When you put your heart on the line on The Bachelor, sometimes the only person who can understand what you’re going through is a former contestant.
Former winner Laura Byrne knows all too well what it’s like to date on reality TV – and now she’s revealed why she reached out to 2020 frontrunner Bella Varelis on Instagram.
Back in June when Laura and fiancé Matty J threw a first birthday party for their daughter Marlie-Mae, current Bachelor contestant Bella Varelis commented to share her own birthday message.
“Happy birthday to the lil angel xxx,” the 25-year-old reality contestant wrote.
Fan account Bachie Funny not only captured this exchange in a post, but also revealed that Laura had replied to the comment: “Thinking of you honey.”
“13 weeks ago…. around filming time…. And before anyone of us knew Bella and would have noticed this….. does Laura’s response make you think it’s all going to end in 💔 for Bella? Or completely unrelated to Bachie and I’m stretching?” the fan account captioned a screenshot of the comments.
Since Irena is suspected to be this year’s winner, it’s certainly a possibility, but Laura quickly clarified why she’d been thinking of Bella.
Commenting on the Bachie Funny post, Laura revealed that she’d shared her message to support her during her challenging reality TV experience.
“Guys I wrote ‘thinking of you’ because 1) I found out her grandfather was unwell 2) pap photos had been all over the Daily Mail of Bella on her single date with Locky so it was already public knowledge she was on the show,” she penned.
“It’s literally the craziest most stressful experience being on The Bachelor and having your most vulnerable moments shown to the world – so, I was thinking of her!” she added, followed by a laughing face and an eye-rolling face emoji.
Bella recently copped the villain edit, after she labelled former Bachie bestie Irena a “manipulative little b****” and tried to sway Locky away from her.
However, last year’s runner-up Abbie Chatfield has also come to Bella’s defence via her Instagram Stories.
“So here’s your villain from last year talking,” the former contestant said on social media.
“My request would be that we don’t use the word ‘villain’ for real humans that aren’t made up characters, that aren’t in comic books or action movies, because do we really need a villain? Do we need to hate someone this much?”
Meanwhile, Laura and Matty shared their own exciting news this week that they are expecting their second child.
Posing for a family photo shoot on the beach with daughter Marlie, Laura captioned her post: “I recon we’ve kept this little beach ball under wraps for long enough….. Half way to number 2. A big shout out to @matthewdavidjohnson for his contribution.”
Laura and Matty met and fell in love on season five of The Bachelor back in 2017. They celebrated three years passing since the finale, shortly before their pregnancy announcement was revealed.
“I’ll be honest, we both kinda forgot the finale happened 3 years ago today. I blame the fact that we’re still so disgustingly in love with each other it’s made our memories slightly hazy… and the fact that we’re battling extreme parental fatigue,” Matty joked on Instagram.
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