – you can turn off your comments and messages which I did a lot throughout the season. But as bad as it sounds you kind of start to get used to it and at the end of the day they’re just words. They don’t know you, they’ve never met you – I mean it says more about them to be honest. After a while it’s just water off a duck’s back. There are people who support you, they’re just not as vocal as the people who don’t.
What does the future hold for you? Would you be up for more reality TV like Bachelor in Paradise?
I’m not in a rush to get back on a dating show given how stressful this whole experience has been. But in saying that I don’t want to say never so I guess I’m just going to have to wait and see how I’m feeling towards that time. Even if it is offered to me I don’t know if they’d want me back after my performance!
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