After a season of ups and downs and internal turmoil, tough decisions were finally made on tonight’s finale episode of The Bachelors Australia.
Thomas was a man with a ring and he was definitely going to use it. Keeping it short and sweet, he said goodbye to Lauren before getting down on one knee to an over the moon Leah who accepted his proposal of marriage.
Jed told Angela that his work keeping him away from her for unknown amounts of the time was his reason in not choosing her. Gobsmacked and shocked, Angie demanded answers and left the conversation shook.
Despite knowing Alésia didn’t want a proposal and the ring was a huge obstacle in their relationship, Jed put his heart on the line and proposed anyway. With communication being the key, the couple decided they were all-in on their relationship to see where it was headed and the ring was given, just not as a marriage proposal.
The final decision for Felix wasn’t only his, Jessica needed to make one as well.
In saying goodbye to Abigail, Felix questioned his connection with Jessica until the final moments. Revealing she had said goodbye to Damien and was invested in a future with Felix, he stated he was definitely keen to see what the future held for the both of them.
With all three couples raising their glasses in a toast, the future was bright. Unfortunately, as with many relationships, things don’t always work out the way they had planned and Felix and Jessica have since parted ways, as have Thomas and Leah. Jed and Alésia aren’t putting labels on their relationship currently but are excited to see how their connection can now evolve outside the Bachie bubble.
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The Bachelors Australia 2023: Felix And Jess Go Their Separate Ways, ‘It Did Naturally Fizzle Out’
During Sunday night’s grand finale, Jess ended things with Damien, allowing her and Felix to begin their journey together.
Throughout the season, Jess’ then-boyfriend Damien was a looming figure that brought several complexities to her and Felix’s future together. But during the grand finale, Jess made the difficult decision to close that chapter so she could fully open herself up to exploring a relationship with Felix.
Speaking to 10 Play, Jess also admitted that during one of their single dates, she and Felix had made an agreement.
“If we were to leave together on the day of the finale, we wouldn’t be engaged, we wouldn’t be boyfriend and girlfriend, we would just leave as Jessica and Felix who are continuing the dating experience,” she said.
Explaining that she needs time to really get to know someone in the real world organically, Jess added, “I really loved my time with Felix in those moments… it just wasn’t enough to be like yep, I want to get engaged or this is 100 percent my person.”
Hoping to continue their dating experience, the long distance and the time between the finale and the show airing began to take its toll on the couple.
“It was tough,” Felix said, “I’ve been in a long-distance relationship in the past and it’s incredibly strenuous because if you feel strongly about someone, you want them to always be around you. With us, we didn’t know when the show was going to air or what was going to happen.”
“I think Felix has a lot of great qualities,” Jess said, but the long distance and the nature of not being able to see each other out in the real world before the finale aired made it difficult to “kick off a normal relationship”.
“As someone who really values communication and who loves a good D&M, I felt like Felix and I had very different perspectives on what that would look like, and we just kind of lacked that communication,” she continued.
“We were on different levels in that sense and it inevitably did naturally fizzle out. I still have care for him and I truly want the best for him and I will always want to be there for him as a friend,” Jess said.
“We have gone through such a massive thing together. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out how I wanted it to… the fairytale ending never actually came to light even though that’s all I ever wanted in my life.”
Felix agreed saying, “We’re still on great terms, we’re still incredibly close and we’ve chatted throughout the process… we’re on great terms.”
As for the question of Damien, Jess confirmed that she has “no romantic feelings whatsoever towards Damien” and the pair did not get back together following the show.
“I still care for him as a person and I think he was a massive part of my life, I would never want to discredit that, but from the get-go, I knew he wasn’t going to be my life partner and he deserves someone who is completely all the way in and not half in,” she said.
During the series, Jess was criticised for coming into the Bachelor mansion while still having a boyfriend on the outside. Now, looking back, she admits that if she had her time all over again she’d do things very differently.
“I would have wanted to have been strong enough to actually break up with Damien prior to going on the show,” she admitted. “I think having someone that I was still attached to created a whole other layer of confusion and drama.
“I’d love people to take on board that this is a TV show at the end of the day, these are actual people. We’re humans and I’m 100 percent not perfect. I never wanted to represent the polyamorous or non-monogamous community at all and I almost want to apologise for being put into this box that I’m the poster girl for it.
“I hope people can see beneath everything and try to have a bit of compassion and empathy for everyone involved.”
The Bachelors Australia 2023: Thomas And Leah Confirm They’re No Longer Together, ‘We Weren’t Compatible’
During the grand finale of The Bachelors Australia, Thomas Malucelli got down on one knee and popped the question to Leah.
Throughout the journey, Thomas and Leah had a strong connection and it was no surprise that the Italian Stallion was ready to propose to one of his finalists.
But several months after filming the series, Thomas and Leah confirmed to 10 Play that they are no longer a couple.
“I think it was two or three months after the finale,” Thomas said, “we had an amazing time together and we spent incredible moments together on the show and also after the show… but we realised, spending time together, we had lots of love and care for each other but we weren’t compatible and compatibility is so important.
“We made the decision to stay friends, to still support one another but obviously go our different routes finding love,” he continued.
Leah said, “I’m devastated to this day I didn’t get what I wanted from it, but I also found so much more from it,” adding that through the experience she was able to learn so much more about herself.
“I love who I am now, I can look at myself in the mirror like damn Leah you should be so proud of yourself. I gave something a go and I didn’t hold anything back,” Leah said.
“I didn’t want to leave that experience and think I didn’t show him everything that I was because, at the end of the day, I don’t want someone to be with me just to make me happy, I want someone to be with me because I make them happy as well.”
Thomas also learned a lot about himself through The Bachelors experience, but looking back he also added that he has some regrets.
“I was so focused on having that ‘perfect fairytale ending’ that I didn’t allow myself, in some cases, to fully open up to some of the women,” he said.
“One of my biggest lessons was, from now onwards, always listen to your heart as opposed to what your head is telling you. That was something I will take with me after this experience.”
Looking back at her time on the show, Leah again said how proud she was of herself. “I was really scared coming into it, I had no idea what to expect but I was at a point in my life where I hadn’t found love and what I had been doing hadn’t been working.
“I wanted to dig deep and see what could come of it. I was really scared something might go wrong but I was also holding on to the hope that something amazing could come from it.”
She continued, saying, “even to this day I care about Thomas a lot… it was hard, but I’m happy I got through it and I was able to become someone I never thought I could be, and all I had to do was really believe in myself.
“I’ve proven to myself I have my own back, and I have more faith in myself than I ever thought I could.”
The Bachelors Australia 2023: Jed And Alesia Start Their Next Chapter Together
While Jed shocked Alesia by getting down on one knee, the pair are excited to finally get the chance to explore their connection from day one.
On Sunday night, Jed finally popped the question to Alesia, but it turned out to be a very different question. Having discussed how she was not comfortable with an engagement at the end of the experience, Alesia clearly wasn’t going to say yes to Jed’s proposal of marriage after seven weeks.
Jed later revealed that he had again offered it to Alesia after the attempted proposal, this time as a ‘promise ring’, and as a symbol of his commitment to their relationship.
Standing alongside Felix and Jess, and Thomas and Leah, Jed and Alesia are the only couple still together from the season, but they’re hesitant to put a specific label on what their relationship is at this early stage.
“Me and Alesia are in a really good place,” Jed told 10 Play, “we’re taking it day by day and are excited to actually just have a coffee with each other and live a normal life after this.”
“We’ve had to hold a relationship together by phone and text,” Alesia added, “to not have actually gotten out to have a coffee with someone is so odd in a dating sense.
“It’ll be good that we can actually go out and do that and see what it’s like to be with each other in a normal setting,” she added.
Jed added that the pair are aware things won’t immediately be “normal-normal” after the show wrapped up, “But I think it’s all going to have a lot of pressure relieved for the both of us… we’re going to take it day by day and see how we go.”
Much like the proposal, Alesia said it was so important to her to remain true to herself and what she wanted, “And not fall under the pressure of it being a TV show or what Australia might think or how they might feel… I still want to maintain that today and say look let’s be real.
“We haven’t seen each other for this long… it’s something that we’re not coming out saying yeah, we’re together. We just want to be together in a real setting and see where it goes from there and if it does flourish into something more.”
While Jed and Alesia have been able to stay in contact and see each other in a scant handful of secret rendezvous since filming, the pair said it feels like now they get to start from scratch, in a physical sense, but emotionally they’re still going strong.
“Regardless of if it’s media, the show, distance or our own personal things we went through coming off this show, I think it nearly strengthened us on a deeper level in a sense,” Jed explained.
“But I also think, romantically, it does add a bit of pressure that doesn’t really allow you to grow in that exciting phase. I think one of the cool things about the show airing is that it has allowed us to look back at those fun moments.
“Now it’s going to be such a relief of that pressure for us where it’s starting fresh in that sense of physically being able to go out, but I personally feel like [since] coming off the show we know so much more about each other.”
Alesia also admitted that, during the show, she was a lot more guarded because she was so aware of drama in the house, or how her outside life could be affected.
“I just wanted to go back to life as normally as possible… so, when we had the rendezvous, I felt like the walls completely dropped,” she added. “It was like the relationship hit a completely new level straight after that and that’s the way it has continued since then.”
With just the proposal-shaped hurdle as their only stumbling block during the show, an obviously shocked Alesia struggled to come up with the words in that moment to explain herself to Jed, but the pair worked through it.
“When he did get down on one knee I was like, what the hell? Were you not present for the last eight conversations,” Alesia said as Jed laughed in the background. “The profanity coming out of my mouth I think was worse than he had on that roller coaster… it was not good.
“He said no, I know you’re going to say no, I just had to ask. And I was like, am I being punked? Why would you do that to my heart?”
“I fell for Alesia the day I met her,” Jed replied. “It sounds os corny, but for me, the entire time I had no question. I consider myself the luckiest man on that show 100 percent.”
“I truly do feel like I was lucky enough to be with someone who was emotionally in tune with himself as well as with me,” Alesia continued.
“We heard each other really well and we both felt heard by each other… other than at the end when he asked me the question,” she said as Jed laughed.
“The really nice thing about it all was that even though Jed had said the ring’s really important to me and I said it’s really important we don’t get engaged, in the end, there was still a result we met in the middle with,” she said.
Jed agreed adding, “We’re not doing this for the show… I think we’re a work in progress and I think it’s a credit to us, her, especially because if this was just left up to me it would be an absolute pile of sh*t,” he said as the pair laughed.
“We’re not saying all this official stuff just for the sake of it, that actually goes to show the care we have for each other and also the maturity between the relationship that we currently have,” he said.
“We’re not doing this for anyone else anymore, we’re doing this for us and we’re going to move at our own pace, and I think people will respect that.”
