BACHELORS’ PARADISE
Timm and Ciarran shack up
When WHO calls The Bachelorette runner-up Timm Hanly and fan favourite Ciarran Stott, not everyone is wearing pants. “Timm will be back in a bit, he’s just walking around naked at the moment. That’s what we do in this house,” Stott, 25, tells W HO, laughing. It’s a typical day in the St Kilda home the loveable larrikins share with 28-year-old Hanly’s childhood friend Jackson. Moving in together earlier this year, the pair are relishing the chance to relive the bromance they formed in the mansion while wooing Angie Kent in 2019’s The Bachelorette. Both boys are renowned for their party-boy personas. But these days, there are fewer wild nights out and more glasses of red around their backyard fire pit.
The pair are also set to look for love once again on the coming season of Bachelor in Paradise. “I’m going back because it didn’t work out for me last time,” says Stott.
During lockdown, Hanly has been working on his new gym attire and equipment business, while the pair have been releasing episodes of their new YouTube series, Becoming Comfortable Being Uncomfortable. During their catch-up with WHO, the pair talk about life in lockdown, dating during a global pandemic, and what to expect on Bachelor in Paradise.
How’s self-isolation going?
HANLY We’re actually pretty lucky, hey, because we’ve got a massive house. We’ve got three living rooms, so we’ve converted one into a gym, we bought a pool table for the other living room and the other one we chill and have dinner in.
STOTT We’ve got two boxing bags hung up in the garage. We’ve just built a chicken coop in the backyard and so we’re waiting for our chickens to arrive. We’ve actually renovated the whole backyard and planted a heap of vegies and stuff. Been doing any iso-dating? HANLY We haven’t been doing any dating. The only candlelit dinners we’ve been enjoying are with each other!
Have you struggled with not being able to get out and about?
HANLY We went a bit mad at the start, but I think we were already mad to start with.
STOTT I’d moved down and started filming for our YouTube channel and Timm was showing me Melbourne and then that sort of had to get put on hold. He’ll show me the rest of Melbourne once we’re allowed to go out and about and do stuff.
Why the move to Melbourne?
HANLY I was harassing him to move here. Ever since we walked into that mansion, I thought he was a bit weird and funky and cool. I’ve lived in pretty much every city on the east coast and I was like, “You belong in Melbourne.”
STOTT I needed to get out of Darwin anyway because it was so hot. I’d been there for six years and now I’ve moved down here and I’m absolutely freezing, and I don’t actually mind the heat!
But aren’t you British?
STOTT Yeah, but I’ve
lived in Australia for, like, 12 years. I didn’t move here last week!
So you didn’t like Sydney?
STOTT Nah, I wasn’t a fan of Sydney. I prefer Melbourne because Sydney was a bit cliquey. I came down here and met loads of people and everyone just accepts you straight away. You can wear what you want, and no-one really cares, but [in Sydney] if you’re not wearing designer head to toe, then you’re not allowed into certain places.
Why did you decide to live together?
HANLY I told him if he wants to move down, he should come stay with me and I told him to call me whenever. So, he called me one afternoon and he said, “Oi bro, are you 100 per cent sweet if I come and stay with you until I find my feet?” And I said, “Yeah, sweet!” And he goes, “All right, I’m coming now.” And he got in at like 11 o’clock that night and I hadn’t seen him for ages, so we went out and had this big night out and then he just never left. Ciarran was just sleeping in one of our lounge rooms and my brother was moving up to the Central Coast and so he just took his room.
Is it like being back in the mansion?
HANLY A bit! Without 20 other dudes and talking s--t about the other people who live in the house …
How has life changed since The Bachelorette?
HANLY Isolation has slowed things down because no-one wants to come up and ask me for a photo at the supermarket!
STOTT Actually, the other day a lady asked me for a photo and so she stood like a metre and a
half away from me and took a selfie. But, yeah, after the show things went absolutely crazy and now they’ve slowed down because of the self-isolation. If iso has eased up maybe things will go crazy again when Bachelor in Paradise arrives on screen.
HANLY We’ll have to see what happens. Are you worried about how you’ll be portrayed on BIP?
HANLY Ciarran’s going to get hung out to dry!
STOTT I thought the trailer painted me in a good light! Nah, not worried. You can’t embarrass us.
What was the craziest thing that happened when the show finished last year? HANLY I didn’t see the last few eps of The Bachelorette when it was finishing but I knew when they’d aired because suddenly, it was madness. I didn’t realise or expect how big the hype around that show would be.
Suddenly, everyone knew who I was! What’s been the hardest part of fame?
HANLY The weirdest thing for me was the paparazzi. They started getting photos of me and it made me a bit paranoid for about three days because they got a photo of me at a servo eating a Snickers bar.
STOTT I had some pretty raunchy stuff about me come out. It is what it is, I’m not really too fussed about it. Even my grandma, she saw it, and I was chatting to her and she went, “What’s that I saw you doing at a buck’s party?” And I was like, “Oh nothing” and she went, “I wasn’t born yesterday!”
HANLY I think when s--t happens, you’ve just got to own it. I think when you don’t that’s when s--t gets weird. If you just own it, it’s all good. Do you feel like you have to behave yourselves when you’re out?
STOTT I haven’t!
HANLY Nah, everyone’s pretty good. At first, you’re a bit paranoid because everyone was taking photos. But then you realise people are pretty sweet. You check your mentions the next day on Instagram thinking you look all right and then people put these photos up of you. Would you do another reality show?
STOTT 100 per cent! We’d love to do something together. I’d even like to do one of those dancing ones.
HANLY I wouldn’t mind going into the jungle …
STOTT I’d s--t myself every day in the jungle. Bugs and snakes, nah!
HANLY It would be good TV!
Timm, have you heard from Angie or Carlin since the end of the show?
HANLY Yeah, I speak to Carlin. I used to speak to them a bit, but I just let them do their thing. It’s a bit weird. You go from being so close to someone. I was so close to both of them that it’s weird.
But you’re doing OK now?
HANLY Yeah, I’m flying.
“Things will go crazy again” – STOTT