Love is in the air, again
New Bachelorette hoping it will be third time lucky as she braves another season of reality dating show, writes
AUSTRALIA’S new Bachelorette Ali Oetjen admits she falls in love easily.
After falling for Tim Robards on season one of The Bachelor in 2013 and her messy breakup with Grant Kemp following Bachelor in Paradise earlier this year, the 32-year-old hoped it would be a case of third time lucky when she agreed to return to Ten’s reality dating franchise.
“It wasn’t an immediate yes. I had to think about it and weigh it up. Once I thought about it, I was like ‘Of course I’m going to do this’. It’s a chance for me to find love,” she tells The Guide. “Everyone knows I fall in love really fast, and this has allowed me to date 18 men at once and be able to compare them all, date them and be slower in the whole process and not ignore red flags.
“I have learned so much about guys and what they’re like, what I’m after and what I’m not going to stand for. With every relationship I learn. I felt like I could take a lot from the previous Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise experiences.”
After being the doe-eyed bachelorette and then embroiled in scandal with her ex, Kemp, Oetjen looks forward to giving viewers a fuller picture of who she is.
“I look like a high maintenance girl but I’m completely the opposite. I love the outdoors,” she says.
“We grew up in the country and for all our family holidays it was camping or going 4WD up to the NT or north Queensland.
“I don’t think people know the real Ali. I’m into my health and fitness; I love giving everything a go. I don’t really show my goofy side on Instagram or anywhere else, but I felt really comfortable on here because I knew everyone was there for me and I could totally be a myself and be a goober.”
While chemistry is important to Oetjen, she’s after more than just looks. A kind heart is at the top of her priority list.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with what they look like,” she says. “I was going off how they treated other people and what they were like in group settings – you can tell a lot about a person like that. How they treated the production crew and staff, I was very aware of all of that. I even wanted to do the red carpet (on the first night) blind folded, but I wasn’t able to. My focus was to fall in love with someone on the inside.
“I’ve always gone with what my heart and intuition have been telling me... I’m interested to see if I was totally wrong about someone (when I watch the show) but I highly doubt that.
“I really did empathise with them because I’ve been there. I tried to be as transparent as I could to help them. I wasn’t going to string anyone along and I wasn’t going to feed anyone the stuff they wanted to hear.”
With filming completed, Oetjen hints she has finally found her Mr Right.
“I literally can’t stop smiling,” she says. “It’s a beautiful feeling I’m feeling.”