Ciarran Has Given A Tell-All Interview About Renee, Kiki & His Toxic Stint On ‘Bachelor In Paradise’
Not many reality TV contestants have experienced the highs and lows of public scrutiny like Ciarran Stott.
Introduced to Australia on Angie Kent’s season of The Bachelorette, Ciarran became a super popular contestant — perhaps, one of the most talked-about contestants ever on the show. Fans loved him to his unique style, quirky personality, and how he wasn’t concerned with conforming to ideals of masculinity. Basically, he was breath of fresh air for a show that has platformed more than its fair share of toxic men.
Despite being pegged to win, Ciarran ended the show prematurely after his grandmother passed away, which offered another moment not often seen on Australian reality TV: Ciarran crying uncontrollably as he delivered the news to Angie. Men showing emotion is only seldom featured in this show.
In short: Ciarran finished his The Bachelorette journey as Australia’s most wholesome king. He was adored by fans, so when he was cast on the following Bachelor In Paradise season which aired in 2020, we all expected to see great things from him.
Lol. We were wrong!
The Ciarran seen on BIP was a callous, unfeeling fuckboi, who went from woman to woman — not caring about who he hurt along the way. He began with Abbie Chatfield, then moved on to Jessica Brody when she arrived, before dumping her for Kiki Morris. Meanwhile, Ciarran’s ex-girlfriend Renee Barrett arrived and he flaunted his new relationship(s) in front of her with no concern for her feelings. This simply was not the Ciarran who fans had fallen in love with during The Bachelorette — this guy was the worst!
After this reality TV stint, the public’s perception of Ciarran obviously shifted dramatically and he was rebranded as Australia’s biggest fuckboi. Since his infamous 2020 season, Ciarran has lived a relatively quiet existence. He moved to Melbourne and now rarely posts on Instagram, usually only just to promote an upcoming boxing fight. This year, Ciarran appeared on The Bachelorette in Sweden, before he met his current girlfriend Ruby Burciaga.
Now almost two years since he last appeared on TV, Ciarran has finally addressed his past behaviour on the latest episode of So Dramatic! podcast. Host Megan Pustetto asked him a bunch of questions and thankfully, he showed considerable remorse for what he did.
Here are the highlights from Ciarran’s interview where he discussed Renee, Kiki, Jess and regrets about his behaviour on Bachelor In Paradise:
On where he stands with Renee and Kiki:
“I’ve sorted things out with Renee, but I haven’t spoken to Kiki since we broke up,” he said. “I’ve spoken to Renee once or twice, but nothing in detail. I’ve just apologised for the things that happened — that was it really. We now follow each other on Instagram. She’s fine, she’s got a new fella up in Darwin, I’ve got my new girlfriend down here in Melbourne, so it’s amicable.”
(For what it’s worth, part of this quote isn’t true. Renee follows Ciarran on Instagram, but Ciarran does not follow Renee.)
“I have never spoken to Kiki again. I just feel like with me leaving and moving down to Melbourne, with everything that happened — I just want to forget it,” he said. “I would [apologise] but it would feel a bit weird. I’m pretty sure she has a new fella now, she probably doesn’t care about it. I think it would be a bit weird me reaching out to say ‘Hey, sorry for what happened two years ago.'”
On his current relationship with Jess:
“I’ve caught up with Jess before — we’re friends again. I like that she’s doing her tattoo business, I might need to get one off her.”
On how he now feels about his behaviour on Bachelor In Paradise:
“I can’t really defend myself, ” he said. “Looking back at it — I haven’t watched it but I’ve seen clips posted on social media — it’s just absolutely cringe. I can’t believe I was saying some of them[sic] things… I went on there thinking I was the most loved man in Australia right now, I let it get to my head.”
He continued, “I don’t act like that, I don’t think about women like that — not anymore,” he said. “I was just acting like a complete knob. I regret my actions, I regret going on the show. I regret everything to do with Paradise. If I could do it all again, it would be completely different. But saying that, I probably wouldn’t have done it.”
“I sort of treated it like Love Island in the UK — you can just swap and change partners. I thought ‘no one cares!’ but I did it in the wrong way… I was doing too much lying, too many broken promises, and saying things I didn’t mean.”
On whether he deserved the hate he received from the Australian public:
“I believe I deserve it for the way I acted on TV,” he said. “I’m not going to sit here and say it was a bad edit. All the actions I did on Paradise was me. On The Bachelorette, I was sweet, I was myself and I was chilled. But then as soon as all the so-called fame got to me, and I was the most-loved person in Australia, I used that to my demise really. It snowballed into the worst thing possible — I wasn’t myself anymore.”
On how much he was partying between The Bachelorette and Bachelor In Paradise:
“I sort of wish I didn’t go on the ol’ Paradise, as I didn’t go in with the right attitude to start with. The Bachelorette had just come out, everything was blowing up, I was going around Australia partying, I was doing a lot of illegal substances — I was going a bit crazy,” he said, adding that his nights out involved “lots of drugs and women, I thought I was a rockstar and let it get to my head. I wasn’t treating myself with respect, so I definitely wasn’t treating anyone else with it either… I hurt a lot of people.”
“Even before Paradise, I partied for like three or four days straight before I even got on the plane. As soon as I got to Fiji, I slept for like 16-18 hours,” he told Pustetto. “They had to pause it all [filming] because I was an absolute mess. I was not in a good space. I was off my head, I was drunk, my chaperone had to hold my head up on the flight.”
On getting nasty DMs and being confronted in public:
“I was getting messages from people saying ‘If I see you in the street, I’ll bash you.’ I got king-hit on a night out on Chapel Street once, I was in hospital for three days. I had swelling on the back of my brain and a fractured skull,” he said. “I just don’t go out anymore and if I do, it’s with a big group of mates.”
On the lessons he’s learnt from the experience:
“Looking back on it and reflecting on it, I’ll never be that person again. I’ll never gaslight women, I’ll never be toxic — I don’t want to be that person,” Ciarran said. “I can’t believe that’s the way I was acting and what I was doing, but like I said, I’m not that person anymore. I don’t go out partying, I don’t do drugs, I don’t drink anymore. Like if I drink, I’ll have a glass of red wine with my girlfriend — and that’s about it.”
On what he thinks of Angie’s comments disparaging her Bachelorette season’s contestants:
“I have not had any contact with her. Everyone has their own opinion, it doesn’t phase me too much what people think,” he said. “When I was on Angie’s season I was myself, but when I went on to Paradise that’s probably where her answers are coming from. She’s probably looking at that thinking ‘was this the real guy?'”
On whether he was invested in Angie on The Bachelorette:
“I was proper open to it! I thought this would be a cool thing to do and a cool story to tell. ‘How’d you meet?’, well we actually met on a TV show. When I went on there, I was definitely getting feelings for Angie at the time. It was heartbreaking when I left because of my nan. Then loads of people messaged me saying, ‘I can’t believe you faked it,’ but I’m not a Grammy award-winning actor!” (We assume Ciarran means a different award here.)
On rumours he had been approached to do other reality shows:
“I never got asked to do Ex on the Beach. I was asked to go on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! I was meant to be on that. It fell through, they went with somebody else instead of me. I was a bit bummed about that.”
On whether Ciarran would ever do reality TV again:
“I’d love to go on an adventure show, something that will test me. I did get approached to do the SAS one, but I couldn’t do that because of boxing. If that opportunity came around again, I’d love to give that a go. I’m pretty sure I’m the only reality TV guy who has an army background: I was a rifleman for five years in the Australian Army. It would be a great test for me.”
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Ciarran spoke a lot more about what he’s up to now and his recent stint on the Swedish version of The Bachelorette, so listen to the full episode here.