When Abbie Chatfield avoided having multiple conversations about settling down and starting a family with Matt Agnew, many fans of The Bachelor questioned whether she was really serious about the astrophysicist. Now we finally know why the 24-year-old felt uncomfortable having the intimate chat on camera.
In a heartbreaking chat on the Shameless podcast, Abbie revealed through tears that she had an abortion months before filming began. In light of her traumatic experience, the Bachie runner-up said she would cry every time she was asked by producers, Matt’s friend Kate and co-star Sogand Mohtat to talk about babies.
“I’m so sick of having to justify [to these women] why I haven’t been screaming from the rooftops,’I want kids’,” she said, adding that she’s been “hesitant” to have a baby ever since. “At the time, I felt guilty for saying I wanted kids because I aborted one in March last year.”
While she remained tight-lipped about it for most of the season, Abbie discretely told Matt through a “whisper”, however, grew angry when producers tried to catch the moment on camera.
“I whispered it to him and his producer didn’t hear me and said, ‘Abbie, you are going to have to say it out loud.’ And then I turned around, looked dead in the camera and said, ‘I had a f**king abortion last year.'”
After “begging” Network 10 producers to edit the emotional moment out, Abbie decided to share her story in an attempt to remove the stigma surrounding terminations.
“In the house, I told the girls about my abortion… because I didn’t want other women to feel ashamed about having abortions and I feel like it was used against me,” she revealed. “A lot of women have abortions and, whether or not you know they have abortions, it’s OK. I just don’t want people to be shamed for that or feel internal shame.
“Maybe someone who’s kind of in the public eye saying they’ve had an abortion and that it’s OK will help them [women who’ve had abortions].”
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