When Georgia Love signed up to take on Dry July and give up alcohol for a month, she did so to raise funds and awareness for the Pancare Foundation – a charity close to her heart since her beloved mum Belinda passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2016.
“It’s a strange, funny, bittersweet thing in a way because my mum loved a wine,” laughs Georgia as she calls WHO from Melbourne.
“Lots of our family friends have donated and made jokes saying, ‘There’s no way Belinda would’ve supported this but we’ll support you!’”
But the former Bachelorette is also doing so to raise awareness of the health benefits of not drinking alcohol as there are many links between alcohol consumption and cancers, including pancreatic.
“We’ve got such a bad drinking culture in Australia so to be able to raise awareness of that and linking it to pancreatic cancer is really important as well. It’s not just a fundraising effort, it’s really awareness about that too.”
However just days into her month off from drinking, Georgia, who married her Bachelorette winner Lee Elliott earlier this year, has already had to deal with people asking her if she’s pregnant.
“The fact that we’re married now, we get people saying ‘When do you want to start a family?’” she says.
“I don’t know if Lee gets it so much individually but certainly when you’re a female, especially one who’s just been married and you’re openly saying you’re not drinking alcohol everyone assumes. When you’ve had a big lunch or wearing a felt coat that sits out away from your stomach everyone assumes.”
WATCH BELOW: Georgia Love and Lee Elliott nail the Dirty Dancing lift at their wedding reception. Post continues after video…
Georgia adds that she wants the conversation to change when it comes to pregnancy and fertility.
“There are so many people and people close to me who are going through really difficult fertility journeys and battles and any talk of pregnancy and why or why aren’t you pregnant is really really offensive, triggering and hurtful to them,” she says.
“We’re not trying to get pregnant at the moment so it’s not an offence to me directly but I think the conversation of asking people if they’re pregnant, when they’re going to be pregnant and if they want kids at all is offensive.”
She adds: “It just needs to be learnt and taught that it’s never ok to ask anyone if they’re pregnant or when they’re planning to be. It’s everyone’s personal journey and until a person tells you that they are, you’ve got no right to ask. It’s just no one else’s business really.”
Despite the fact that she and Lee were forced to reschedule their wedding numerous times due to the pandemic, Georgia admits that lockdown meant they were able to plan their perfect big day.
The couple, who originally planned to tie the knot in Italy, officially became husband and wife at Tasmania’s Frogmore Creek Winery in March and whilst their relationship hasn’t changed, getting married did bring on a different feeling for Georgia.
“Life isn’t different but there is a bit of a different feeling, I didn’t expect that. I felt really different once we got engaged, it was this extra level of comfort within each other so I kind of thought I felt the difference then but I did feel it too when we were married and once we were back from our honeymoon and went back to work.
“There was a different feeling of knowing your husband’s at home and that you get to go back to your husband rather than just some guy!”
Georgia and Lee recently celebrated five years since they met on the second season of The Bachelorette Australia and the former leading lady admits she “adored” the whole process of finding love on reality TV.
“It was the most amazing experience of my whole life,” she says.
“Obviously, I met my husband and I will never ever be able to say anything bad about a situation where that happened, but we both made some really wonderful friends. We had three of the boys from The Bachelorette at our engagement party and one at our wedding!
“The best thing I’ll always say is how amazing it is that we can actually go back and watch the moment that we met and watch our first date. It’s really cool and our grandkids are going to be really embarrassed by how much we show them!”
Want your own fairytale romance? Find love on eHarmony!
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
