With The Bachelor returning to screens tonight, this time with lovable rogue Matty Johnson as the protagonist, it gets fans wondering about the ones who have gone before.
There’s no missing season one’s Tim Robards and his fiance Anna Heinrich with their Insta-boasting.
Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski, who starred on season three, arguably the nation’s favourite The Bachelor pairing, are also engaged and due to welcome a baby girl in September.
There has been a question mark hanging over the relationship status of season four’s Richie Strahan and his chosen one, Alex Nation, for the last few months.
That leaves season two’s Blake Garvey, 34, forever known as the Bachelor who proposed on national television and then dumped his fiancee before the finale even had a chance to air.
After an emotional Sam Frost, 28, appeared on national televisionsaying she felt “confused” and “played” and like he had taken that special moment of being engaged away from her, Garvey was dubbed the “most hated man in Australia”.
But it didn’t stop his tell-all interview with Woman’s Day in which he declared his love for the second runner-up, Louise Pillidge.
The topless waiter-turned-strip club owner-turned-auctioneer-turned-reality TV star attempted a rebrand by appearing on Celebrity Apprentice, but found no joy and was the second star to be fired by Mark Bouris — preceded only by a Gabi Grecko — after a heated boardroom exchange with Richard Reid, who called him the “biggest pretender on Earth,” before describing him as “manipulative, cunning and passive aggressive” and suggesting he was only on the show to try and stay in the spotlight.
The final straw for the public seemed to come when he appeared, again, on a magazine cover alongside Pillidge to announce their split, alongside a solemn-looking photoshoot, wherein Garvey “fought back tears” to reveal that he did the dumping.
Feeling hard done by the public backlash and Ten allegedly trying to distance itself from him, he deleted his social media presence last year, in a bid to leave his The Bachelor title behind and live out his days in the Perth real estate industry.
Formerly of LJ Hooker North Beach, Perth, he set up Elite Auctions, which promise to bring “quality and flair” to every auction.
“He has put the message out there that he doesn’t want to be contacted,” a source close to him told Fairfax Media.
Amber Gelinas, 29, who one of the 25 women to compete for Garvey’s heart on season two, has not seen him since.
“Blake never really tickled my fancy to begin with so staying in touch post-production didn’t really seem necessary to me,” she said.
“Since his split with Louise he’s pretty much dropped off the map. Maybe the whole being, ‘Australia’s most hated man’ thing really got to him?”
Fairfax Media asked Blake Garvey for comment but he did not respond.
[“Source-smh”]