Former Bachelor star Nick ‘Honey Badger’ Cummins has added fuel to speculation that participants in the show are contractually encouraged to stay together romantically after the show, in a telling new interview.
SEE BELOW: NICK CUMMINS ON HOW THE BACHELOR IMPACTED HIS MENTAL HEALTH
Speaking to the ABC’s Radio National, the controversial star referenced a 3-month contract that seemingly obliges couples to go through the motions of romance once the show over. Discussing his decision not to pick a partner at the end of The Bachelor, Nick seemed to suggest that he simply refused to fake it until he was contractually free to be single.
‘I was actually disappointed that people are so brainwashed, you’re not going to get your fairytale ending every time,’ he told the ABC of his choice not to commit – a choice that enraged many Bachelor fanatics at the time.
‘And what’s more important, me just saying “yes” and going through the motions and dragging some girl through all this media about how we’re in love and then three months down the track after the contract’s over, um, we’re allowed to break up.
‘I’m not going to drag them through that rubbish … and break her heart. Bugger that.’
There has long been speculation among fans and in the media that finalists associated with the Bachelor franchise are required to present as couples for a fixed period after the show finishes, usually claimed to be three months. The allegation has always been denied by the show’s producers and the couples involved – most notably by Sophie Monk, who announced her split from Stu Laundy exactly three months to the day after the end of The Bachelorette.
Sophie claimed there was no contract in place obliging her to go through a game of pretending to be with Stu, a position she has never backed away from. ‘There were no contracts or pressure to stay together whatsoever from anyone and we remain friends,’ Sophie said in her Instagram split statement.