Rachael From ‘Bachelor In Paradise’ Dishes The Dirt On Her Relationships With Richie & Alex Nation

Rachael Gouvignon gave Bachelor In Paradise a red-hot go for the second time this year but walked away in last night’s episode after failing to recapture Richie Strahan’s heart.

Rachael established smaller connections with Bill and Nathan, but it was her feelings for her ex-Bachelor Richie that saw her crumble in the end after he ended up choosing to pursue a connection with Cass Wood.

With Rachael not finding love on this year’s Bachelor In Paradise, she didn’t shy away from some drama, getting in an argument with former castmate Alex Nation over an old rumour that aired on their season of The Bachelor.

We chatted to Rachael about her time on Bachelor In Paradise, where she’s at with Richie now, and how she really feels about Alex.

On Nathan:

Gotta love Rachael and Nathan brought together by the power of, “well, there’s nobody else” #BachelorInParadiseAU

— Carla Viz (@thecarlaviz) April 16, 2019

“I guess what you didn’t see is that Nathan and I had a really strong relationship that no one really knows about. He’s having cuddles at night time, lots of kisses, and saying he’s happy with where we’re going. He goes on a group date, comes back really confused and people are saying there’s amazing chemistry between him and Brooke but I had no idea that was going on. All my eggs were in his basket.”

On Bill:

“He was true with what he was saying, I asked him how do you feel about me and Alex, and he was like ‘I like Alex 60% and you 40%’. And I was like, cool I’m out, I can deal with that.

I knew in my mind where we were at and I wanted to meet someone who was 100%. He’d come to my knocking on my door at night and give me a kiss every night but he was quite flirtatious with other girls too.”

On Alex Nation & their argument:

“I don’t even know where to begin with Alex. I was flabbergasted. None of it ever made sense to me. She concocted some crazy story out of thin air. And I felt like she was quite intimidated by that point [on The Bachelor] because Richie and I were… we had quite a strong connection. I don’t know if it was game card that she pulled out, like she was like ‘I need to do something here’.

I was really disappointed. I genuinely thought she might be a decent human being and apologise, but she just carried on lying. But I just thought I can’t even deal with you and I want nothing to do with you because you’re a piece of work.”

On Alex and Richie:

“There’s a lot to that relationship that a lot of the public aren’t aware of why they broke up. It’s not pretty, it’s not nice and I am totally backing Richie on this.”

On her relationship with Richie:

“Richie and I sat there for three hours and had a beautiful romantic dinner. And he was talking about the possibility of having a relationship outside of paradise. You guys didn’t see any of that and he had some concerns with his relationship with Cass. There was a lot more to that relationship that we didn’t get to see.

I have spoken to him [since Paradise] to see how everything’s going…  I just don’t know if he’s dealing with everything so well. He seems to get away when things get tough, but everyone operates in their own way.”

On the difference between Paradise last year vs. Paradise this year:

“I guess I can explain it like it’s watching a tennis game but it was about 15 games you’re watching at the same time. Like there were SO many people playing games in one day. It was like what is going on people?!

Last year people were more true to finding a connection and finding a relationship. I walked in [this series] and I was like is like Love Island?! That’s what I wanted to go back in because last time people were genuine and I did not feel that when I was there this time and it was really disheartening. I questioned whether any of the relationships were real.”

On whether she’d go for third time lucky in Paradise:

“I mean, 110% NO! Not for me!”