locky bella the bachelor

Bella Confirmed The Rumours That She & Locky Talked About Engagement Rings

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Last night’s finale of The Bachelor was unlike any finale we’ve ever seen before, with Locky Gilbert telling both Irena Srbinovska and Bella Varelis that he had fallen in love with them.

This left both ladies going into the final ceremony fairly confident. As Bella stated at the time, “He wouldn’t tell you he loves you, if he was going to pick someone else?”

But that’s exactly what Locky did. As Bella approached him, he was inconsolable as he cited her not having a longterm plan for their future as the final nail in the coffin. Bella told us in the moment, she went numb as the adrenaline kicked in, but we’re forever grateful to her for giving us this perfectly memeable moment:

We spoke to Bella about her time on The Bachelor, if she’s spoken to Locky since the brutal dumping, and whether they really had talked about engagement rings.

On the show finally ending:

“I feel invigorated. I feel like I’ve been in a straitjacket for two months. Last night was that bit of closure I needed to close the chapter and start fresh.”

“It’s been so hard, I even had messages from my aunties being like, I know you can’t tell us but let us know when the wedding is. Just getting a message like that, three days after coming out of filming and it’s like, you have NO idea. I just had to play along.”

On when she realised she wasn’t going to be Locky’s final choice:

“When someone tells you they can’t wait to make you happy for the rest of your life, that’s not something I take lightly. I was confused at first and I didn’t know what was going on. You never want to see the person you care so much about bawling their eyes out, which is why I consoled him. Regardless of whatever happened, I didn’t want him to be that upset over the decision that he knowingly had to make.”

“In that moment I didn’t know. I was like, ‘is he crying because he’s upset that he’s broken up with Irena or is he crying because he’s about to let me go.’ The moment I realised was when he said  ‘I feel so bad.’ I think that hit me in the chest, and that was the moment I just went numb. That’s why I didn’t cry until I got back in the limo, I just put my protective barrier back up because I didn’t want to give him that last bit of vulnerability from me.”

On finally getting closure:

“I think my closure was towards the end. I was like, I don’t want to be with someone who doesn’t want to be with me. I wanna be with someone that if they love me they’re not going to question that up until the very end. At the end of the day for me, it’s not about having a plan with the person you love, it’s just about wanting to be with that person. If anything, it’s just given me the closure that he wasn’t my human. I definitely won’t have to wait at a base camp for him!”

On the rumours Locky was reassuring her she would be the final choice, and that he asked her about engagement rings:

“We were talking about that stuff during lockdown. We had three months out of filming that was just normality. During that period, he said to me ‘I genuinely can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, I can’t wait to make you happy for the rest of your life’ and hearing that kind of stuff, I think that’s why I fell in love. I thought I found someone who wanted to spend the rest of their life with me.

“At the end of the day, we all say things when we’re in love. I don’t want to be with him and we have a fight and then I have to question if he chose wrong. I think that would mess with my head. I feel like ultimately I understand why he did what he did, but I think hopefully he doesn’t have to tell anyone else that he loves them other than Irena for the rest of his life.”

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On whether she’s spoken to Irena:

“No, we haven’t spoken. To be honest… all the nitty-gritty details don’t matter anymore. I’m so grateful for all the girls who came out and had my back, (the show) was an inaccurate depiction of what happened. When you’re in love, you do stupid things, so I wish the best for Irena, she went in it for the same reasons I did, so I can’t fault her. At the end of the day I’m happy she’s gotten what she wants.”

And on whether we’d see her on BIP or perhaps… as the next Bachelorette?

“I probably wouldn’t do Bachelor In Paradise, because I think if I get ditched for another woman again I might be broken into too many pieces to put back together. I would consider Bachelorette if it came to me, I am a sucker for a love story. I think it’s a sure way to get a fairytale ending – I’ve had friends who have ended up together, and have babies together, so I know it works. A girl can dream, right? I won’t be telling two men I love them, though!”